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. sorry to bother. but after i have installed the GB, the whole comment system (including the GB comment system of course) doesn’t work anymore. when i submit new post, the following message appears:
    The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
    Please contact the server administrator, webmaster@blog.fishonthehill.com and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

    More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

    Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.

    ——————————————————————————–

    Apache/1.3.36 Server at blog.fishonthehill.com Port 80

    PLEASE SUGGEST WHAT I CAN DO TO MAKE IT WORK AGAIN, THANX!!!!!!

  2. Hi, it is necessary to change this from the older version – it is no problem for me to do so, I have no guest comments yet as I have been dormant for a while, but wanted to know if it was recommended to change it.

  3. Hey
    I’m about to open my wordpress site. And i want to add your guestbook.
    But when i go to options/guestbook generator i cannot generate the guestbook.

    These lines appears:
    Warning: chmod() [function.chmod]: Operation not permitted in /www/rasmusthrane.com/wp-content/plugins/guestbook_utility.php on line 26

    Warning: fputs(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /www/rasmusthrane.com/wp-content/plugins/guestbook_utility.php on line 44

    Warning: fputs(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /www/rasmusthrane.com/wp-content/plugins/guestbook_utility.php on line 48

    What am i doing wrong?

    Best regards
    Rasmus

  4. @Rasmus: You’re not doing anything wrong. It’s a problem with your webhost. Ask them about fopen() if they allow it.

  5. i fixed it, the problem, i was logged in as admin, after logging out, everything works well!

    thank you for your good work!

    regards
    peter

  6. hi!

    how can i move the sign my guestbook just befor the guestbook starts, not on the end of the entrys?

    regards
    peter

  7. @Peter: edit guestbook.php and look for “sign my guestbook”. Cut and paste it anywhere you prefer.

  8. I installed the plug in. After I used the index.php to make the single.php it worked… that’s what I thought.

    Well, the page is created. But if I submit a comment I get a blank page! It’s linked as /wp-comments-post.php, but it doens’t do anything.

    Can anybody tell me what the problem is?

  9. @Sebas: What version of WordPress are you using? My guess is that it’s your (WordPress) installation that is causing the problem. Try writing a normal post and comment on it to check.

  10. Paging? I saw above you planned to work on it, any hope for a future release with paging?

  11. Hi, I have a theme without single.php, I copied this single.php file from the default theme to let the guestbook generator work, but then all my site take the default theme. Could you kindly suggest me how to create a single.php that let me mantain my theme while making guestbook be generated succesfully? Many thanks!

  12. I also tried to copy index.php into single.php but it seems that the guestbook can’t see the css of my theme

  13. Hi there,

    Everything goes fine… until i click on the link ‘view my guestbook’ and then i get:
    Not Found

    Sorry, but you are looking for something that isn’t here.

    any idea what can be wrong?

  14. I’m facing the same problems like #119 with your script. WordPress is saying that the post cannot be found:
    http://www.couch-fiction.org/wordpress/?p=553

    I cannot figure out why it isn’t working, the Guestbook Post #553 exists in the “manage” list – you even can see the page title when browsing ?p=553

    I hope there aren’t that many grammar mistakes in here 🙂

    greetings

  15. Ah. Never mind. I figured out that I had to delete the actual guestbook page in the Dashboard / Manage / Pages.

  16. Great plugin, i like it! But please add paging, then the plugin will be perfect!

  17. This plugin worked for a previous theme but when I switched it’s now coming up with errors that look similar to this:

    Warning: fputs(): supplied argument is not a valid stream resource in /home/roadless/public_html/everlong/wp-content/plugins/guestbook_utility.php

  18. I tried it, but it doesn’t work with the guestbokk. please just add it this function to the guestbook generator.

  19. how to make order post ? so, the older comment at the end of list. I try to read some comment here, and i try to do. but no action, no change. I don’t have current guestbook, i just use your guestbook. can you help me ?

  20. Hi, I installed the guestbook, via the generator, but I do not see any possibility, for users to leave a comment…
    What am I doing wrong ?
    I added the complete link to my guestbook.

  21. @Chomisek, Steve: The newest version now supports paging.

    @Iroel: The plugin already does that.

    @Lars: What version of the plugin are you using? And what WordPress version too.

  22. I installed the Guestbook as per the instructions given and everything was ok until I tried to access the Guestbook page. When I click on the page, it loads for a couple of seconds, then nothing happens and I stay on my site’s main page.

    I’m using WordPress 2.2.1

  23. @Steff: Hey! I’m having trouble viewing all your pages. Could that be the issue? I’ll look into it though.

  24. I installed the guestbook and I looks all fine but at the guestbook page it says:”Please sign my guestbook”. But there’s no option to sign, I tried the standard theme but it won’t work on that either. Anyone knows what this could be?

  25. i’m using wp 2.2.1 with theme. and the plugin said there’s no required template file something. what should i do?

  26. Hey.. used your previous version on WP 1.5. I upgraded to WP2.2.1. I removed the previous version of guestbook generator and downloaded version0.7. I still have the previous guestbook page which I don’t want to lose. I activated 0.7 and went to options and followed the directions. It says I don’t have the template necessary to create the guestbook page.

    Do you have any suggestions on how to fix this? The guestbook is a favorite of the website owner.

    Thanks

  27. When generating a guestbook I get the following error any ideas what I need to do?:

    Warning: chmod() [function.chmod]: Operation not permitted in /home/amazingf/public_html/wp-content/plugins/guestbook-generator/guestbook_utility.php on line 26
    Theme folder was not chmoded to 777!
    Guestbook Template Created!
    Guestbook Comments Template Created!
    Guestbook Page Created!
    Guestbook Template Successfully Assigned!
    View Your New Guestbook!

  28. I used your guestbook plugin to generate an RSVP “book” for our wedding site. Nice work!
    Long story short, I want to make another “guestbook”, but for people to leave “a bit o’ wisdom” if you will. My problem is that I can only seem to make one guestbook and I need two. Any ideas?

  29. I got this error after activating, and I also activated the paged comments plugin, but when viewing my guestbook I get an error:

    Published:

    Fatal error: Call to a member function on a non-object in /var/www/web45/web/wp-content/plugins/paged-comments/paged-comments.php(87) : eval()’d code on line 23

    any ideas? the page was created just fine, no errors at all.
    do I have to set certain settigns for paged comments plugin? I just installed and activated.

  30. I temporarily fixed the problem by commentig this section from the paged comments plugin:

    //if (strpos($file_contents, ‘paged_comments_template()’) === false) {
    // set_include_path(TEMPLATEPATH);
    //$file_contents = str_replace(‘comments_template()’, ‘paged_comments_template()’, $file_contents);
    //$file_contents = str_replace(”.trim($file_contents));
    // restore_include_path();
    //exit;
    //}

    but I have no clue what exactly I did there – could I leave it like that?

  31. Wonderful plugin. However, I wish to sort the entries newest first. Where to insert the DESC into the SQL query? Keep up the excellent work!

  32. why does my visitor have to be signed-in to my blog in order to sign the guestbook? Is there a setting I can change?

  33. Using this plugin, I’ve created a page for readers to recommend places for my wife and I to visit on our around the world trip. See “Recommend Something” at http://www.oneyearonearth.com. I want to create another page using the plugin for guests to post comments/questions. How do I create another “guestbook” without messing up the first one?

    Thanks,
    Derek

Comments are closed.