protect e-mail addresses from bots

[wkilc]

Hi all,

 

I use a script that for a member directory that grabs, amongst other things, member e-mail addresses, and then displays them as part of the member directory.

 

while ($row = mysql_fetch_object($result)) {
$snre_eMail=$row->eMail;
echo "<td><a href='mailto:$eMail'>$eMail</a></td>";

 

I know how to use JavaScript and/or unicode to hide e-mail for a "static" (hard-coded) address... but can anyone help me apply that to all these addresses pulled from the MySQL db?  For instance, can we tell it to translate the "@" to its unicode equivalent "@" before echoing the address, just for some basic protection?

 

Thanks.

[Psycho]

Take a look at this thread: http://www.phpfreaks.com/forums/index.php?topic=339003.msg1598048#msg1598048

[wkilc]

Thank you.  I'm seeing a lot of ways to manually protect individual addresses... but I'm looking for a way to replace some characters dynamically as they're pulled from the db.

 

I thought I was on to something here, but I'm getting a syntax error.

 

while ($row = mysql_fetch_object($result)) {
$eMail=$row->eMail;
$NEWeMail = str_replace("@", "&#64", $eMail);
echo "<td><a href='mailto:$NEWeMail'>$NEWeMail</a></td>";

[Jumpy09]

I thought that using the code was just another way to display the same thing, even if you use the code "&#64" isn't it still visually and identically the same thing as @?  If you copy the code, it still copies as @.

 

Most places use email at site dot com, and do relatively fine.  What syntax error are you getting?

[wkilc]

Thanks again.  This is what I've come up with:

 

while ($row = mysql_fetch_object($result)) {
$eMail=$row->eMail;

$unsafe = array("@", ".com", ".edu", ".net"); 
$safer = array("&#64", ".com", ".edu");
$NEWeMail = str_replace($unsafe, $safer, $eMail);
echo "<td><a href='mailto:$NEWeMail'>$name</a></td>";

 

I'm going to display the name rather than the e-mail address, then use the unicode to relpace the "@" and the ".com", ".net", etc... in the domain name in the link source code.

 

Then again, I may just protect the entire page as well...

[Jumpy09]

You may want to read up on http://www.unicom.com/blog/entry/173 because it states that HTML Entities for obscuring your email address doesn't work.  However if you HTML Entity the Mailto link itself, it may fool a few bots.

 

Technically it is your call, but I wouldn't see why it would work.

 

Edit: This was documented back in 2003, and there has been just about 8 years of advancement for bots.  Once again it is your call.