Comment Form & Board
Post date: May 11, 2011 3:39:40 PM
The comment system at the bottom of this page is a live example of my approach to viewers comments in Google Sites.
Comment Form
A form to receive comments
Insert
Click Edit page ► Insert ► More gadgets ► Public ► Search gadgets: "Comment Form" by Mori ► Select.
Some settings
- Google form key
- Go to the Comment Form & Board template ► click Use this template ► copy the form key, which is at the bottom of the page.
- For example: dEZzbmM1V21IdWcwYm9RWFNFeTJ1SVE6MA
- Speech bubble border color
- You can pick any HTML color and its darker/lighter shades.
- Form elements background image
- The default is a 1×50px gradient image. Feel free to use it or create yours.
- On submit
- As an alternative to displaying the confirmation message, you might want to reload the page. You can also redirect users to a custom 'thank you' page or anywhere else you wish.
- Width
- 800px, i.e. multi-line text field width:492px + single-line text fields width:244px + margins and borders:64px
- Include a border around gadget
- Uncheck it.
- Display title on gadget
- Uncheck it.
Comment Board
A guestbook to display comments
Insert
Click Edit page ► Insert ► More gadgets ► Public ► Search gadgets: "Comment Board" by Mori ► Select.
Note: As you see, Comment Form and Comment Board are two gadgets.
Some settings
- Google spreadsheet URL
- Go to your Google Drive ► open the template copy ► click File ► Publish to the web ► select Comments under Sheets to publish.
- Note: A common mistake to avoid is publishing All sheets.
- Uncheck Automatically republish when changes are made if you're going to moderate comments before they appear on the board and then manually republish them ► click Start publishing ► copy the generated link. For example:
- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Aliqp0kGPjWsdEZzbmM1V21IdWcwYm9RWFNFeTJ1SVE&single=true&gid=1&output=html
- Feed URL
- Select ATOM under Get a link to the published data ► copy the generated link and click Close. For example:
- https://spreadsheets.google.com/feeds/list/0Aliqp0kGPjWsdEZzbmM1V21IdWcwYm9RWFNFeTJ1SVE/od7/public/basic
- Option: Activate your feed at Google FeedBurner to get more subscription options and keep track of your statistics.
- Go to FeedBurner ► change https to http on your ATOM link and paste it ► click Next ► click Next ► copy the feed URL.
- For example: http://feeds.feedburner.com/google/fWTL
- Click Skip directly to feed management ► Publicize ► Email Subscriptions ► Activate.
- You're done although there are still many other things to customize on FeedBurner.
- Dynamic height
- Yes: Your gadget grows as users add comments.
- No: Specify a static height. The default value is 86px.
- Feed icon
- Like Admin & Viewers comment icons should be 16×16px.
- Include a border around gadget
- Uncheck it.
- Display title on gadget
- Uncheck it.
Hide Comments sheet
It makes your spreadsheet interface cleaner. But before that there are two things you might want to do:
Now select Hide sheet from the same menu.
Note: To unhide it at any time, click View ► Hidden sheets.
Format Source sheet
It improves the spreadsheet usability.
- Resize columns
- There are two ways to change column width:
- Highlight admin's comments
- Click on the Name column letter menu ► select Conditional formatting ► select Text is exactly from the drop-down menu ► enter the admin display name ► set a text color and/or cell background color ► click Save rules.
Get notifications
Here are a couple of options:
- Click Subscribe to comments to get updates in your feed reader or via email.
- Define a notification rule on the spreadsheet
- Click the Tools drop-down menu ► Notification rules ► check A user submits a form ► check Email - right away or Email - daily digest ► click Save ► Done.
Answer comments
Simply type in your answer on the row below the viewer's comment. If the row below is already filled, right-click the comment row number to highlight the entire row ► select Insert 1 below from the drop-down menu ► enter your comment.
Remove spam
Right-click the spam comment row number to highlight the entire row ► select Delete row from the drop-down menu.
Republish comments
After you've done moderating comments, click the File drop-down menu ► Publish to the web ► Republish now.
FAQ
- Can I customize the Comment Form and Board fields?
- This comment system includes four common fields (name, email, URL, comment) that you're not supposed to customize, add to or subtract from.
- Why don't comments appear on the board immediately?
- It can take Google servers a short time to republish spreadsheets as web pages. So here are the best things to do:
- Select Automatically republish when changes are made.
- Set Comment Form On submit to Reload the page.
- Put a notice like this above your form:
- Please reload the page shortly after submission if your comment doesn't appear immediately.
- Why isn't there the ATOM option under Get a link to the published data?
- It's a known issue in Google Apps accounts. As a workaround, invite your regular Google Account, e.g. you@gmail.com, to the spreadsheet as an editor, sign in to the spreadsheet through that account, and get the ATOM link.
- Do I need to make a new Comment Form & Board for each page?
- Yes. But to make things a little easier, create a page template including the gadgets and use it whenever you create a new page or even to change existing pages templates. Obviously, however, you'll need to customize some gadgets settings on each page.
- Do both gadgets need to be on the same page?
- No: one can be placed on page A and the other on page B; or you can even put just one of them on your site. Imagine you'd like to close comments for some reason, e.g. because your post/article is too old. Then simply remove Comment Form and leave Comment Board for review. Or you can embed Comment Form only, e.g. to keep comments private.
- Although these two gadgets are related, they can work independently.
DiscussPlease note that all posts are moderated.