Last updated 2000-08-06
GBöök is a guestbook. Guestbook is a service (program) on your homepage where visitors can leave a message. So it's just like an ordinary guestbook in real world.
To demonstrate what this all means, there is a test guestbook. It took less than two minutes to install it. Although it has over 500 entries it's still fast to use despite the slow server.
Sign Test Guestbook
View Test Guestbook
You'll need to know how to install a CGI program that is written in Perl. Usually that means all you have to know is where to put the program. Ask your ISP if you are not sure or if you don't know whether you can run CGI programs at all. You don't have to know any programming language nor even HTML.
If your ISP doesn't allow you to run CGI programs, please read How to get GBöök hosted for free.
I've tested GBöök on Windows 98 and Linux. I don't know why it wouldn't run on any operating system.
For Windows: gbook.zip
For Unix: gbook.tar.gz
Both archives contains the same files. The only difference is the used compression method.
Uncompress the archive to your cgi-bin directory. Go to cgi-bin/gbook directory and open lib/conf.pm to your favourite text editor. The only thing you need to care is the following lines:
$PASSWD = 'changethis';
$BASEURL = 'http://www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/gbook/';
Now use your text editor to correct these two lines.
That's it. Now you've installed GBöök. To use GBöök add the following links to your homepage:
<a href="www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/gbook/sign.pl">Sign My Guestbook</a>
<a href="www.yourdomain.com/cgi-bin/gbook/view.pl">View My Guestbook</a>
You can manage your guestbook using the Manage Your Guestbook link which you can see when viewing the guestbook.
You can delete entries from your guestbook.
You can see everything your guestbook contains in one file. This is handy if you want to take a backup of your guestbook or if you want to convert it to some other format.
You can edit entries in your guestbook.
GBöök is fully customizable. That means you can control every bit of your guestbook but you don't have to if you don't want.
You'll need basic knowledge of HTML to be able to customize your guestbook.
To customize the sign form edit templates/sign.htm. You can have any number of fields of any type. Only fields named comment and private have a special meaning. If the value of private equals "on" then the value of comment will be private and it can't be viewed without the password.
The names of fields that begin with an underscore or end with "_required" are reserved for GBöök.
You can require that some fields must be filled. If you want to require field named "foobar" to be filled, add a hidden field named "foobar_required" to your sign.htm. The value of this field will be shown to the visitor who left "foobar" field blank.
For example, you may have the following lines in your sign.htm:
<p>Name: <input name="fullname" size="30"></p>
<input type="hidden" name="fullname_required" value="You have to give your name.">
To customize the layout of your guestbook edit templates/view.htm.
If your sign form has a field named "foobar" you can use the value of this
field by writing "<!-- item: foobar -->" in your
view.htm.
For example, if you have the following line in your sign.htm:
<p>How old are you? <input name="age" size="3"></p>
Then you'll probably want to have the following line in your view.htm:
<p>Guest is <!-- item: age --> year old.</p>
If you know what you're doing, please feel free to edit the script in any way you want.
Panu Ranta
panu.ranta@iki.fi
http://14142.net/