A guestbook is one of the oldest forms of Web interaction. It allows visitors to post commentary and compliments on the contents of the board. Although a guestbook has little implementation cost in terms of time and energy, it also inspires the least community spirit. Therefore, a guestbook is a better addition to a traditional Web site than it is a feature used with most community sites.

The two most popular guestbook extensions for Joomla are Easybook and Jambook. Since a guestbook is fairly simple in both conception and implementation, these extensions provide very similar features. Your choice will likely be dependent on which extension most appropriately compliments the visual aspect of your site.

Easybook
Easybook is an excellent simple guestbook component. One of the best features of the component is the extensive anti-spam protection such as CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) image generation, live email address confirmation checking, and automated word filter. The word filter list can be defined through the Administrator interface of the component and configured to automatically send an email to the administrator if someone attempts to post an item on the prohibited word list. Easybook can also be set to ping the supplied email server of the poster and ignore the post if the server isn’t valid.

Easybook supports BBCode (bulletin board code) for rich text entry (bold, italic, and so on). Entries can be limited to registered users, or anonymous posting can be allowed. Pictures and smilies may also be included in an entry if permitted by the administrator. Easybook can be set to automatically send a thank-you email to users when they’ve added a guestbook entry.

The extensive Easybook Administrator interface allows posters to include many fields (such as their Web page, ICQ, and so on) and gives the Administrator complete control over which of this information is displayed with the entry list. The email notification options allow administrators to receive new entries by email, which can be modified, published, commented on, deleted, or withheld via the email! The component can also import archived guestbook entries that were created with the Akobook component.

The component is compatible with Simple Machine Forum (SMF) Bridge component (see the section “Simple Machines Forum (SMF)” later in this chapter for more information on this component). It is also available in a large number of languages, including German, Dutch, Simplified Chinese, Italian, Russian, Greek, Spanish, French, Norwegian, and Danish.

To install Easybook, download the ZIP archive here:   http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/easyjoomla/frs/

Extract the readme and the component archive from the downloaded file. The component is configured to display natively in German. To change it to default to English, you will need to use the English XML descriptor file and recreate the component archive. To perform the English modification, extract all of the files from the archive. You need to rename the easybook.xml to easybook.xmlde, then rename easybook.xmlen to easybook.xml. When that is complete, simply create a new archive that contains all of the component files.

After you have used the Extension Manager to install the component, you’ll need to create a front-end menu component through the Menu Manager. New entries can be added through the Administrator interface or on the front end. When you click the link to add a new entry, the Easybook entry screen will be displayed. Your  Name and Your  Email are the only two required fields. The figure shows that the entry also records the poster ’s IP address for security and tracking.

While EasyBook is a very popular guestbook with straightforward installation and configuration, some sites need a guestbook that provides more control over presentation. Jambook supplies that control with a custom templating system.

Jambook
Jambook is one of the most popular guestbook components because of the focus on spam protection, the capability to import AkoBook entries, and its robust Administrator interface. Jambook includes a powerful templating system that allows you to modify all aspects of the HTML presentation of the front end. The presentation templates are editable through the Joomla Administrator interface, so you can customize this component to match your site template.

Some of the numerous security features include the following:

❑       CAPTCHA image generation

❑       IP blacklist to prevent abusers from posting

❑       Integration with the Joomla login and registration system

❑       Administrator email notification of new postings

❑       Configurable HTML stripping from messages

❑       Email address cloaking

❑       Flood protection

❑       Editable list of HTML tags that may be used in an entry post

If you have been using Easybook in the past, Jambook can import entries from that application. For new entries, Jambook can be configured to either use the currently selected WYSIWYG Joomla editor or a plain- text entry box if no rich text is permitted. A Preview button allows a visitor to see the rendering of the post before submission. Users registered in the Joomla system can edit their entries for a limited amount of time specified in the Administrator interface. The component even includes technology to prevent double- posting — a very common problem with inexperienced guestbook visitors.

Jambook supports a number of languages, including English, German, French, Portuguese, Serbian (Latin charset), Norwegian, and Polish. It also provides a simple search engine so guests can query the entries for particular text. You can download the Jambook extension here:     www.jxdevelopment.com/jambook

The Administrator interface for Jambook is incredibly full-featured for a simple component. Not only can all entries be edited or deleted, but the HTML templates can be modified to suit the desired guestbook presentation.

The default installation includes the following templates available for editing the presentation of the component:

❑       Show — Display for a single Jambook entry

❑       List — Defines how the entry list will be presented

❑       List empty — Display of list when no entries have been made

❑       List item — Presentation logic called to render each item in the entry list

❑       Edit item — Display for the entry editing

❑       Thankyou — Presentation screen displayed after user has successfully submitted an entry

❑       Search — Defines how the search page will be rendered

❑       Preview — Presentation of the preview of a new entry

The documentation for the component (including directions for editing the templates) can be accessed from the Administrator interface of the component.

Jambook uses TrueType in GD2 capabilities to generate the CAPTCHA image. Therefore, TrueType support must be available to the PHP system for message posting to work correctly. PHP5 supports TrueType native, but if you are running PHP4, you may need to install an additional module.