/ 
Blog-Spam-1.0
/ Blog::Spam::API

NAME

Blog::Spam::API - A description of Blog-Spam XML-RPC API.

ABOUT

This document discusses the API which is presented by the Blog::Spam::Server. This API is exposed via XML-RPC such that it may be called by remote locations.

XML-RPC METHODS

The Blog::Spam::Server exposes several methods to clients from remote locations. The following methods are documented:

testComment

This is the method which is used to test a submitted comment from a blog or server.

getPlugins

This returns the names of the internal plugins we use - it is used such that a remote machine may selectively disable some of them.

getStats

Return the statistics for SPAM detection for a given domain.

classifyComment

This allows a limited amount of re-training for a submitted comment.

Each of these methods will be discussed in order of importance, and additional documentation is available online via http://api.blogspam.net/

API

testComment

The testComment method has the following XML-RPC signature:

string testComment( struct );

This means the method takes a "struct" as an argument, and returns a string. In Perl terms the struct is a hash.

When calling this method the hash of options may contain the following keys:

agent The user-agent of the submitting browser, if any.
comment The body of the comment
email The email address submitted along with the comment.
fail If this key is present your comment will always be returned as SPAM; useful for testing if nothing else. This handling is implemented by Blog::Spam::Plugin::fail.
ip The IP address the comment was submitted from.
name The name the user chose, if any.
subject The subject the user chose, if any.
options Customization options for the testing process, discussed in the section TESTING OPTIONS.

The only mandatory arguments are "comment" and "ip", the rest are optional but may be useful and it is recommended you pass them if you can. (Each key should be lower-cased.)

The return value from this method will either be "OK", or "SPAM".

Optionally a reason may be returned in the case a comment is judged as SPAM, for example:

SPAM:I don't like comments submitted before 9AM.

classifyComment

The classifyComment method has the following XML-RPC signature:

string classifyComment( struct );

This means the method takes a "struct" as an argument, and returns a string. In Perl terms the struct is a hash.

The keys to this method are identical to those in the testComment method - the only difference is that the "train" key is mandatory:

train Either "ok" or "spam" to train the comment appopriately.

If the comment was permitted to pass, but should have been rejected as SPAM set the train parameter to "spam".

getPlugins

The getPlugins method has the following XML-RPC signature:

array getPlugins( );

This means the method takes no arguments, and returns an array.

This method does nothing more than return the names of each of the plugins which the server has loaded.

These plugins are modules beneath the Blog::Spam::Plugin:: namespace, and the sample plugin provides a good example.

getStats

The getStats method has the following XML-RPC signature:

struct getStats( string );

This method returns a struct and takes a string as its only argument.

This method returns a hash containing two keys "OK" and "SPAM". These keys will have statistics for the given domain - or global statistics if the method is passed a zero-length string.

Note: The string here should match that given as the "site" key to the method testComment - as that is how sites are identified.

TESTING OPTIONS

You may pass the optional "options" key to the hash of arguments provided to the testComment method. This is useful to provide you with the ability to tune the behaviour of tests which are made.

This option string should consist of comma-separated tokens.

The permissible values are:

whitelist=1.2.3.0/24    - Whitelist the given IP / CIDR range.
blacklist=1.2.3.3/28    - Blacklist the given IP / CIDR range.

exclude=plugin          - Don't run the plugin with name "plugin".  (You may find a list of plugins via the getPlugins() method.)

mandatory=subject,email - Specify the given field should always be present.

max-links=20            - The maximum number of URLs, as used by L<Blog::Spam::Plugin::loadsalinks>

min-size=1024           - Minimum body size, as used by L<Blog::Spam::Plugin::size>.

min-words=4            - Minimum word count, as used by L<Blog::Spam::Plugin::wordcount>.

max-size=2k             - Maximum body size,  as used by L<Blog::Spam::Plugin::size>.

fail                    - Always return "SPAM".

These options may be repeated, for example the following is a valid value for the "options" setting:

mandatory=subject,mandatory=name,whitelist=1.2.3.4,exclude=surbl

That example will:

1. Make the "subject" field mandatory.

2. Makes the "name" field mandatory.

3. Whitelists any comments subitted from the IP 1.2.3.4

4. Causes the server to not run the surbl test.

AUTHOR

Steve Kemp

http://www.steve.org.uk/

LICENSE

Copyright (c) 2008-2010 by Steve Kemp. All rights reserved.

This module is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself. The LICENSE file contains the full text of the license.