This article describes Options of Phoca Guestbook (since Joomla! 3, Phoca Guestbook 3)
 
Phoca Guestbook is running on different Joomla! versions. So it is possible that you will not find all listed parameters in your Phoca Guestbook - depends on used Joomla! system.
 

Options (formerly known as Parameters)

Go to Components - Phoca Guestbook - Control Panel - click on icon Options (you can find this icon in top left corner of your Joomla! administration)

Options (Parameters) can be managed only by Super Users (Super Administrators) or you need to have rights to manage them in Joomla! Administration.

 

More detailed information about Parameters you can find in this article: Default settings (Parameters - component in menu item) which does not include description about newest options but can be more helpful because it includes more information with examples and images.

 

Form

ParameterValue
Display Subject In Form Display or hide field Subject in form, set if field Subject will be required
Display Name In Form Display or hide field Name in form, set if field Name will be required
Display Email In Form Display or hide field Email in form, set if field Email will be required
Display Website In Form Display or hide field Website in form, set if field Website will be required
Display Content In Form Display or hide field Content in form, set if field Content will be required
Enable Javascript Editor Enable or disable javascript editor
Display Form Set if form should be displayed or not. If not then link to the form will be displayed (clicking on link will display the form)
Form Position Select the positon of the Phoca Guestbook form in the frontend
Form style Select the syle form the form

General

ParameterValue
Predefined Name If user will be not logged in, set the predefined name in input form Name. For example: Guest
Username Or Name Select which name should be displayed in Phoca Guestbook (Username or real name of the user)
Disable User Check Set if user check will be disabled. If yes, anonymous or not logged in users can post email and username which is registered by registered user (disabling this parameter is not recommended)
Review Item If yes, post will be displayed after the Administrator's approval
Send Email Send Email to (Super Users, Administrator, User, ...)
Date Format (l, d F Y | l, d F Y | l, d F Y H:i | d F Y | Y-m-d | d. F Y | d/m/y | d. m. Y) Set date format

View

ParameterValue
Display Posts Set if posts should be displayed or not. Phoca Guestbook with disabled posts can be used as e.g. contact form
Display Name In Post Display or hide name (username) in post box
Display Email In Post Display or hide email in post box
Display Website In Post Display or hide website in post box
Display Comments Set if comments should be displayed or not (only valid if display posts enabled)
Display Name In Reply Display or hide name (username) in Comment box
Display Subject In Reply Display or hide subject in Comment box
Display Email In Reply Display or hide email in Comment box
Display Website In Reply Display or hide website in Comment box
Display Date In Reply Display or hide date in Comment box
Show Pagination Unset if pagination should be hidden (Only limit values are shown)
Pagination Default Value Set default value for pagination
Pagination (Posts) Set pagination values for posts. Separate each pagination value with comma(,)
Can change limit User can change the pagination (limit) by dropdown.
Enable Cache Enable cache if it is enabled in Joomla! Global Configuration

Security

ParameterValue
Forbidden Words Set forbidden words, which will be not displayed in the frontend. Separate each word with a comma (,)
Forbidden Whole Words Set whole forbidden words, which will be not displayed in the frontend. Separate each word with a comma (,)
Save post with forb. words Set if post which includes forbidden words will be saved to guestbook (set action for forbidden words!!) or not
Display forbidden words Select action for items with forbidden words (Censorship = replace word with ***, do not use show)
Maximum Characters Set maximum number of characters, they can be saved in the database (Don't forget that e.g. URL link 'link' has not 4 characters but e.g. 39: (a href&;61;"https://www.link.xxx/")link(/a) )
Maximum Url Set maximum number of URL links that can be displayed in a message (0: no URL links will be displayed in messages, -1: all URL links will be displayed in messages, e.g. 3: Only three URL links of all URL links will be displayed in messages)
Not Allowed Url-words Set words, which will identify not allowed URLs within the post. Separate each word with comma (,). Example: ://,.htm,.asp,.jsp,.php,www.,.com,.org,.net
Save post with url Set if post which increase max url/include not allowed url words will be saved to guestbook
Enable HTML Purifier Enable or disable HTML Purifier
Session Suffix Set session suffix (It is a security feature to change the name of session, set unique suffix, for example: a100b20c3)

