Adding the Testimonials Component

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Adding the Testimonials Component

By featuring testimonials on your site, you can share positive feedback you receive from customers about your products, services, or company with all of your site visitors. Using the NetObjects Fusion Testimonials component, you can easily display customer-provided testimonials on your site. You can also offer visitors the opportunity to submit their own testimonials, which you can review before publishing them on the site.

The NetObjects Fusion Testimonials component consists of three components:

  • Add Testimonials, which adds a form to your site that visitors can use to submit testimonials.
  • View Testimonials, which displays the testimonials.
  • Admin Testimonials, which allows you to review, manage, and publish, the testimonials that have been submitted by visitors.

After you place the Add Testimonials and View Testimonials components on your pages, you can customize their appearance to complement your page design. Each of the three components must be placed on separate site pages to function properly.

The Add Testimonials Component

The Add Testimonials component creates a form on a page that visitors will complete to submit their testimonial. The testimonial will not appear on the View Testimonials page until it is reviewed in the Admin component area and validated.

To place the Add Testimonials component to a page and configure its settings:

  1. In Page view, from the Custom Components toolbox, select NOF Testimonials > Add Testimonials.
  2. Draw a box on the Layout to indicate where you want to position the Add Testimonials component.

The NOF Testimonials dialog appears.

  1. If you have not created a Component Suite, create a new one by typing a name for the suite in the New name field. To include the component as part of an existing suite, click the Existing radio button and select the Component Suite that you want to add the component to. See Using Component Suites.
  2. From the Profile drop-down list, select the settings profile that you want to use for the component. If you have not created a settings profile, the default profile will be used. See Creating Component Profiles.
  3. Click OK to close the NOF Testimonials dialog.

The Add Testimonials dialog appears.

  1. In the Add Testimonials dialog box, click the Design tab to configure the Add Testimonials page appearance.
  2. Customize the appearance of your Add Testimonials page by choosing a style template from the Style drop-down list.

The default theme is the SiteStyle theme that is used for the current Active SiteStyle. When selected, a preview for this theme is only available from the Style view. A short description of the selected style and a preview image of the additional themes will be displayed in the dialog box.

  1. Click the Settings tab and choose which optional fields that you want to appear on the testimonials form.
  • Click the E-mail check box to add a field on the Testimonials form in which visitors can enter their e-mail address and display it along with their testimonial.
  • Check the Picture check box to allow site visitors to upload a picture that can be published along with their testimonial. The picture should not be larger than 200kb.
  • Check the Enter the shown code check box to prevent automated form substitution.

Default fields that are required for successful form submission are dimmed in the Add Testimonials dialog. An asterisk will appear next to these form fields on a published site to indicate that the fields are required for submission.

  • Replace the default field text by selecting it and typing your desired text in the field.
  • Picture requirements text. If you choose to allow visitors to upload a picture to accompany their testimonial, enter the text that you want to appear below the picture upload field. The default text is Picture max size: 200 kb.
  • Notify on post. Select this box to be notified via e-mail when someone submits a testimonial. In the E-mail address field, enter a valid e-mail address to which notifications will be sent.
  • Character Font: Select a character font from the drop-down list. The preview will display the Captcha image.
  • Background color: Set the color of the background image.
  • Foreground color: Set the color of the characters.
  • Number of characters: Use the arrow buttons to set the number of characters that will be displayed in the Captcha image
  • Space left between characters: Use the arrow buttons to set the distance left between two characters of a string.
  • Alignments: Select how you prefer the Captcha image to be displayed: horizontally or vertically.
  • Top/Bottom padding: Use the arrow buttons to set the space between the image's borders and the characters.
  • Right/Left margin: Use the arrow buttons to set the space between the image's margins and the characters.
  1. Click the General tab to configure the general settings for the Add Testimonials page.

Script type displays either ASP or PHP, depending on settings from the General tab of the Current Site Options dialog.

  • Click the Publish scripts in debug mode check box to view in-depth troubleshooting information should the component not function properly when published.
  • Select the language (English or German) of your component script.
  • In the Database settings field, specify the flat file database file to which you want to store the testimonials. The default file is testimonials.csv.
  • Click the Wizard button to launch the DB Creation Wizard. See Using the DB Creation Wizard.

If you do not use the Wizard button next to the Database field and you leave ../db/testimonials.csv in the default value, then you will have to manually create the /db folder on the server (in the folder where you publish the site) and grant write permission to the /db folder.

