Installing Blogcomments

Requirements for using ASP blogcomments:

• Some experience with website publishing and HTML
• A webserver with active server pages capabilities, or access to an ASP webhost like Brinkster.

Installing the script

Installing the script is easy. If you own your own webserver you will know how to make a new application in Microsoft Internet Information Server for an ASP application; if you use an ASP webhosting service, don't worry.

Copy the pages in the zip file to a directory on the webserver, for instance called Blogcomments. Install the database file in its own directory or in the same directory. In my example I will assume the database blogcomment.mdb is installed in a subdirectory of Blogcomments, called db.

The list of files that have to be in the ZIP file:

• comment.asp
• comments.css
• constants.asp
• db_action.asp
• errorpage.asp
• generalfunctions.asp
• readout.asp
• blogcomment.mdb (in the db directory)

Configuring the ASP commenting system

There is a minimum of fuss involved to configure the commenting system properly. You have to tell the script where the database can be found. Open the file called constants.asp in a text editor, like notepad. Look for the line saying:

Const LOCATION = "{pathname}/blogcomment.mdb"

change {pathname} to the path pointing to the blogcomment.mdb database. In the example setup of the ZIP file the database is located in a subdirectory called db, so the resulting line would be:

Const LOCATION = "db/blogcomment.mdb"

Special note for Brinkster users: read additional instructions please!

Calling the comments page

You have to call the comments in a particular way. I will show the line needed if you use Blogger:

<a href="http://{my-url}/comment.asp?id=<$BlogItemNumber$>" target="_blank">comments</a>

Replace {my-url} with the path to the commentspage.

If you do not have Blogger, make sure the link to call the comments page looks like:

<a href="http://{my-url}/comment.asp?id=1" target="_blank">comments</a>

where the number 1 after id= can be a number that you add manually for every entry or is generated by a piece of programming that you make yourself.

Aditional layout settings

Text

You can change some of the standard texts used on the page, apart from adding your own lines in the ASP files themselves. All the text can be altered in the file called constants.asp. There are four lines:

Const THANKYOU = "Thank you for taking the effort to add a comment. I do appreciate it."
Const ADDNAME = "Please, add your name"
Const ADDCOMMENT = "If you want to add a comment, you could make the effort to actually write one"
Const TITLEPAGE = "{insert title}"

The TITLEPAGE contant is the title you will see at the top of the page. Change {insert title} to a title text of your choice.

The text behind the constants ADDNAME and ADDCOMMENT will be shown to people who attempt to submit a comment without filling the name and comment fields of the form on the page.

The text behind the constant THANKYOU is the line of text people will see after they have submitted a comment.

Changing appearances

The layout of the comments page is very flexible. I have used the power of CSS to make the setup as flexible as possible. If you don't know how to alter CSS statements you can use the standard layout or ask someone knowledgeable. If you know your way around CSS please read the tutorial.

Reading comments

There is a readout page provided.

http://{my-url}/readout.asp

If you type in the URL of the commenting pages for {my-url}, you can see all comments in the database. Just for your convenience.

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