WordPress Guestbook Generator Plugin

I created a couple of posts that demonstrated how to make a WordPress Guestbook. Some of you might have found it a bit daunting, so here’s a plugin that will do everything for you!

Plugin Name: Guestbook Generator
Description: Generates a guestbook for WordPress blogs. Once activated, click on Options > Guestbook Generator.
Version: 0.8
Author: Andrew dela Serna
Notice: Compatible only with WordPress 2.1. Support for older versions will continue but updates/upgrades will be focused on the newest versions of WordPress. Scroll down to download Version 0.7 which is designed for Wordress 2.0.X.

Features:

1. No files to edit. Just upload the plugin, activate it then run the generator.
2. Guestbook template seamlessly integrates with your current theme.
3. When changing themes, simply run the generator to create the necessary files.
4. Like a true-blue guestbook, entries are arranged from newest to oldest.
5. Remember the time when guestbooks were the “in” thing? Hopefully this plugin will bring back the ol’ days. Hehe.

Installation:

1. Download the plugin from http://www.alleba.com/blog/wp-downloads/guestbook-generator.zip. If you don’t want paged comments, download this one instead.
2. Extract and upload the contents of the archive to ‘yourserver.com/wp-content/plugins/guestbook-generator/’
3. Login to your WordPress admin panel and browse to the Plugins section.
4. Activate the Guestbook Generator plugin.
5. Go to Options > Guestbook Generator to create your guestbook.
6. That’s it!

On a side note, if you already followed my instructions from my previous posts, you have to delete your current guestbook page and guestbook template files (guestbook.php, guestcomments.php) for the plugin to work. However, I suggest that you stick to your guestbook if you already have a lot of people who signed it. You may use this plugin if you’re switching themes.

I have tested Guestbook Generator on a lot of themes. Some still required a little tweaking especially on the wording. You might want to check out my reloaded instructions if you decide to edit the files in the Theme Editor.

Lastly, since this is the initial release, I would love to hear your comments, complaints or suggestions. Hope you like it.

Update: There is an issue with the guestbook not being found/viewable right after generating it. I’ll fix this tomorrow. In the meantime, you can edit the guestbook and save it. That should do the trick.

0.2 Update: The above issue has been resolved and so far the plugin works perfectly in all the blogs I tested it on.

0.3 Update: Cleaned up some coding.

0.4 Update: Added better error handling. Reversed the order of comments from newest to oldest (Thanks Ulaan B.)

0.5 Update: Even more error handling. Noted issues with the older Default theme and K2 theme.

0.6 Update: Corrected to avoid errors with K2 theme.

0.7 Update: Fixed some replacement mechanisms that will avoid errors with any theme.

0.8 Update: Solved compatibility issues with WordPress 2.1.

0.9 Update: Added paged comments functionality. Requires the Paged Comments plugin.

Version 0.7 for WordPress 2.0.x
For those experiencing problems with chmoding your theme folder, please download this version (WordPress 2.0.x)

329 comments

  1. Hi.

    I am running WP 2.05 and I try to install GG version 0.7

    When I try to generate GG I get this error:

    Warning: gg_options_page(): Unable to access guestbook_utility.php in guestbook_generator.php on line 43

    Warning: gg_options_page(guestbook_utility.php): failed to open stream: No such file or directory in guestbook_generator.php on line 43

    Fatal error: Call to undefined function: generate_guestbook() in guestbook_generator.php on line 44

    Can you help me???

    Best
    Henrik

  2. This plugin completely messed up my theme (Mandigo) and therefor the whole site.
    Deactivating and deleting the plugin(-files) did not restore things to as they were.
    Which files are changed by the plugin setup?

  3. @Illi, Shekar: Go to Admin Panel > General Options and uncheck “Users must be registered and logged in to comment”.

    @Henrik: Please be sure that the file guestbook_utility.php is in the same folder as guestbook_generator.php.

    @Milly: The plugin creates two new files, but doesn’t change anything else. It appears that your css file went missing. Try to reupload that, and I’m sure your theme will go back to normal.

