akismet spam checking of SFX Feedback targets

Tags: sfx
Last Updated: Oct 30, 2009 01:38

• Author: Jonathan Rochkind
• Year: 2008

• License: MIT
• Short description: Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
  of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
  in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
  to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
  copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
  furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
• Link to terms: MIT License

• Skill required for using this code:
  Choose one of the following: basic/technical

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Instructions

We were getting lots of spam through the SFX feedback page. It was a problem.

Trying to use Akismet to protect. Hacked the SFX feedback.cgi script to do so.

Install Perl akismet library

login as sfxglb3

Fix the cpan install to point at a valid mirror, reload cpan indexes (which are ancient and for some reason not updating automatically like supposed to), install akismet library.

$ cpan
cpan> o conf urllist shift
cpan> o conf urllist push http://mirror.uta.edu/CPAN
cpan> o conf commit
cpan> reload indexes
cpan> install Net::Akismet

Get an akismet key

Akismet confirmed that we can use akismet for free.

Subject:     Re: [akismet-pre-sales] Contact form
Date:     Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:53:25 +0000 (UTC)
From:     Mark <support+mark@akismet.com>
Reply-To:     support+mark@akismet.com
To:     rochkind@jhu.edu

rochkind@jhu.edu wrote:
> I work for Johns Hopkins University Libraries.
> I would like to use Akismet via the Perl module and the API to protect a
> contact form on our library website.
> It is unclear to me if I am allowed to use a free license in these
> circumstances? Can you please let me know what my licensing options are,
> and if a free license for a university is available.

Hi,

Using the key freely is perfectly fine.

--
Mark

To get an akismet key, one needs to register for a free account on wordpress.com.

The api key can be seen here after logging in: http://dashboard.wordpress.com/wp-admin/profile.php

Modify files

Break symbolic link for feedback.cgi. /exlibris/sfx_ver/sfx_version_3/[SFX:instance]/cgi/public/feedback.cgi should not be symbolic link, but own file.

Now edit feedback.cgi, to insert these lines at line 57 (immediately after if ($p->param('username') .... )

Changes

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Version 1.1 ....

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TO DO list

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Known issues

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Comments

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