linking to guestbook page & publishing it

[Soundwave]

A warm hello to all you wonderful volunteer helpers!

Over the past months I built all my website pages (about 20) with the BV website builder (and so enjoyed doing it, as I am definitely not a computer expert!) & am about more than ready to make Voda my host.
However, reading through countless forum entries I became quite unsure of a few things, so I would be very grateful to any of you so knowledgeable people out there, willing to take a few minutes to clear it up for me, one question is:

I created a page to my site with a BV PHP Guestbook on it (actually I didn't name it "guestbook" but "footprints", in hopes to make it harder for spam crawlers to find my guestbook) - I understand that I am saving this as "footprints.bvp" to my computer, but am I also understanding it right that, contrary to my other pages (which only contain text fields & images), I should change the "file extension" (to be used when this page is published) from "html" to "php" under this page's "Page Properties"?

...and if so, that means that I would also have to change the URL's extension leading to that (footprints-)page in my other page's Navigation Bar Properties as well, so it will read "./footprints.php" and not "./footprints.html", right?

Also, I've read on several forum posts that it's wise to create a blank notepad file and then change its extension from ".txt" to ".php", so in my case that would be "footprints.php", ...but when I stumbled upon a post that talked about name conflicts, I've changed that to "footprints1.php".
So the next question is: Will I have to accordingly change the "Textfile name" to "./footprintsdb.php" and the "PHP script name" to "footprints1.php" in the Guestbook's Properties???

Gosh, I hope I managed to express myself well enough for you to get a picture of what I'm talking about - surely I tried!

There are more questions on other subjects, but I suppose it's better to start separate threats for them... just let me, in advance, send you a heartfelt "Thank you so very much!" for your time, your patience, & your inputs!
S.

[john221522]

Re: linking to guestbook page & publishing it

Can you publisl your pages?
Are you still building your website?
haven't pay for hosting yet?

[Soundwave]

Re: linking to guestbook page & publishing it

John, thank you for the quick response - unfortunately I couldn't publish yet, because the domain transfer has not been done yet (there are issues with the other host, but should be solved soon) - do you overall understand my question though, or should I try to explain it differently?

[john221522]

Re: linking to guestbook page & publishing it

John, thank you for the quick response - unfortunately I couldn't publish yet, because the domain transfer has not been done yet (there are issues with the other host, but should be solved soon) - do you overall understand my question though, or should I try to explain it differently?

Ok well I am working on my guestbook too but I am a lbe to tell you that most likly you see can't it unlit you can publish it. Your other question I can't anwer yet But you can use the search at the top and put guestbook post there are a lot of post you can find and you mite find your anwer their.

[Soundwave]

Re: linking to guestbook page & publishing it

I understand that I won't be able to see it unless it's published - what I am trying to do is to make sure that everything is set properly, in order to avoid problems after I uploaded....

PS: Since you, too, are working on your guestbook right now, this info might help you in avoiding spam entries: Other than making sure to enable CAPTCHA, I've read that it can also be of help to include " <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" /> " into the page's html....

[john221522]

Re: linking to guestbook page &amp; publishing it

I understand that I won't be able to see it unless it's published - what I am trying to do is to make sure that everything is set properly, in order to avoid problems after I uploaded....

PS: Since you, too, are working on your guestbook right now, this info might help you in avoiding spam entries: Other than making sure to enable CAPTCHA, I've read that it can also be of help to include " <meta name="robots" content="noindex, nofollow" /> " into the page's html....

Ok thank you for that info, I am sorry I couldn't help you but use the search box there a lot for great help there ( search ) guestbook post

[Soundwave]

Re: linking to guestbook page &amp; publishing it

lol - it's using the search box & reading all of the many explanations that brought up the insecurity I am feeling now! (SMILE)

so let me ask you this though: how do YOU define the link to your guestbook in your Navigation Bar Properties on your other pages - with the extension .php or with .html?

[john221522]

Re: linking to guestbook page &amp; publishing it

ok I just got mine working!
What I did was put the guestbook on the page I wanted that was a php page.
www.eazyermoney.com/welcome.php

I than open note book and save a blank page as guestbookdb.php.txt
Then I upload that to my site.

so if you can't publish it will not work but you should be all set, For then you do.

[Soundwave]

Re: linking to guestbook page &amp; publishing it

Hi again, everybody

did some more research (hours of forum reading) but as I still have questions about this, and read on another forum post that I should NOT open a new thread, I am continuing in here...

I believe my question about the linking to the guestbook within my site is answered: If I pubish a page as php and not as html (which I understand is recommended for publishing a page that contains a form ...and the BV guestbook IS a form, right?), then in the Navigation Bar Properties I will definitely have to set the URL to that page to have a .php extension.

I wonder if someone would have the patience to explain to me in a few SIMPLE words where the difference between publishing a page as php and html lies?

My remaining question is about the PHP Guestbook Properties Advanced Settings:
As I've already mentioned, in my plain (computer amateur) mind I am hoping that maybe if I name the guestbook page & the Navigation Bar name to it differently, it will be harder for spammers & spam crawlers to even find it in the first place.
So the page I have built in BV with the guestbook in there is saved on my PC as "footprints.bvp" and I have set this page's Properties to publish as php.
Am pretty sure that the "Text filename" will subsequently have to be "./footprintsdb.php" (which I have created in notepad as described in other posts to upload once I publish my site).
What puzzles me now though is how to properly fill in the "PHP script name" field - will that in my case have to be "footprints.php"?!?
I have read a wonderful explanation by Pablo (I think it was him) who explained that this field defines the "name of the guestbook script", but since I am so blonde with html coding and everything that goes with it, I have to admit that I am not even sure what exactly "script" means in computer terms, I am thinking that it could refer to the BV guestbook FORM file itself, so I don't know if I should name that "footprints.php" or leave it to be "guestbook.php" as in default???

I would so much appreciate another comment on this, because I would really love to have all my settings right BEFORE I publish everything.

Thank you so very much for your patience!
S.

[Soundwave]

Re: linking to guestbook page &amp; publishing it

ok, after another 3 more hours of browsing guestbook related posts, I think I've finally found my answers in another threat - navaldesign's post (#11) really helped me to understand it all (THANK YOU!)

I would like to close this threat by posting a link for others confused about guestbook publishing issues:

http://www.vodahost.com/vodatalk/general-support-issues/43401-publishing-guest-sign-page.html

So I decided to follow his advice & publish my guestbook as html, after all. Since my site does not contain too many pages, it won't take a lot of efforts to change the links to my guestbook back to html in the navigation bar's properties.

To those of you publishing your page (with the BV guestbook) in it as php:
Make sure you CHANGE the PHP SCRIPT NAME in the Guestbook Properties (advanced Tab) to "guestbook1.php", so your page won't be overwritten with only the guestbook itself!

[Soundwave]

Re: linking to guestbook page &amp; publishing it

PS:
This means that IN MY CASE the PHP Script Name will be "footprints.php". However, to all others publishing the guestbook page as html & saving their guestbook page as "guestbook.bvp": You can leave the default name "guestbook.php"!

To those of you publishing your page (with the BV guestbook) in it as php:
Don't forget to CHANGE the PHP SCRIPT NAME in the Guestbook Properties (advanced Tab) to "guestbook1.php" (or however you call your page with the guestbook on it, just make sure you add the "1" in order to avoid file name conflicts), so your page won't be overwritten with only the guestbook itself!