  4. Thanks for your prompt reply.
    I don’t know what happened. I only activated the plugin and whoops..!
    As far as I could see, all css files were present. I have now reloaded the entire theme.

  5. Just installed your Guestbook plugin after installing the comment page plugin like you require. I now have a guestbook bot there’s no way for people to comment! There’s no comment fields! HELP PLEASE – brand new blog and I need this working…

  10. Hi

    The plugin doesn’t work with WordPress 2.3. I tried to sign my own guestbook and this happened:

    WordPress database error: [Table ‘johnf_blog.wp_post2cat’ doesn’t exist]
    SELECT cat_ID AS ID, MAX(post_modified) AS last_mod FROM `wp_posts` p LEFT JOIN `wp_post2cat` pc ON p.ID = pc.post_id LEFT JOIN `wp_categories` c ON pc.category_id = c.cat_ID WHERE post_status = ‘publish’ GROUP BY cat_ID

    Warning: Cannot modify header information – headers already sent by (output started at /mounted-storage/home34b/sub001/sc27969-FHUU/www/wp-includes/wp-db.php:160) in /mounted-storage/home34b/sub001/sc27969-FHUU/www/wp-includes/pluggable.php on line 390

  12. Hi… First, thanks for this plugin!

    I’m running FB 2.3 and GB 1.0 and just have a quick question. I’m trying to clean it up a bit; at the top of my screen where it says “Please sign my guestbook and the link to your page” under that it has:

    This entry was posted on Friday, October 12th, 2007 at 3:10 pm and is filed under Site News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

    I can’t seem to find where that comment is posted to remove it. Can you shed some light?

    Thanks!

    –rob

  13. NM, I located it in the guestbook.php file. Thanks!

    One more for you, anyone can leave a message, but it still comes up in my admin panel to be approved… any way to bypass this?

    Thanks!

    –rob

  14. I am really looking forward to getting the GuestBook plugin functioning on this website. My WordPress is version 2.3. I have the PagedComments plugin installed and configured properly. I am using version 0.9 of GuestBook Generator. It appears to create the page properly (no error messages). But when I create a guestbook entry the page never refreshes. Going back with the browser and refreshing shows that no guestbook entry has been made. Suggestions?

  15. I have been using the guestbook generated by your plugin for a while now. I just noticed today that after the 11th guestbook comment was made by somebody on my blog, it stopped displaying the previous entries. They’re still there in the comments, but stopped being displayed. I did recently upgrade to 2.3.1, but don’t know if that is what broke it. Any suggestions? Thanks for the code, and any suggestions!

  17. Hi Thanks for your great plugin, but is there a way to let everybody post a message on the guestbook, while having the option that only members can comment? (I would like everybody be able to sign the guestbook, but not to comment on everything)

  18. Hi, Great plugin!
    But does Guestbook Generator support any other languages than english? If not, do you have any suggestions where, or how, to begin changing the plugin to support other languages.

    Any ideas when, in the future, the plugin might support other languages?
    Thanks!

  19. I’m using WordPress MU (based on WP 2.x) and when I try to use the guestbook Generator plugin it says:

    Warning: Guestbook Generator v0.8 is compatible with WordPress 2.1 and above. Please visit this page to download v0.7 for older versions of WordPress.

    Has anyone gotten this plugin to work with WordPress MU?

    Cheers,
    Joakim

  20. @Rob: Hi Rob. Go to Options>Discussion and uncheck “An administrator must always approve the comment”

    @Jerry: Try to edit the guestbook by going to Manage>Pages. Under discussion, see if “Allow Comments” is checked.

    @Maarten: Not sure what you want, but try going to Options and check “Users must be registered and logged in to comment”.

    @Henning: Sorry, no support for other languages at the moment. What you can do is generate the guestbook and customize it under Manage>Pages.

    @Joakim: Sorry, the plugin doesn’t support WordPress MU.

