What Is It?

This tool provides a free PHP script that allows Webmasters to set up a guest book for a Web site. This script was developed by Klemen Stirn.

Who Is it For?

GBook is designed for ease of use, so anyone who wants to utilize this PHP script can upload and manage this guestbook. Several download sites carry an example of this product so users can view the guest book in action. Viewers can sign in and show a name and location. The signers’ emails are linked, but when a person clicks on the link a page appears that warns the viewer that only system administrators can view the email.

Features

Users can set priorities to accept smileys, send an email notification when someone signs the guestbook, and it provides the ability to delete inappropriate messages. Visitors can post private messages as well. This guestbook comes with IP banning, XHTML valid code, a “bad words” filter that replaces those words with asterisks in new posts, and a security switch that prevents flooding (submission of the same message multiple times in the guest book). Users also can completely customize the look of the guest book by editing header, footer and style files.

GBook comes with built-in SPAM protection and it encodes email addresses to help prevent SPAM harvesting. Their JunkMarkTM SPAM filter is designed to block those spammers who actually visit your guest book and take the time to pass the security number verification. This guestbook relies on a table structure for function, although some CSS is used throughout. Users cannot remove the “Powered by” credit sentence at the bottom of the page without purchasing a license.

Compatibility

GBook doesn’t require a MySQL database to run, but it does require a minimum of PHP 4 to operate. Gbook has been tested on servers under Linux and Windows operating systems for compatibility. Other systems may prove problematic, as the developer has not tested this tool beyond Windows or Linux. This presumption is made based upon the note on the GBook Web site that states, “please let me know if you test it [on systems other than Linux and Windows] and it works.”

Web Hosts that Offer GBook