Installation
Install the extension with the extension manager. After the installation create a new record and choose Guestbook in the list.
Default Configuration of the Content element
The default configuration is taking out of the TS configuration. Take a look at the chapter Configuration in this manual if you want to change the default settings.
There are currently 4 option-sheets in the ve_guestbook content element ("General", "Form" and "List & Teaser").
Notice: Most of these options can also be controlled by TS, but the settings made directly in the content element will override the TS configuration.
Sheet: General
What to display:
You can choose between three different modes. Here are the details to every mode:
FIELD: What to display | Description: |
|---|---|
LIST | Showing the guestbook. |
TEASER | Teasing the guestbook in displaying the lastest entries of the guestbook. |
FORM | Generating the form for a new user entry. |
It is not possible to define multiple Modes, because there would not be the chance to set specific configurations for every single content element.
Starting point and Recursive level selection:
"Starting point" is used to tell the extension, where to get the guestbook entries from. It is possible to select multiple ”Starting points”. This way you are able to collect guestbook entries from several pages to display them in one content-element.
If you don't insert a page as "Starting point", the script will look for a value for “pid_list” from TypoScript. This is the way to configure many guestbook content elements from one central point.
If no value for “Starting Point” is present at all, the current page is used. (the page where you inserted the guestbook content-element).
Recursive level selection:
this tells the extension how many levels of subpages to include below the page(s) given in the "Starting point" field.
Template file:
The sheet “Template” offers to select another template than pi1/guestbook_template.tmpl. It is not required to define a template in this place, because in most cases several news extensions under one pagetree use the same html-template. This can be defined directly in the TS-setup or in the Constant-Editor of your main-template.
You can change the guestbook display, by simply creating a new template-file for the display of the guestbook. There is a default template-file in EXT:ve_guestbook/pi1 called guestbook_template.tmpl. Take a look at that file, make a copy of it and modify it to your own design. Observe the comments in the file - they are markers that define where content is inserted and which parts are used for this and that. Self explanatory to a certain degree...
Page with guestbook for Teaser & mail notification:
If you want to show a link to the guestbook (read more) in teaser mode you have to set the page that includes listing mode of the guestbook. Also this is the url written in the notification mails.
Sheet: Form
Captcha:
If you want to avoid spam you can activate the captcha function. You can select between two captcha typo3 extensions.
Obligation Fields:
Here you can define what fields will be checked after submitting the form by the user.
E-Mail syntax validation:
If you want to let the module validate the syntax of the email in the form, then mark this checkbox.
Website validation:
If you activate this checkbox the user website will be checked.
Target page after submitting:
If you select a page in this field the form will redirect to this page after successfull submitting. If this field is empty the form will be redirect to the current page. It was important to perform a redirect to avoid double guestbook entries by pressing the reload button of the browser.
Mail notification after submitting:
You can let the system send an mail notifaction when an new entry was saved. Please enter here an userdefined mail.
Mail to user after submitting:
Check this box if you want to send the user a feedback mail after submitting.
Manual backend release:
If you do not trust your visitors, you can firstable let the system hide all new entries. You can unhide them via the typo3 backend. Go to the list menu and set the given element to “unhide”.
Mail blacklist:
If you have problems with spamming users you can use this blacklist of emails. If the user attempts to post an error message will occur. Feature delivered by Lars Haerig.
Mail whitelist:
If you do know your friends you can add them to this whitelist. Feature delivered by Lars Haerig.
Sheet: List & Teaser
Limit of entries:
Define how many entries will be shown in the selected mode. The default value is given by the TS configuration: 5.
Order by this field / Ascending or Descending:
The default setting for sorting the guestbook entries is the Creation date/time ascending. But you can modify this by setting an other field or an other sorting direction.
String length of teaser:
Here you can set the length of the teaser. No word will be broken, because the programming does only cut after words. The default value is given by the TS configuration: 50.
Max length of words:
If you feel that your visitors could type in words like “aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa” and more you can define here an maximum length of words. All words longer than this will be cut followed by the string “ [..] “.
Show all languages:
If you do not want to split your guestbook into different languages you can have your multilangual guestbook.
