Phoca Guestbook 
Version
1.4.5, 2.0.2 (last update on Feb 27, 2012)
Rating
Compatibility
Reviews
88
License
GPLv2 or later
Non-Commercial
Type
Date Added
14 November 2007
Requirements:
- Joomla! 1.5, Joomla! 1.6, Joomla! 1.7
Documentation
http://www.phoca.cz/documentation/category/3-phoca-guestbook-component
Demo (Joomla! 1.5):
http://www.phoca.cz/demo/
Demo Phoca Guestbook and Joomla! 1.6:
http://www.phoca.cz/joomlademo/phoca-guestbook
Trying to prevent from spam
http://www.phoca.cz/documents/3-phoca-guestbook-component/436-trying-to-prevent-from-spam
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Please, read before making review based on spam issues
If you hate spammers, please don't blame Phoca Guestbook or other extensions which produce input form field on your site.
To not be spammed, you should make all the recommendations in this article:
http://www.phoca.cz/documents/3-phoca-guestbook-component/436-trying-to-prevent-from-spam
and of course your server needs to have a lot of different tools to prevent from spam.
And you need to care about your inputs, because for example, you cannot prevent from human spammers automatically :-(
The situation with spam is really horrible (I know it from my experiencs where spam and ddos attacks makes my server down most of time)
If you have some input form, you need to care about it everyday.
Regarding Phoca Guestbook: I am regularly working on different protections for the Phoca Guestbook but reviews here based on spam issues (without reading the articles and making no other spam protections on the server) demotivate me like other "input form" developers. Maybe there will be nobody in the future who will do such extension because he/she will be blamed instead of the spammers :-( :-(
Phoca Guestbook is not the one who spams your sites, please think of it while making a review. And Phoca Guestbook is not the one who ignores the spam problems (just see the article and the features) but you should know that it is really difficult to fight the spam :-( :-(
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Images
It is excellent component. Thank you for it!
Jan is making great extensions (look up everything named "Phoca"). It seems that his programming always is clean and simple.
After testing several guestbooks, I decided to use Phoca Guestbook because it works without any fuzz.
You can edit the captcha tables to remove letters and numbers that are easily confused like 1/l, O/0
After testing several guestbooks, I decided to use Phoca Guestbook because it works without any fuzz.
You can edit the captcha tables to remove letters and numbers that are easily confused like 1/l, O/0
Best ever, imo there isn't any other guestbook for Joomla who comes near to this one!
Great support in case of issues, bugs or problems as well.
Great support in case of issues, bugs or problems as well.
After trying to install a different guestbook and getting nowhere with 404 errors and a closed forum, Phoco Guestbook is a BREATH OF FRESH AIR. First of all there is wonderful documentation that tells you step-by-step how to install Phoco Guestbook. Second of all, this documentation anticipates problems people might have, and explains step-by-step how to work around them. That's why I say it is GREAT! Like a great teacher anticipating what the student needs to know and wonders about. And, needless to say, it installed smoothly with no problems, and works flawlessly (so far).
Offers a lot of features I missed with other components, such as multiple guestbooks and a lot of configuration options, which can be set from menu manager.
thanks for that good work!
thanks for that good work!
Installation was easy and everything works except the "use global" setting in Menu » Main Menu » Phoca Guestbook » Parameters - Component.
It would be nice if Phoca came with a default guestbook already present after installation since it took me a while to understand that I had to create an empty guestbook to get started. I didn't get a useful error message, just 404 page not found.
None the less Phoca easliy beats the other guestbooks I've tried due to
- Simple installation
- Native Joomla 1.5 support
- Backend settings actually work
- Wide language support
Best regards Andreas Gaunitz
It would be nice if Phoca came with a default guestbook already present after installation since it took me a while to understand that I had to create an empty guestbook to get started. I didn't get a useful error message, just 404 page not found.
