ObfuscateExternalLinks

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Note: The recipes here are for PmWiki versions 0.6 and 1.0 only. For PmWiki 2.0 recipes, see Cookbook.

Goal

The goal of this add-on is to replace external urls by an obfuscated form. This should avoid/limit spam on wiki pages: the url won't appear in the page

Solution

The FmtUrlLink function is replaced. Each link is replaced by a string made of the hexadecimal value of each characters of the urls. Then the url is replaced by a redirection script able to decode this string.

for example, on my wiki, the following link:

http://www.pmwiki.org/wiki/CookBook/HomePage

is replaced by:

[(approve links) edit diff]....

Discussion

Copy the hide_external_link.php file into yout local directory. Copy the redirect.php script to a place where it is accessible (your pmwiki directory).
Edit your local/config.php file, add the following lines:

  $UrlWhiteList[] = 'www.your.site.web';
  $UrlWhiteList[] = 'www.othersite';
  $UrlWhiteList[] = 'www.pmwiki.org';
  $UrlWhiteList[] = 'www.pmichaud.com';

  $RedirectionScriptUrl='[(approve links)
  edit
  diff]';
  include_once("local/hide_external_links.php");

the UrlWhiteList array contains names of website that should not be obfuscated.
$redirectionScriptUrl is the url of the redirection script

History

18 June 2004: Creation
18 June 2004: 2nd version, no more modification to pmwiki.php is needed
21 June 2004: Compacter url coding used

Comments & Bugs

TODO: The white list could be loaded from a file or better, a wiki page.
BUG: ?? Some of the links being obfuscated are having their last letter changed.

I don't see why the huge random string is necessary, especially since a redirect is still a link to a target site and would most likely count as perfectly valid on search engines. -- Ari

I thought that url that do not appear clearly as plain text where not taken into account by web search engines? Bad news, I did this for nothing? :-(

Contributors

Gregory Watts ([(approve links) edit diff])

Copyright

pmwiki-2.3.38 -- Last modified by {{Gregory}}?

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