Content Check

Messages are validated online by send subject, name, email, content and ipaddr to the webservice. The provider can check the content and give a spam score.
Supported providers:

  • Akismet
    https://akismet.com/
  • mollom
    https://mollom.com
ParameterValue
Block Spam
(Content Check)
If reject, posts identified as spam will be completly denied. If review, the posts will be submitted and saved as an unpublished entry. If disabled no check is done
Akismet Spam Protection Sends all data of a new geustbook entry to the Akismet Webservice to check for possible spam
Akismet API Key Set Akismet API Key which is needed to use the Akismet-Spam-Protection service. Get yours at https://akismet.com/signup/#free
Akismet URL The main URL of your website. Is required for the correct performance of Akismet (URL must include https:// prefix)
Enable mollom
(content Check)
Sends all data of a new geustbook entry to the Mollom Webservice to check for possible spam
Mollom public key The public key from mollom (used for content check and captcha!)
Mollom private key The private key from mollom (used for content check and captcha!)

IP Address Check

The user IP Address is validated online from a webservice. The provider can check the address and give a spam score.
Supported providers:

  • Local list
    (no webservice)
  • StopforumSpam
    https://www.stopforumspam.com/
  • Honeypot
    https://www.projecthoneypot.org/
    https://www.projecthoneypot.org/httpbl_configure.php (blacklist)
  • Botscout (name and email not checked)
    https://botscout.com/
ParameterValue
Block bad IP Select action on receive post from banned IP Address
IP Ban Add the IP(s) you want to block, to the IP(s) Ban list. Separate each IP with a comma (,)
Enable StopForumSpam The ip address is checked via stopforumspam
Enable Honeypot The ip address is checked via Honeypot
Honeypot key Key from https://www.projecthoneypot.org/httpbl_configure.php
Enable BotScout The ip address is checked via BotScout
BotScout key Key from BotScout

Captcha

ParameterValue
Enable Captcha (Joomla Default Captcha | Standard Captcha | Math Captcha | TTF Captcha | reCAPTCHA | easyCalc | mollom | hnCaptcha) Enable or Disable Captcha Protection
Enable Captcha - Users Set if Captcha should be displayed for all or only for not registered users
Captcha URL (Relative path | Full path | Full path (no Itemid) | Relative path (no language prefix) | Full path (no language prefix) | Full path (no Itemid, no language prefix) | Relative path (no Itemid, no language prefix)) Set format of URL to Captcha image. Change this parameter only in case, captcha image is not displayed on your site.
Standard Captcha
Characters
Select Numbers, Lower Case Characters, Upper Case Characters which will be displayed in Standard Captcha image
Math Captcha Characters Select Numbers, Lower Case Characters, Upper Case Characters which will be displayed in Math Captcha image
TTF Captcha Characters Select Numbers, Lower Case Characters, Upper Case Characters which will be displayed in TTF Captcha image
HN Captcha Characters Select Numbers, Lower Case Characters, Upper Case Characters which will be displayed in HN Captcha image
HN Captcha Backgroud Select HN Captcha background style
reCAPTCHA Public Key Set reCAPTCHA Public Key which is needed to display reCAPTCHA code
reCAPTCHA Private Key Set reCAPTCHA Private Key which is needed to communicate reCAPTCHA server
reCAPTCHA Theme (Red (default) | White | Black glass | Clean) Set reCAPTCHA theme which is show for the guestbook
EasyCalc operator Select used operator (plus, minus) for calc captcha
EasyCalc operand Select number of operand for calculations (number of values)
Max. Value for EasyCalc Select the maximum value of each value (To string works only for numbers 1..20)
Negative values Allow neagtive values for easycalc captcha
Number as words Convert number to string (Works only for numbers 1..20)
Enable Hidden Field Enable or disable hidden field. Some spam bots try to fill all the fields on the site, if they fill this hidden field, which human does not see, the entry will be not added into the guestbook.
Enable time check If time check is enabled, the user cannot post the message after a few seconds (time defined below)
Time for lock Time for time check in seconds

Logging

 

ParameterValue
Enable logging Logs used captcha, remote content check etc.
Failed Logging If no, only published (or reviewed) items are saved. Attention: If set to yes, many entries will be written!!

Permissions

Default permissions used for all content in this component.

ParameterValue
Permissions