None the less Phoca easliy beats the other guestbooks I've tried due to
- Simple installation
- Native Joomla 1.5 support
- Backend settings actually work
- Wide language support
Best regards Andreas Gaunitz
Having read all the wonderful reviews I finally thought I'd found the answer to my guestbook problems in 1.5.x!! Installation was smooth, documentation is good. Used it for the first time - error with HTML purfifier - so I went on the forum and found lots of other users have the same problem. Support in forum replies that "..this is an external application used by Phoca Guestbook which protect the guestbook against internet attacks like XSS attacks...", "So I cannot say what can be wrong with the html purifier on your site" !!!! Very frustrating.... I'd give it miss until this issue is sorted out.
Owner's reply
Hi, check your server settings, if your server supports ctype functions (HTML purifier uses these functions - http://cz2.php.net/manual/en/ref.ctype.php )
BTW - with your "very poor" rating, you in effect say, I should not implement security functions. If I don't implement HTML purifier library, so the guestbook will work for all without any problems and Phoca Guestbook will not get "very poor" rating... BUT I SAY NO, I will implement every security library which can help users to protect their sites... So if e.g. HTML purifier have some problems on the server (e.g. no ctype functions are installed) it is still better to do changes on the server then not using it and waiting for possible future XSS attacks ... :-(
I had been going down the list of guest book extensions, installing and uninstalling one after the other. When I got to this one, I stopped. It not only installed smooth, but you can create more than one guest book. None of the other ones I saw can do this. I am extremely happy with it. THANKS!
The guestbook in it self is easy to install and has a nice and clean interface.
I would like to have a bit more css classes instead of the fixed styles that are part of it at the moment, hoping for it in the next release.
When it comes to the Captcha part it is not up to scratch.
The backend does it jobb well but the images produced are way to easy do "decode" probalby why some other people have complained.
Hoping for a better system i later releases?
I would like to have a bit more css classes instead of the fixed styles that are part of it at the moment, hoping for it in the next release.
When it comes to the Captcha part it is not up to scratch.
The backend does it jobb well but the images produced are way to easy do "decode" probalby why some other people have complained.
Hoping for a better system i later releases?
Owner's reply
Hi, try to use the combination of standard and math captcha
This is mi first review ever made. But I just have to say that this extension is really good, simple to install and use. I recommend it. The only thing that I think could make it even better is a textfield or select for a contry/city input. But I've just submited to feature request on the phoca's website.
PROS:
An easy to install and very useable guestbook. Any questions I had were were already asked and answered on the Phoca forum and it's nice to see that the developer is active on the forum and replies to queries.
CONS:
The only reason I didn't give this maximum points is that within two days of my guestbook going up I got a lot of spam and feedback from some (would be) posters (friends) complained it was initially difficult to understand what the math captcha was.
In summary, this is a good guestbook. I'll post my feedback to the developer and, as he seems to take great pride in his work, I'm sure the next version will be even better.
An easy to install and very useable guestbook. Any questions I had were were already asked and answered on the Phoca forum and it's nice to see that the developer is active on the forum and replies to queries.
CONS:
The only reason I didn't give this maximum points is that within two days of my guestbook going up I got a lot of spam and feedback from some (would be) posters (friends) complained it was initially difficult to understand what the math captcha was.
In summary, this is a good guestbook. I'll post my feedback to the developer and, as he seems to take great pride in his work, I'm sure the next version will be even better.
MODBOY's comments mirror my experience with this product.
Captcha does NOT work. My Guestbook is constantly under attack from spammers.
This product has potential, but because of the spam, I'll be removing Phoca Guestbook from my sites.
Captcha does NOT work. My Guestbook is constantly under attack from spammers.
This product has potential, but because of the spam, I'll be removing Phoca Guestbook from my sites.
Owner's reply
Hi, try to use set the Captcha settings (e.g. character) and or try to combine standard captcha and math captcha
The guest book is not bad although there are some bugs in the admin section but the Captcha totally don't work, after one week of installing this extension the guest book was loaded with spambot messages and i had to disable it.
Owner's reply
Hi, try to use set the Captcha settings (e.g. character) and or try to combine standard captcha and math captcha
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