  21. I just noticed how you can break up guestbook comments into pages, so I installed the paged-comments plugin but all my guestbook comments are still being displayed on one page. Does this only work with the those themes in the “themes” folder of the plugin? Do I have to regenerate the guestbook? Will thise delete existing comments? So many questions …

    My guestbook is here…
    http://www.tripawds.com/guestbook

    Thanks!

  23. This is truly an outstanding plugin! Thank you!

    I have on question however, is it possible change the message “Please sign my Guestbook. Thanks!” to “Please sign our Guestbook. Thanks!”

    I would really appreciate it, thank you once again!

  24. Oh and here’s my email address if you wanted to email me: stroix@gmail.com

    >This is truly an outstanding plugin! Thank you!
    >
    >I have on question however, is it possible change the >message “Please sign my Guestbook. Thanks!” to “Please >sign our Guestbook. Thanks!”
    >
    >I would really appreciate it, thank you once again!

  25. Hi,
    great plugin, wich works real great. but i have one question:

    how can i change words like “sign my guestbook” and “Guestbook Entry”.

    i want to change that in german. i´ve already changes that in the guestbook_utility.php, but nothing happend.

    thanks

  26. Hi,

    Thanks for simple and swiftly installed plugin! Let’s see how much spam it’ll attract. 🙂

    Anyho… I have a sidebar which won’t be included in the guestbook. I tried to add

    at the bottom guestbook_utility.php but that doesn’t seem to fix it…

    Any suggestion?

    Cheers,
    Dan

  27. Pingback: WordPress Guest Book Plugin

  28. hi , i tried the plugin and it ruined my site (probably cuz of some misconfig) is there a way to restore original guestbook for my wp blog , thanks in advance for any reply(s).

  29. Hi,
    how can i set the postings that shows up from more as two to …e.g. 5 or 10 per page ?
    I only see two posts where more posted.

    Any tipp ?

    Best regards

  30. Pingback: WordPress Guestbook

  32. I too am having a problem with the redirection page. When I post a comment on the guestbook page, it posts to the database and enters moderation, but the user sees a blank result page.

    This only happens if I am not logged in as a user or admin user. If I am logged in, I am redirected back to the guestbook page. Any ideas?

  33. Hello! I had a small problem with Guestbook Generator Plugin. All was good at first, but when comments were divided into a few pages, chronology became wrong. It is possible to look at it all right here: http://urbik.com.ua/?page_id=11 . I will be beholden for a help in the removal of this problem. Thank you!

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  35. Does anyone know how to paginate comments?

    I wish to select just five to display on my home page, which then links me to the Guestbook.

  37. I started a website for my brother-in-law, johnvleck.org, who has ALS. I am getting a ton of spam in the guestbook. I am wondering if there is an antispam that works best for it. I have Peter’s Custom Anti-spam for my regular blog and it works great, but I can’t get the antispam word to work in the guestbook. Any suggestions?

  38. I’ve downloaded the plugin, done all the right steps (even deleted and re-uploaded the plugin) and for some reason, after the “Thanks for signing my guestbook” sentence, the actual guestbook does not load – is missing… how would I troubleshoot why it’s not working? thanks!

  40. Can anyone help, if the theme i am going to use without file of single.php? I wish to use guestbook generator with the theme of no single.php…..

    Many thanks in advance.

  41. Hi,
    first of all thanks for this great and simple to use guestbook! Nice work.
    I just encountered one Problem:
    Showing this http://www.anke-und-andre.ch/?page_id=23 under FireFox just works perfect. No problems at all. But viewing it with Internet Explorer, the font-size is messed up…
    Do you have a suggestion? I checked the theme code but I couldn’t find a solution..
    Thanks in advance

  43. I’m looking for someone to install this guestbook on my new website, not the current one. Funny thing, so far 3 people have failed at it, it’s about the only thing left to do on my website, so can someone please do it, and hopefully you already installed one before ; )

    Thanks.

    My email is:

    gbacos@sympatico.ca

    give me a quote on the price.

    Guy

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  49. I have the latest version of wordpress, 2.5. And i have the page comments plugin are activated and also the guestbook generator. And i run the generator but I can’t se anywhere to write in it.

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