Hello Everyone,
First, allow me to appologize for the long delay we had in releasing the DigiOz Guestbook Version 1.7. Part of this delay has been due to an increasing number of Spammers, who target various Guestbooks, Bulletin Boards and Mailing Scripts. We basically wanted to make sure that Guestbook Users of this new version of our guestbook are able to filter out 100% of the spam, and we believe we have done that. Bellow is a summary of changes made to the guestbook for version 1.7:
1- Guestbook Entries are now stored as OBJECTS into the text file (Pete): What this basically means is that guestbook entries are now serialized as PHP Objects, and stored in the list.txt file after being serialized. This makes working with the data file a lot easier.
2- New Administrative Interface Allows Admin to Delete Guestbook Entries Safely (Pete): We have added a new administrative interface for the guestbook which has the following options:
a) Delete Existing Entry: To remove unwanted entries over the web.
b)View IP of Users: To keep track of what IP every post is made from when then post to your guestbook.
c)View IP of Spammers: Lets you see what the ip of the person posting SPAM was, and what they intended to post that got filtered out. This allows you to find keywords of the content they were trying to post and filter it out for future posts, even if the spammer changes his IP.
d)Current Guestbook Settings: Gives you a quick overview of all the settings in the "config.php" file, using which the guestbook functions.
e)Generate Language File: This feature, allows you now to generate your own language file in ANY Language you choose, with the wording that YOU choose. All you then have to do is to copy and past the code you are given into a language.php file and you are good to go!
3- Some bug fixes on the code thanks to Mike (mr pain) and Robbert: There were a few security and coding errors in the previous guestbook version that were detected by our friends Mike and Robbert and corrected by us. Thanks again for the help guys.
4- New Search Feature Added, which allows searching by any entry field (Thanks Mike). We also added a new search feature for the guestbook, to allow you and your users to quickly search and find guestbook entries based on keyword entered.
5- Ban option added based on visitor's IP Number: This feature lets you ban users with certain IPs from your guestbook. You would find the users IP address through the guestbook users IP log.
8- Spam block feature added based on keyword specified by admin in config.php file: This feature blocks guestbook entries that contain specific keywords in them. You can modify and/or enter new keywords to this list as you like.
9- Optional GD Image Verification feature was added to prevent spam: Lastly, we have added a new Image Verification feature that forces users wishing to post to enter a randomly generated code into a textbox before posting. This prevents automated spam bots from posting junk entries into the guestbook.
That's it for now. Enjoy the new Guestbook!
Pete Soheil
