// readme_comments.txt
/* Comments Script - version 6.0 - released 2008-03-09 */
/* copyright © 2003-2008 Andy Bowers */
This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the
GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version
2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY;
without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this
program; if not, write to
the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
59 Temple Place, Suite 330,
Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
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A TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT NOTE - PLEASE READ THIS
The /documentation folder contains a very detailed 'how to' document describing every feature of
this script package. Everything is in it. Please read it (at least twice) and you should be able
to set up this comments package exactly the way you want to.
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ANOTHER TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT NOTE - PLEASE READ THIS
Make sure you change the editor password in /editor/configpass.php or other people will be able
to edit the database table containing your site's page comments!!!
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ANOTHER TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT NOTE - PLEASE READ THIS
If you previously installed page-comments Version 5, your database table will still work and the
data you have already can be displayed with Version 6. Due to the large number of script changes
and reorganizations, please upload/replace all scripts and supporting files from Version 6.
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This set of scripts and supporting files are intended to be used as in a 'page comments' system on
your site. php and MySQL are required.
The script assumes that you have ALREADY CREATED a database containing a table named page_comments
with the same field names as defined in the included sql file [page_comments.sql]. This can be
used to create the correct table structure using phpAdmin's SQL import function.
Edit the db_conn.php file included in this zipped set of files (in the /includes folder), so that
it includes YOUR values for database name, database username, and database password.
*** Changing things ******************************************************
There is no need for you to edit any of the 'real' php scripts. You can make all sorts of changes
to the way the comments system looks and works by editing various included files, the most important
of which is the comments-config.php file. Reading it, you'll find all items are commented so you
can see what effect various changes will make.
Edit the comments-config.php file to include your e-mail name and e-mail domain (to receive
notification of comments posted). Edit the $swear-ban value to suit your preference.
Edit the comment row colour values to suit your site. Edit the $limit value to the number of
comments you want to SHOW at a time. The script will automatically paginate the results with other
page links where needed.
There are a number of other things that you could change. They are described in the documentation.
Please read it.
*** Style **************************************************************
The comments form uses whatever style you have defined within your own page styles. You can edit the
comments_form.php file is you want to apply particular styles to the form. ONLY EDIT the html
section of that file.
NOTE: the form is contained in a table even though it isn't tabular data. It might have been nice
to have made it a full CSS layout, but … it didn't happen. Keep the tabular layout as the captcha
and country flags option will write table rows for their inputs.
The comment-config.php file includes styles for presentation of the comments received. You can edit
those styles to suit your own site's appearance.
*** Good words ********************************************************
The zip package contains various components which display in English. Advisory pages (as described
later) and the actual comments form as well as the country names dropdown values can be edited
directly to reflect the language you prefer to use.
The comments display script uses specific phrases which are contained in the file named
comments-lang.php (in /includes) which can also be edited to suit your preferences.
The comments-lang file also contains a php function to display the time/date of comments posting.
You can modify that function CAREFULLY to alter the format of times and dates that are displayed,
including altering the language to suit yourself.
*** Bad words *********************************************************
This package includes a swear-checker named phpMyPhilter from http://www.amazemail.com/
phpMyPhilter supports multiple languages. Additional files/details from amazemail.com
The configuration file allows you to choose whether posts containing 'bad' words are added 'as posted',
whether they are added 'as moderated' automatically, or simply not added to your database. All
posts are e-mailed to you with the _original_ text of the message, together with the IP address of
the poster and the time/date of the post [helpful if you're getting abusive users and need to track them].
*** Advisory Pages ******************************************************
This package contains the necessary HTML and images to display various advisory pages if problems
arise with what has been submitted by your comments user. These advise of very short comments,
comments containing swear words (as defined in the swear words file), comments containing various
common SPAM instances, tags/html/BBcode unallowed, flood attempts, or a failure to match the captcha code
(if you have captchas active).
The HTML (and images) for these advisory pages can be edited to suit your needs.
*** CAPTCHAs********************************************************
If you want to prevent spambots posting comments (as if) you can use a 'security' image in the
comments form. Edit the config file to set the captcha flag accordingly. Note that this is a
random inage generator that requires you have the GD2 graphics library with your php compile.
You can use your own grunge font and background image for the captchas if you want. Details of
what to do are in the captcha-config.php file in the /captcha folder
*** Country Flags *******************************************************
If you want to show country flags for posts, set the show_flags variable in the config file. You
will need to have downloaded the zip file of flag images and extract it to the images/flags
folder. Setting show_flags to on will automatically cause the country drop-down to be included
in the comments form.
The zipped flags files is NOT included in the script download. It is a separate zip file which
can be downloaded from www.digitalmidget.com/php_noob and visiting the comments script page.
*** Upload & Usage *******************************************************************************
Finally, upload the unzipped package to your site, in the same folder/relative folder set-up as
in the zip file. Everything you need will be in a folder named comments. The article.php
pages are merely for demonstration purposes and can be deleted.
Do NOT change any of the file names.
To use the script, add the following code where you want the comments system to appear on any page
(use a DIFFERENT value of page_id for each page).
<?php
$page_id = "6"; // for example
include("comments/comments_show.php");
include("comments/comments_form.php");
?>
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ENORMOUSLY IMPORTANT NOTE - PLEASE READ THIS
This script will ONLY work when the php snippet is embedded in pages that havebeen saved as .php
files. It will not work with .html files (unless you understand .htaccess magic that can make
html files parseable).
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*** Closing Comments******************************************************************************
This set of scripts is fully functional when used as intended. If you have decided to try to
run it in frames, or iframes, or with mod_rewrite, it may or may not work correctly. If you
decide to rename files or database fields, or alter the relative file structure then you are 100%
on your own with it. If it doesn't work, it's your fault and your problem.
This set of scripts is FREE. It's not copyright-free it's free to use. Respect the copyright.
Technical support is NOT provided.
I always appreciate links back to
my script site at http://www.digitalmidget.com
my design site at http://www.halfadot.com
Enjoy the script!
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