Digital Epiphany Blog

Prevent Spam without Captcha

admin — Mon, 10 May 2010 23:13:22 +0000

The following will show you how to prevent spam without the use of those annoying captcha images. I use javascript, which according to W3C, approximately 95% of the people browsing the web have it enabled. The odds of one of your visitors having it disabled is slim. If it does concern you however, you could always place a notice to turn on javascript before using the form or you could always use another method, just place the other method in tags.

Below is how you could prevent spam with simple javascript.

TESTED IN THE LATEST BROWSERS: Internet Explorer 8.x, Firefox 3.x, Chrome 4.x, Safari 4.x

Step 1: Create a separate javascript file and link to it in the section of your page. I will call my file “formvalidation.js” and I will link to it from my form page “form.html”.

Example of the “head” section of “form.html”:

View Code HTML

  
     
  
  
  Your form would be here.

Step 2: Remove the form’s action=”" attribute

Some Spam bots will submit directly to the form’s source, this step prevents that.

Example of the form’s attributes:

View Code HTML

Step 3: Add some simple requirements to our form. I will use first name and last name.

Example:

View Code HTML

Step 4: Add a hidden field called “human” and set its value to “0″. We will change this value once we determine a human is filling out the form.

Example:

View Code HTML

Step 5: On one of your required fields, add a javascript function to call once something is typed into it. This verifies that a human is filling out the form. I will place it on the “Last Name” field.

View Code HTML

Step 6: Make the form submit button execute a javascript function that will check all the required fields, verify that a human submitted the form, and then submit the form for processing.

Example:

View Code HTML

Step 7: Add the following Javascript to your Javascript file “formvalidation.js”. These two javascript functions, “validateHuman” and “submitForm” will do all the work of preventing spam.

validateHuman – changes the “human” form element to another number once a person has typed into your required field.

submitForm – validates the required form elements have been filled in, checks to see the value of “human” has changed, and then submits the form for processing.

View Code JAVASCRIPT

 
function submitForm(frm){
 
  //Check is the visitor's browser supports the javascript function
  if (document.forms[frm]) {
    //START function executed
 
	//we will now check to see if all required fields were filled in
    var error = '';
 
	if(document.forms[frm].elements['req_id'] != null || document.forms[frm].elements['req_id'] != '') {
        //store all of the required fields into "reqs"
		var reqs=document.forms[frm].elements['req_id[]'];
        //count the number of required fields
		var nbr_fields = reqs.length;
        //set a variable "req" to make sure all the "reqs" stay true
		var req = true;
		//loop through all the required fields, making sure they are not blank
		for(var i=0;i<nbr_fields;i++){
		  if(document.forms[frm].elements[reqs[i].value].value.length <= 0){
		   //the field is blank
		   req = false;
		   //list what field has been left blank to inform the user
		   if (reqs[i].value == 'first_name') error += "\n - First Name";
		   if (reqs[i].value == 'last_name') error += "\n - Last Name";
          }
        }
 
        //if all required fields are filled in
		//and the "human" form element has changed
		//submit the form
		if(req==true && document.forms[frm].elements['human'].value == '42'){
            document.forms[frm].action = "http://somewebsite.com/submit.php";
			document.forms[frm].submit();
            return true;
        } else {
          alert('Opps, it looks like some fields are blank:\n'+error);
          return false;
        }
        return false
     }
 
    //END function executed
  } else { 
    //START the browser does not support the function
    alert('Your browser lacks the capabilities required to run this script!\n\nPlease call 555-555-5555 and we will gladly take your information over the phone.');
    //END the browser does not support the function
  }
 
}
 
function validateHuman(frm){
	document.forms[frm].elements['human'].value = "42";
}

That’s it! Your form should now prevent spam bots from submitting directly to it. Below is just a total picture of how “form.html” will look according to this demo.

Example of form.html:

View Code HTML

 




Example Form


 

 




First Name: 

Last Name:

Google Apps Free Standard Account

admin — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 13:23:07 +0000

A number of times now I have had to relocate the link to set up google apps standard or google apps basic (the free version of google apps) on a few domains. So I figured I would post the link here to save me in my searching. I’m sure it may be helpful to others as well.

Google Apps Standard: http://www.google.com/apps/intl/en/group/index.html

Whenever I go to the Google Apps site I always find the premier edition no problem, they hid the free version link real well. Sneaky little googlers!

Use PHP to proportionally scale an image

admin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 19:06:11 +0000

I wrote the following function to proportionally scale images that I was pulling from a directory.

