PHP Guestbooks- any suggestions?

[kzuich]

Heya, people! :D

I wanted to see if anybody here has implemented a PHP guestbook on their server. I don't feel comfortable enough with PHP/SQL yet to try and tackle coding one myself from scratch- the most I've done with PHP has been using it to populate certain portions of my site (like then navbar). My biggest problem is that I am concerned about the database aspect of it (sanitizing user input and the like...I'm just not familiar enough with that stuff to take that on and I don't want to open myself up to attacks).

I was hoping to implement a guestbook that I can host myself, rather than relying on a third-party service, especially in light of 123guestbook shutting down. I would also prefer not to rely on Google docs.

Am I crazy? Should I just stick to third-party guestbooks and embed it into my site? Or is this something anybody has done here before?

[Melooon]

I'm aware of Gecko's MiniGB! I haven't tested it so I'm not sure how stable it is, but the code looks pretty good! You can download the latest version here.

I'm sure there must be others out there too

[kzuich]

I'm aware of Gecko's MiniGB! I haven't tested it so I'm not sure how stable it is, but the code looks pretty good! You can download the latest version here.

I'm sure there must be others out there too

You are awesome, thank you! :)

[kzuich]

I wanted to post an update on the PHP guestbook front, I found out that Angora Guestbook received a ver 2.0 that will work with modern PHP and SQL. :) I've been testing it out locally, it's pretty cool! I'm not sure if it's what I'm going to go with, but I wanted to throw it out there!

The github is here if anyone is interested in checking it out!

[bby]

slight necro to chime in that there is gbook by phpjunkyard [demo]. i've been testing them out over at my site and i like it so far. i wanted something with smileys and i like how this uses the skype ones as default, which are some of my favorites. 

i didn't like how the guestbook is at gbook.php so i went through all the code and changed it so that the guestbook would just be at index.php since mine is hosted on a subdomain.

it's very simple and there's no admin panel just a password and it'll email you when someone signs it. i'm also enjoying messing around with the default template (i made the background black cause i prefer dark mode sites) and changing some of the language around.

also has spam prevention! i've only been playing this with a day so i can't comment too much on that feature but it's nice that it's included.

since i have to keep my php at 7.4 because i am using enthusiast for my fanlistings, i like how it doesn't require the latest php 8.

[kzuich]

Ooh, that's nice. I ought to give that whirl, too! I'll sign your guestbook, too, since you linked it.   

I'm using an embedded Bravenet guestbook at the moment but frankly I want to be able to self-host my guestbook solution.

Angora was cool, but there were a lot of things I wasn't wild about it and I found it a bit opaque to configure. I'm still too much of a PHP/SQL noob to comfortably go in there and mess around with it.

[cmdr_nova]

I made a guestbook that's initially mostly for Jekyll sites that runs on JavaScript and Python (and requires using some kind of server to communicate with your site), but I'm sure if you're savvy enough you can deconstruct it a little and use it anywhere

https://github.com/cmdr-nova/GuestPoast