2 Replies Latest reply: Jul 10, 2010 3:20 AM by Mylenium RSS

    Is it possiable to block email address from a form

    BearHNC Community Member

      I have developed a request form that is intended to create sales leads and my boss is afraid that it will be abused, is there a way that I can set a field to block addresses if this becomes a problem, or did we just open a flood gate? I am a WISWIG user when I try to apply java 90% of the time I fail, so if that is the case (which I assume it would be) can you please include comment tags instructing me on where I need to change field names and such.

      Thanks in advance.

        • 1. Re: Is it possiable to block email address from a form
          Nancy O. CommunityMVP

          You have to be plumb masochistic to publish an email address on a web site these days.  Sooner or later, your inbox will be so stuffed with spam mail you won't want to open it.

           

          You need a contact form connected to a Form-to-Email processing script.  These come in a variety of flavors depending on your server.  PHP, ASP, ColdFusion, Perl...   If unsure, contact your web host.  Often they have scripts you can use already installed on the server.  If not, the following links may be of interest to you.  And no, you can't do this without looking at code. 


          Form Mailer PHP from DB Masters

          If your server supports PHP, this Form-mailer script from DB Masters conceals your email address from prying eye email harvesters and it has spam controls built into its script -- including hidden field (honeypot), "sorta captcha,"  and time limits on submissions to keep robots from exploiting your forms.  One script can run all the forms on your domain. Free to use if you credit the author; $20 if you don't.

          http://dbmasters.net/index.php?id=4


          Forms to Go from Bebosoft (script generating software)
          http://www.bebosoft.com/products/formstogo/overview/

           

          Wufoo.com (on-line form service)
          http://wufoo.com/

           

           

          Nancy O.
          Alt-Web Design & Publishing
          Web | Graphics | Print | Media  Specialists
          http://alt-web.com/
          http://twitter.com/altweb

          • 2. Re: Is it possiable to block email address from a form
            Mylenium CommunityMVP

            Blocking addresses requires some form of code that does the filtering and verification, either locally with JavaScript or on the server backend with PHP, ASP etc.. Including human-readable mail addresses anywhere in the client-side HTML is indeed risky, so depending on how you built your form, you may want to look into alternatives. It may even be worthwile to install a blog system/ CMS liek WordPress or Joomla just for the benefit of using a good contact form plug-in with them and also otehrwise exploit their anti-spam tools.

             

            Mylenium