Thread: Guestbook submissions

I have published a guestbook to our site and it is working properly. I have had some feedback from friends who entered comments on the site, which are not reflected.

When I tested it I discovered that one has to enter the code in the blank space provided, before submission. They did not know this and I am concerned that others are making the same mistake. Is there any way to include an instruction or note of some kind to this effect?

Thanks,

Stephanus

GOOD QUESTION!!
I spent a bunch of time messing around with installing a GB just because I didn't know to retype the number when I first published.
When you open the Properties box, in the Captcha field type in "retype the number in the blank box", or whatever you want this instruction to be. That will replace Code Confirmation.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Hi, you can, but it would mean going to the guest book file & changing the code a little via the "edit file" in cpanel. Doing it this way will return the text line as per this link & keep it compact. You can do it via right clicking on captcha field & changing the text. But for some reason it puts it all on 1 line & makes the G/B very wide.

Chris,
You can add the warning comment to the cachpa field
and then resize the width of the guestbook box on the page
and the comment will then go over 2 or more lines.

Thanks Humbird,

Did as you advised and voila! However I did resize the width on the page as David suggested, but it does not go to a next line. The link to my guestbook is [url]http://www.lightthefireministries.org.za/guestbook.php[url]
Please have a look and advise.

Thank you again for super service.

Stephanus

Originally Posted by davidundalicia

Chris,
You can add the warning comment to the cachpa field
and then resize the width of the guestbook box on the page
and the comment will then go over 2 or more lines.

Hi David, not quite sure what you are saying about the resizing. I could only get it to work like the link in my last thread by altering the file in cpanel.

What guest book are you guys using I have two on my site (one I just added to use as a comement area) but I was able to adjust the size using the blue resizing handles. I was also able to change the text through the properties. I used the guest book icon in BV. My users comements all split to another line to fit the area.

Hi Ed,

I am using the BV Guest book. I did resize with the blue handles, but the text stretches all across the page on one line

I just typed in a bunch of jibberish and it will split once it reaches the end of the page. Not sure why but when I view your source code everything is set to 100%. This is not an option in any of my guest books (didn't even know we could set anything to precentages) If you modified the code once before you could do it again and set all those percentages to say 50% and see how that looks.

Are you linking to THE PAGE that the guestbook is actually on or are you linking to one of the two other files that the guest book creates??

look here and scroll down and view the image

Hi David, i think the problem we are trying to solve is to stop the guest book fields being pushed that far across the page. Dosnt look very professional & stops you from placing the G/B in a small space. Where if its done at the cpanel file end, you can keep it looking neat. Or did i miss something? lol
One with short returns.

Hi David,

I am linking to the actual page, as per your link. the page I created in BlueVoda, called guestbook.bvp.

Chris,

You are absolutely correct. I want to make my guest book look like the one in your link. Shorter and in the middle of the page, with the text: Note:
Please fill in the 4 digit code into the blank field before submitting appearing on 3 lines as in your example.
How do I do that?

Regards,
Stephanus

Hi StephanusvS
Your guest book is coming up in a popup page.................is that the way you wanted it ?

Hi David,

No, that is that the way it has been ever since I created it. I thought it must be like that.

Stephanus

Well I creted this test one and its a normal page.................small as well.

What happens when you create a guestbook:

1. you create the GB on a blank page
2. you publish the page (I called mine testgbook)
(at this stage you have 2 files on your website - testgbook.php and guestbook.php)
3. You view http://testgbook.php in your browser which will display your GB.
4. You make your 1st post in the GB which then creates the guestbookdb.php file
5. you then change the properties (cmod) of guestbookdb.php to 777
so that users can then write to your GB

and that it................

Dont link to the guestbook.php

Link to the testgbook.php file (or .html-it dosnt matter)

Originally Posted by StephanusvS

Hi David,

I am linking to the actual page, as per your link. the page I created in BlueVoda, called guestbook.bvp.

Chris,

You are absolutely correct. I want to make my guest book look like the one in your link. Shorter and in the middle of the page, with the text: Note:
Please fill in the 4 digit code into the blank field before submitting appearing on 3 lines as in your example.
How do I do that?

Regards,
Stephanus

Hi, pop into the cpanel & find the guestbook file you created & then click on the edit file on the right of your screen.
About 3/4 of the way down the page you will see part of the code looking like below. Edit the part in blue between the <td> to your words. The <br> means line brake & <b></b> = Bold
Remember, that if you publish the G/B page again from BV, it will over write this.

style=\"width:100%;\"/></td>\n";
echo " </tr>\n";
echo " <tr>\n";
echo " <td>Message:</td>\n";
echo " <td><textarea name=\"message\" rows=\"3\" style=\"width:100%;\"></textarea></td>\n";
echo " </tr>\n";
echo " <tr>\n";
echo " <td><b>Note:</b><br>
Please fill in the<br>4 digit code into the blank field <br><b>Before submitting</b></td>\n";
echo " <td>\n";
echo " <img src=\"./captcha.png?".uniqid(time())."\" width=\"50\" height=\"23\" alt=\"\" align=\"top\">&nbsp;<input name=\"captcha_code\" type=\"text\" size=\"4\">&nbsp;\n";
echo " <input type=\"submit\" name=\"Submit\" value=\"Submit\"/>";
echo " <input type=\"reset\" value=\"Reset\"/>";
echo " </td>\n";
echo " </tr>\n";
echo "</table>\n";
echo "</form>\n";
}

Hi David,

I am confused.

Currently I have a published page called guestbook.php, the one under discussion. Do I delete this file from my c-panel or leave it on the server? What about the current guestbookdb.php file?

When creating my guestbook, do I call the file I create and publish testgbook.php? and how is the other file guestbook.php created? Is the link form the home page to the testgbook.php file?

Help!!

Hi Chris,

Thank you. I changed the code in the c-panel and the note text is now spaced over 3 lines. However the width of my guest book is still the full page. How do I resize, without republishing in BlueVoda?

If you want to start again and keep things simple
then, yes, delete the guestbook.php and the guestbookdb.php
in your Cpanel-file manager.

1. Then create the GB on a blank page. (Or any existing page if you wish)

2. Publish the page (I called mine testgbook - you can name yours anything you wish)
(at this stage you have 2 files on your website - testgbook.php and guestbook.php)

3. You view http://testgbook.php in your browser which will display your GB.

4. You make your 1st post in the GB which then creates the guestbookdb.php file.

5. you must then change the properties (cmod) of guestbookdb.php file to 777 so that users can then write to your GB (do this in your Cpanel-file manager)

and that it................

Linking to your GuestBook:

Dont link to the guestbook.php

Link to the testgbook.php file (or whatever you called it)

Hi, will let David finish it off as it will get to confusing. But just as a note my one is in an iframe.

Good luck.

Chris
Your Cpanel solution is a good one and should help our more experienced members, so good post.

btw: the guestbook is always created in an Iframe automatically.

Hi David and Chris,

Thank you. However I am still left with the width of my guest book the entire width of the page. I implemented Chris' solution in the c-panel and now cannot change the size and resubmit the guest book in BLueVoda as this will overwrite my code changes in c-panel.

How do I resize in the c-panel?

Thanks

You cant do that in Cpanel.................
make the change in BV
republish
change the code again.

Thank you, David.

Your time is much appreciated.

Your welcome.