This application for Aborior's Simplex Database allows you to deploy an easy-to-use and powerful guestbook for your web site. The guestbook allows visitors to your web page to post comments about your site or just say hello. It is a valuable aid in meeting some of the people who visit your site, and is a nice way to meet and greet people from all over the world. It's also an excellent way to show off all the positive things people are saying about your site!

Aborior's Guestbook features private and public messages, flood control, message display preferences, message previewing, help page, editing and deleting of messages and IP banning for those pesky users. It also takes advantage of such features of Simplex as smiley faces, hyperlinking and HTML code management. As with all Simplex Database applications, the guestbook also offers superb flexibility, easy customisation, powerful template control and wide horizons for expansion and your own personal touch.

SimplexLite users will notice a few features missing from the Guestbook application. SimplexLite does not support the nifty message parsing features of the full version, such as URL and e-mail hyperlinking, HTML formatting, smiley faces and crude language filtering. IP banning is also not available when using the application under SimplexLite. Upgrading to the full version will allow you to make use of all these features to jazz up your guestbook and make it easier to manage. The full version will also give the tools needed to dramatically change the guestbook to suit your own needs.

In the Lite version, you must display the "Powered by" message and link at the bottom of all pages. If you remove this link through the application's templates, SimplexLite will insert it at the bottom of each page for you. Upgrading to the full version will allow you to remove these links if you choose.

Your guestbook is already set up and ready to use. To change the fonts and colours to your own liking, you need only edit the SystemCustomise table datasheet. You may find the colour chart of assistance for getting the hexidecimal code corresponding to each colour that you wish to enter into this datasheet. If you would like to change the guestbook design more dramatically, you can of course edit any of the templates making up the system.

There are two modes for displaying the guestbook. The first is public mode, which should be used for all your web site visitors. In public mode, private messages are not fully displayed (a visitor signing the guestbook will mark whether their message is for public or private display). The second is private mode, which is specifically designed for yourself. Private mode will require you to log in as administrator, but will allow you to view private messages and users' IP addresses, plus present you with options to edit or delete messages. You can also ban IP addresses through private mode. If you need to move or change any IP addresses that you have banned, you can do so through the SystemIPBan table datasheet.

Whenever viewing the guestbook yourself, you can log in through this admin interface for all the options that you will require. Use the URL ?file=&report=ViewGuestbookPublic&firstrecord=0&finalrecord=9&daysold=3650 as a link on your web page for your visitors.

As with all Simplex Database applications, you have a lot of freedom to modify the design and workings of the guestbook. If you wish to change any of the features or modify the actual HTML templates of the guestbook, we suggest that you read the Simplex manual to become acquainted with the system, and then explore through the core of the guestbook database file through the admin system.

If you are planning on working further with the guestbook than described above, you may find the following helpful:

• You can add as many different fields to the Message table as you like. You might like to add a date of birth, occupation or site rating from 1 to 10 for example. If you do, be sure to update the SignGuestbook form layout template and OrderMessages query to include the new fields.
  
  
• Because Simplex Database is template based, you're not stuck with the initial design of the guestbook. If you want to go further than just changing colours and fonts, you can edit any of the templates using the template editor. To find out what template does what, just have a browse through the different forms and reports available. You can redesign the entire appearance if you want, or just add in some nice touches like background images and text styles.
  
  
• Visitors accessing your site from a banned IP address will be able to read messages in the guestbook, but will not be able to sign the guestbook. If you don't want them to be able to read it either, just head to the access controls area of the admin system and specify the Guestbook.SystemIPBan table as an IP exclusion controller for all the reports as well as the forms.
  
  
• The URL given for the public guestbook in the Essentials section above will show all messages in the guestbook (well, those from the last 10 years), with 10 messages per page. If you want to change these defaults, adjust the firstrecord, finalrecord and daysold attributes accordingly. Remember, however, that there are still select boxes towards the bottom of the guestbook for visitors to change from the default.
  
  
• The guestbook will actually run a little faster if you remove the "Show messages from last X days" features. If you want to do this, you need to blank out the criteria for the GetMessages query, remove the relevant select box from the ViewGuestbook.html report template and preferably remove all the daysold attributes in URLs (although it won't hurt if they remain).
  
  
• If you don't want visitors to be able to choose how many messages to display per page, just remove the appropriate select box from the bottom of the ViewGuestbook.html report template. If you still want the "Show messages from last X days" features, you'll need to replace the select box you just removed with a hidden field containing a value for the finalrecord attribute.
  
  

This application was written by Aborior and is covered by Aborior's usual support services. If you have any troubles, encounter bugs or want any help on implementing some of the suggestions made above, you can visit the Simplex Community to talk it over with fellow users and developers, or if you would prefer you can contact Aborior's responsive support service at support@aborior.com.