Filter or Template Needed to Access Actitvity Stream Replies Directly

[paulhastings0]

I know of at least a couple of plugins that would be so much better off if there was direct access to activity stream replies.

Group Email Subscription http://buddypress.org/community/groups/buddypress-group-email-subscription/forum/topic/bug-doesnt-email-activity-replies/
Edit Activity Stream http://buddypress.org/community/groups/buddypress-edit-activity-stream/forum/topic/wow-1/

I know that this functionality would come in handy for other plugins as well. We should be able to access activity update replies just as easily as the activity updates themselves.

[DJPaul]

From what perspective? If you have a reply item, you can find the parent activity item via item_id. And off the top of my head, you can use BP_Activity_Activity::get_child_comments to find the children from a parent activity item.

[boonebgorges]

If I understand the linked threads correctly, the problem is not that we can't access activity *children* directly, it's that, given an activity *reply*, we can't easily find the parent.

I'm playing around with item_id and secondary_item_id right now, and it looks like this is not in fact a problem. Generally speaking, an activity reply's item_id refers to the top item in its tree, while the secondary_item_id refers to its immediate parent. Imagine an activity tree like this
A - initial activity item
B - reply to A
C - reply to B

B's item_id and secondary_item_id both refer to A, since A is both the immediate parent and the oldest ancestor of B. C's item_id refers to A (its oldest ancestor) and its secondary_item_id refers to C (its parent).