BotScout for Joomla 1.5.11

[topcat]

I read the post at joomla.org about developing something for joomla 1.5  I'm getting hit 8-10 times a day with nuisance registrations.  Can you help me get the boyscout API into my registration php.  I am not a coder but I follow directions well, and I don't get frustrated (at least not easily).  Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Also could someone tell me what is the purpose of spam registration?  Why do they do it?  Can it be harmful for my site?

[Mike]

I read the post at joomla.org about developing something for joomla 1.5  I'm getting hit 8-10 times a day with nuisance registrations.  Can you help me get the boyscout API into my registration php.  I am not a coder but I follow directions well, and I don't get frustrated (at least not easily).  Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Are you familiar (or comfortable) with editing files on your site/server? I'm not familiar with Joomla per se, but I think we could figure out where to put the line that calls the BotScout system.

Also could someone tell me what is the purpose of spam registration?  Why do they do it?  Can it be harmful for my site?

There are lots of reasons why they do it, but mostly just to spam links into your site to sell their crap (pills, porn. weight loss junk, etc)  and to try and get a better rank in Google.

[topcat]

Yes, I can edit files.  Lets give it a shot.

[Mike]

Yes, I can edit files.  Lets give it a shot.

Okay. The first thing we'll need is for you to find where the login form (or whatever form you want to protect) is located, and find the form input names. Typically something like 'username' and 'password'. If you can provide a URL to the form, we should be able to determine what the input names are.

The second thing is to determine what page that form submits to. Again, with the URL of the form we can probably find that without any difficulty.

Finally, we'll need to look at the code on the submit-to page to see where to intercept the input fields. We'll do that after we get the first two items figured out.

[MysteryFCM]

I grabbed a copy of the latest Joomla source, and strangely, can't find the registration/login forms. I've not actually installed it yet though (latest windows updated crippled the system before I had the chance), but will do in a bit, and see if I can find the files the long way round.

[Mike]

Actually, I think  all we need is a URL to a working install similar to TopCat's and we can see it in the page source.

I grabbed a copy of the latest Joomla source, and strangely, can't find the registration/login forms. I've not actually installed it yet though (latest windows updated crippled the system before I had the chance), but will do in a bit, and see if I can find the files the long way round.

[MysteryFCM]

I'll get it setup

Arguing with PHP+IMAP myself atm (got everything working fine - except pagination, lol)

[Mike]

I hear ya...I'm busy modifying a parenting calendar app to show a special event class as a div with a striped .gif background.

I'll get it setup

Arguing with PHP+IMAP myself atm (got everything working fine - except pagination, lol)

[topcat]

Sorry bout the delay. the address to the site is www.topcatlive.com.  The page source code should give the info being requested

[Mike]

Okay....the registration form is here:

http://www.topcatlive.com/index.php?option=com_user&lang=en&view=register

You're trying to protect the registration form and keep bots from registering, right? If so, then the three params you want are:

name
username
email

I don't now what the difference is between "name" and "username"...can you tell us what the difference is?? You'll probably just need one or the other, and the email.

[topcat]

Name is actual name and only seen in backend by administrator.  Username can be seen by all browsers.

[Mike]

Okay....so now we need the page itself so we can look at where to put the line of code that calls the botscout file. Can you send us the index.php file? There may be some other files it includes, but that's the one we'll need to start. PM me if you want an email address to send it to.

Name is actual name and only seen in backend by administrator.  Username can be seen by all browsers.

[topcat]

Check message box.

[purplepomegranite]

I've only just come across Botscout, and am about to incorporate it into my Joomla site.  I have written a plugin already that uses undisposable.net to verify email addresses.  I will be releasing an update this weekend that includes a Botscout check as well.  It is much easier to add this to a Joomla plugin than start to hack the core files (which will be broken on an update).

Download location for the existing plugin: http://www.cedit.biz/joomla-extensions/22-block-disposable-email-addresses.html

The new version will be at the same place at some point over the weekend, so you'll easily be able to verify your registrations against Botscout.

[Mike]

Wow, thank you, purplepomegranite! I'm sure a lot of folks will find your plugin useful. I'll go ahead and add your download location to the list of plugins so more people can find it.

And again, Thank You!

I've only just come across Botscout, and am about to incorporate it into my Joomla site.  I have written a plugin already that uses undisposable.net to verify email addresses.  I will be releasing an update this weekend that includes a Botscout check as well.  It is much easier to add this to a Joomla plugin than start to hack the core files (which will be broken on an update).

Download location for the existing plugin: http://www.cedit.biz/joomla-extensions/22-block-disposable-email-addresses.html

The new version will be at the same place at some point over the weekend, so you'll easily be able to verify your registrations against Botscout.