NAME

Posy::Plugin::AntiSpambot - Posy plugin to obfustcate mail links.

VERSION

This describes version 0.61 of Posy::Plugin::AntiSpambot.

SYNOPSIS

    @plugins = qw(Posy::Core
	...
	Posy::Plugin::AntiSpambot));
    @actions = qw(init_params
	...
	set_config
	anti_spambot_show_mail
	...
    );
    @entry_actions = qw(header
	    ...
	    parse_entry
	    anti_spambot_obscure_mail
	    ...
	);

DESCRIPTION

The aim of this plugin is to frustrate the attempts of spambots to harvest email addresses from your website, by concealing them by altering mailto: links according to a given policy. The choice of concealment policy is up to you.

Policies:

spell

Convert the link to plain text where the email is spelled out; the @ sign is converted to ' at ' and the '.' parts are converted to ' dot '.

cgi_link

Convert the mailto link to a link to the Posy cgi script with two parameters -- the username and the domain of the original email address. When someone clicks on the link, AntiSpambot will then interpret these parameters correctly and display a special page which contains the original mailto: link. Because the spambot didn't know that the cgi_link was for email, it doesn't harvest the email address from the cgi link, and the user is only slightly inconvenienced.

form

This is just like cgi_link above, but instead of putting the parameters into a link (which might be parsed by the spambot) it puts it into a form (which spambots are less likely to parse). And you get a button for folks to click on.

Activation

Add the plugin to the plugin list.

This plugin creates an 'anti_spambot_obscure_mail' entry action, which should be placed after 'parse_entry' in the entry_action list. If you are using the Posy::Plugin::ShortBody plugin, this should be placed after 'short_body' in the entry_action list, not before it.

This plugin also creates an 'anti_spambot_show_mail' action which will check the incoming parameters and display a special page with a mailto: link. It needs to be placed after set_config in the action list, as it checks config variables.

Configuration

This expects configuration settings in the $self->{config} hash, which, in the default Posy setup, can be defined in the main "config" file in the config directory.

anti_spambot_policy

The policy to use on email links. By setting different configs in different directories, you can change this on a per-directory basis.

anti_spambot_at

The string to replace the '@' sign with if using the 'spell' policy. (default: ' at ')

anti_spambot_dot

The string to replace the '.' with if using the 'spell' policy. (default: ' dot ')

anti_spambot_prefix

The string to prefix the email with if using the 'spell' policy. (default: <)

anti_spambot_suffix

The string to append to the email if using the 'spell' policy. (default: >)

anti_spambot_user_param

The name of the parameter to define the user if using the 'cgi_link' or 'form' policy. There is deliberately no default for this, because everyone ought to define their own parameter, so that the spambots can't figure out a pattern.

anti_spambot_domain_param

The name of the parameter to define the domain if using the 'cgi_link' or 'form' policy. There is deliberately no default for this, because everyone ought to define their own parameter, so that the spambots can't figure out a pattern.

anti_spambot_message

A message to put on the special page which displays the mailto: link when using the 'cgi_link' or 'form' policy. (default: '<p>Sorry for the extra click, but this prevents email harvesting.</p>')

OBJECT METHODS

Documentation for developers and those wishing to write plugins.

init

Do some initialization; make sure that default config values are set.

Flow Action Methods

Methods implementing actions.

anti_spambot_show_mail

$self->anti_spambot_show_mail($flow_state)

If the AntiSpambot parameters are present, display a special page with a mailto: link.

Entry Action Methods

Methods implementing per-entry actions.

anti_spambot_obscure_mail

$self->anti_spambot($flow_state, $current_entry, $entry_state)

Alters $current_entry->{body} by substituting mail links with obfustcated links.

Private Methods

_anti_spambot_do_spell

Return the stuff to be substituted in found links.

_anti_spambot_spell_out

Spell out one mail address subsituting just the at and dots.

_anti_spambot_do_link

Return the stuff to be substituted in found links.

INSTALLATION

Installation needs will vary depending on the particular setup a person has.

Administrator, Automatic

If you are the administrator of the system, then the dead simple method of installing the modules is to use the CPAN or CPANPLUS system.

cpanp -i Posy::Plugin::AntiSpambot

This will install this plugin in the usual places where modules get installed when one is using CPAN(PLUS).

Administrator, By Hand

If you are the administrator of the system, but don't wish to use the CPAN(PLUS) method, then this is for you. Take the *.tar.gz file and untar it in a suitable directory.

To install this module, run the following commands:

perl Build.PL
./Build
./Build test
./Build install

Or, if you're on a platform (like DOS or Windows) that doesn't like the "./" notation, you can do this:

perl Build.PL
perl Build
perl Build test
perl Build install

User With Shell Access

If you are a user on a system, and don't have root/administrator access, you need to install Posy somewhere other than the default place (since you don't have access to it). However, if you have shell access to the system, then you can install it in your home directory.

Say your home directory is "/home/fred", and you want to install the modules into a subdirectory called "perl".

Download the *.tar.gz file and untar it in a suitable directory.

perl Build.PL --install_base /home/fred/perl
./Build
./Build test
./Build install

This will install the files underneath /home/fred/perl.

You will then need to make sure that you alter the PERL5LIB variable to find the modules, and the PATH variable to find the scripts (posy_one, posy_static).

Therefore you will need to change: your path, to include /home/fred/perl/script (where the script will be)

PATH=/home/fred/perl/script:${PATH}

the PERL5LIB variable to add /home/fred/perl/lib

PERL5LIB=/home/fred/perl/lib:${PERL5LIB}

REQUIRES

Posy
Posy::Core

Test::More

SEE ALSO

perl(1). Posy

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests to the author.

AUTHOR

Kathryn Andersen (RUBYKAT)
perlkat AT katspace dot com
http://www.katspace.com

COPYRIGHT AND LICENCE

Copyright (c) 2005 by Kathryn Andersen http://www.katspace.com

Based in part on the Nomailto.pl script Written by Greg Mullane <greg AT turnstep DOT com> http://www.turnstep.com/Spambot/

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.