Guest books are almost a thing of the past. Back in the mid to late nineties of the twentieth century, they could be found on every fourth site. Today, such a section of an Internet resource is perceived rather as a rudiment. However, guest books are still in use. This is explained by the fact that for many sites the functionality of platforms of more modern types (such as forums and blogs) is simply redundant. Fortunately, it shouldn't be a problem at this time to find and install a guestbook to your liking.
Necessary
Hosting account, Internet access, FTP client or file manager with support for FTP connections, unpacker program or file manager with the function of unpacking archives
Instructions
Step 1
Decide on technologies that can be used in scripts that implement the functionality of the guestbook. Answer the question about which programming languages the script can be implemented in, whether it is possible to use a database to store a guestbook entry, etc. The list of technologies directly follows from their support within the framework of the current hosting plan.
Step 2
Find, download and unpack the guestbook distribution that fits within the technologies available for use on the hosting. Use large script archives such as hotscripts.com to find your distribution. After downloading the distribution, unpack it to a temporary folder on your hard drive using an unpacking program or file manager. Read the license to use and installation instructions that are contained in the distribution itself, or on the developer's website.
Step 3
Prepare your hosting account for installing the script. As a rule, the required steps are described in the installation instructions. If necessary, create a database on the server, a directory structure into which the guestbook script files will be loaded.
Step 4
Configure the guestbook distribution on the local machine. Follow the installation instructions. Often, configuration comes down to editing a settings file, which should contain administrator credentials, data for accessing a database, etc.
Step 5
Upload the guestbook script to the server. Use the program FTP-client, or a file manager with this functionality.
Step 6
Perform the steps to configure the distribution on the server, if necessary. Set file and folder permissions, edit the.htaccess file, etc.
Step 7
Install the guestbook. If the distribution has an installation script, run it. Follow the instructions in this script. If you are prompted to enter an administrator password during installation, remember or write it down.
Step 8
Follow the steps to clean up after installation. Quite often, after installing scripts on the server, for security reasons, it is required to delete the installation script itself, or even entire directories with their contents, and also change the access rights to some files and folders. As a rule, these actions are described in the installation manual, or displayed at the last step of the installation script.
Step 9
Check the work of the installed guestbook. Log into the control panel with an administrator account. Leave one or more test messages.