  • Enter the Server (IP) address and Port of the server that will handle sending e-mails confirming testimonial submissions. Consult your host provider or site administrator to obtain this information.
  • In the E-mail field, enter the e-mail address to which you want testimonial submission notifications to be sent. You will receive an e-mail each time a site visitor submits a testimonial.
  • In the From field, enter the e-mail address from which you want to send visitors e-mails confirming that their testimonial has been successfully submitted.
  • If necessary check the smtp requires authentication check box and then fill in the Username and the Password fields with the SMTP user name and password.
  • Check the smtp requires ssl check box if the SMTP server requires a secure connection (SSL).

Note: Consult your host provider or site administrator to obtain details about the authentication and/or SSL possibly required by the SMTP server.

Note: The secure connection (SSL) and authentication for an SMTP server are used by some host providers to increase security and stem the flow of email messages propagating spam, viruses, and worms.

  1. To save the Add Testimonials Component settings as a profile that you can apply to additional NOF Testimonials that you add to your site, click Save Profile. See Creating Component Profiles.
  2. Click OK to close the Add Testimonials dialog.

The View Testimonials Component

Once you have placed the Add Testimonials component on a page of your site, you can add the View Testimonials component to display the testimonials on your site. You can modify the appearance of the View Testimonials component so that it complements your current page design.

To add the View Testimonials component to a page:

  1. In Page view, from the Custom Components toolbox, select NOF Testimonials > View Testimonials.
  2. Draw a box on the Layout to indicate where you want to position the View Testimonials Component.

The NOF Testimonials dialog appears.

  1. If you have not created a Component Suite, create a new one by typing a name for the suite in the New name field. To include the component as part of an existing suite, click the Existing radio button and select the Component Suite that you want to add the component to. See Using Component Suites.
  2. From the Profile drop-down list, select the settings profile that you want to use for the component. If you have not created a settings profile, the default profile will be used. See Creating Component Profiles.
  3. Click OK to close the NOF Testimonials dialog.

The View Testimonials dialog appears.

  1. In the Testimonials dialog box, customize the appearance of your View Testimonials page by choosing a style template from the Style drop-down list.

The default theme is the SiteStyle theme that is used for the current Active SiteStyle. When selected, a preview for this theme is only available from the Style view. A short description of the selected style and a preview image of the additional themes will be displayed in the dialog box.

  1. Click the Settings tab to configure the View Testimonial page settings.
  • Link text. Enter the text that will be displayed as a link to the Add Testimonials component. The default text is "Add Testimonial."
  • Select add testimonial page. Select the page on which the Add Testimonials component is placed so that visitors will be directed to the correct page when they click the Add Testimonial link.
  • Number of testimonials on page. Type in the number of testimonials that you want to appear on one page.
  1. Click the General tab to configure the View Testimonials general settings.

Script type displays either ASP or PHP, depending on settings from the General tab of the Current Site Options dialog.

  • Click the Publish scripts in debug mode check box to view in-depth troubleshooting information should the component not function properly when published.
  • Select the language (English or German) of your component script.
  • In the Database settings field, specify the flat file database file to which you want to store the testimonials. The default file is testimonials.csv.
  • Click the Wizard button to launch the DB Creation Wizard. See Using the DB Creation Wizard.

If you do not use the Wizard button next to the Database field and you leave ../db/testimonials.csv in the default value, then you will have to manually create the /db folder on the server (in the folder where you publish the site) and grant write permission to the /db folder.

  • Enter the Server (IP) address and Port of the server that will handle sending e-mails confirming testimonial submissions. Consult your host provider or site administrator to obtain this information.
  • In the E-mail field, enter the e-mail address to which you want testimonial submission notifications to be sent. You will receive an e-mail each time a site visitor submits a testimonial.
  • In the From field, enter the e-mail address from which you want to send visitors e-mails confirming that their testimonial has been successfully submitted.
  • If necessary check the smtp requires authentication check box and then fill in the Username and the Password fields with the SMTP user name and password.
  • Check the smtp requires ssl check box if the SMTP server requires a secure connection (SSL).

Note: Consult your host provider or site administrator to obtain details about the authentication and/or SSL possibly required by the SMTP server.

Note: The secure connection (SSL) and authentication for an SMTP server are used by some host providers to increase security and stem the flow of email messages propagating spam, viruses, and worms.

  1. To save the View Testimonials Component settings as a profile that you can apply to additional NOF Testimonials component that you add to your site, click Save Profile. See Creating Component Profiles.
  2. Click OK to close the View Testimonials dialog.

The Admin Testimonials Component

The Admin Testimonials component allows you to edit, delete, and manage submitted testimonials. You can also review the testimonials before publishing them to the site. The Admin Testimonials component is password-protected to restrict access by unauthorized users.

If you prefer, you can also place the Admin Testimonials component on a separate page of your site and exclude it from navigation so that it will not be seen by site visitors.

Adding the Admin Testimonials Component on a Page

  1. In Page view, from the Custom Components toolbox, select the NOF Testimonials > Admin Testimonials.
  2. Draw a box on the Layout to indicate where you want to position the Testimonials Component.

The NOF Testimonials dialog appears.

  1. If you have not created a Component Suite, create a new one by typing a name for the suite in the New name field. To include the component as part of an existing suite, click the Existing radio button and select the Component Suite that you want to add the component to. See Using Component Suites.
  2. From the Profile drop-down list, select the settings profile that you want to use for the component. If you have not created a settings profile, the default profile will be used. See Creating Component Profiles.
  3. Click OK to close the NOF Testimonials dialog.

The Admin Testimonials dialog appears.

  1. Configure the Admin settings in the Admin Testimonials dialog.
  2. On the General Settings tab, type the password that you want to use to log in to the Admin area and manage your testimonials.
  3. Click the General tab to configure the general settings for the Admin Testimonials page.
  • Click the Publish scripts in debug mode check box to view in-depth troubleshooting information should the component not function properly when published.
  • Select the language (English or German) of your component script.
  • In the Database settings field, specify the flat file database file to which you want to store the testimonials. The default file is testimonials.csv.
  • Click the Wizard button to launch the DB Creation Wizard. See Using the DB Creation Wizard.

If you do not use the Wizard button next to the Database field and you leave ../db/testimonials.csv in the default value, then you will have to manually create the /db folder on the server (in the folder where you publish the site) and grant write permission to the /db folder.

  • Enter the Server (IP) address and Port of the server that will handle sending e-mails confirming testimonial submissions. Consult your host provider or site administrator to obtain this information.
  • In the E-mail field, enter the e-mail address to which you want testimonial submission notifications to be sent. You will receive an e-mail each time a site visitor submits a testimonial.
  • In the From field, enter the e-mail address from which you want to send visitors e-mails confirming that their testimonial has been successfully submitted.
  • If necessary check the smtp requires authentication check box and then fill in the Username and the Password fields with the SMTP user name and password.
  • Check the smtp requires ssl check box if the SMTP server requires a secure connection (SSL).

Note: Consult your host provider or site administrator to obtain details about the authentication and/or SSL possibly required by the SMTP server.

Note: The secure connection (SSL) and authentication for an SMTP server are used by some host providers to increase security and stem the flow of email messages propagating spam, viruses, and worms.

  1. To save the Admin Testimonials settings as a profile that you can apply to additional NOF Testimonials components that you add to your site, click Save Profile. See Creating Component Profiles.
  2. Click OK to close the Admin Testimonials dialog.

Configuring Server-Side Settings

For the Testimonials features to function correctly on your site, configure server-side settings to ensure that the component functions correctly. Several components require that you have ability to grant permissions to files on the server to which the site is published. Contact your ISP for information on granting permissions.

After you publish your site on the server, go to the directory where you have published and in the scripts folder you must give write permission (chmod 757 /home/users/me/public_html/mysite/scripts). If you want to permit your site visitors to upload images on the page where you have placed the Testimonials Component, give write permission to the image folder from the scripts directory (chmod 757 /home/users/me/public_html/mysite/scripts/images).

Managing Testimonials on the Admin Testimonials Page

Once you have added each of the Testimonial component tools to your site, you will need to publish your site remotely to manage testimonials.

  1. On the published site, open the page containing the Admin Testimonials component tool in a browser window.
  2. When prompted, enter your admin password as created when the Admin Testimonials component was added to the page.

The Admin Testimonials page will display a table listing the testimonials that visitors have submitted, including the submitter's name, the date of submission, and the title of the testimonial.

  1. To review a testimonial, click the View link corresponding to the testimonial you want to view.

The selected testimonial will appear in the browser window.

  1. Click the Validate link below the testimonial to display the testimonial on the page containing the View Testimonials component.
  2. Click the Invalidate link below the testimonial if you do not want to display the testimonial.
  3. Click the Delete link to permanently remove a testimonial from your testimonials list.
  4. Click Logout to log out of the Admin Testimonials area.

You can also validate, invalidate, and delete testimonials directly on the testimonials list table. Click the Validity check box to validate all testimonials in the list at once.