View Code PHP

 
function img_size($img,$alt) {
 
  list($width,$height) = getimagesize($img);
 
  $maxwidth = 140; //set max width here
 
  if ($width > $maxwidth) {
	$i = $width - $maxwidth;
	$x = $width - $i;
	$percent = $maxwidth/$width;
  }
  else
  {
    $x = $width;
    $percent = 1;
  }
 
  $y = $percent * $height;
 
  $img_src = '.$img.'" width="'.$x.'" height="'.$y.'" alt="'.$alt.'" border="0" />';
 
  return $img_src;
}
 
echo img_size('http://somesite.com/image.jpg', 'some alt text'); 
//result

MySQL, UPDATE data into a database using CONCAT()

admin — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 18:46:16 +0000

To insert data into a MySQL database while preserving the already existing data, you will just concatenate your new data to the end of your existing data.

Below is an example of how to do it using the column “changelog” which is used to keep track of changes made to the row/record.

View Code MYSQL

UPDATE table1 SET changelog=CONCAT(changelog,"new data") WHERE id='idnumber'

If you would like the data that you are entering to appear at the beginning of the existing data, simply flip the concatenation, example:

View Code MYSQL

UPDATE table1 SET changelog=CONCAT("new data",changelog) WHERE id='idnumber'

MySQL DELETE with a Max() Subquery

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:50:42 +0000

Here is another nifty way to use a Subquery when deleting a record from your MySQL table.

View Code MYSQL

DELETE FROM table1 WHERE id = '1' && saleid='345' 
	                  && slot = (SELECT MAX(slot) FROM table1)

MySQL INSERT with a Max()+1 Subquery

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 20:47:44 +0000

This was a pain in my ass to figure out so I figured I would post it here in case anyone else needs to insert a record using a Max()+1 Subquery.

I only use the Max()+1 Subquery when the value you want to increase is not the primary key.

View Code MYSQL

INSERT INTO table (row1, row2, row3)
    SELECT 1 + COALESCE((SELECT MAX(row1) FROM table), 0), 'value2', 'value3'

Latitude and Longitude of a location using Javascript and Google

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 18:54:50 +0000

The following Javascript will help you acquire the latitude and longitude of a location (using an address, zip code, or city).

Note: You will need to have a Google API key which is domain specific.

Place the following code in the section:

View Code JAVASCRIPT

var geocoder;
geocoder = new GClientGeocoder();
 
function submitForm() {
  var address = document.getElementById("address").value + ", " + document.getElementById("city").value + ", " + document.getElementById("state").value + ", " + document.getElementById("zip").value;
  geocoder.getLocations(address, getCoords);
}
 
function getCoords(response) {
  if (!response || response.Status.code != 200) {
    alert("Unable to Create Lat and Lng for plotting.");
  } else {
    place = response.Placemark[0];
    var lat = place.Point.coordinates[1];
	var lng = place.Point.coordinates[0];
  }
 alert("Lat:"+lat+" - Lng:"+lng);
}

Here is the HTML that was used to pass the data:

View Code HTML

Address: 
 
City: 
 
State: 
 
Zip:

Latitude and Longitude of a location using PHP and Google

admin — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:55:14 +0000

The following PHP code will help you acquire the latitude and longitude of a location (using an address, zip code, or city).

Note: Your will be required to have your own domain specific Google API key.

View Code PHP

if ($_POST['address']) {
 
$key = ' '; //you will need yo use your own domain specific API key
 
$address = stripslashes($_POST['address']);
 
$addressurl = urlencode($address);
 
$location = file("http://maps.google.com/maps/geo?q=".$addressurl."&output=csv&key=".$key);
 
list ($stat,$acc,$lat,$lng) = explode(",",$location[0]);
 
echo "LAT:".$lat." - LNG:".$lng;
 
}

Below is the HTML code which used a form to submit the address to the above PHP.

View Code HTML

Ai for Connect Four – Half way there

admin — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 01:40:56 +0000

Well, first monumental task of world domination is half-way over. I have created my first Ai!!

Nothing to be to proud of compared to the masters, but it is getting there.

Right now Ai is about in grade 8. About to take the first big step to High School but still loving being a kid.

Ai can recognize when he has chips in a row and place them to win. He even knows when he has two in a row and to set up for a third one. Talk about a boy genious right?

I still need to program him to stop the person from winning, but that is comming shortly and should be done within the week.

~dc

Created Connect Four with XNA game engine

admin — Fri, 29 May 2009 16:20:57 +0000

I have successfully tought myself C# in conjunction with the XNA game engine! Woot!The first version of the “Connect Four” game is out and ready for download. See the game design section of the site for the file.This version only allows 1 vs 1 game play. The options menu does not work as of right now. A “cat’s game” is also not recognized.In the future, I will add an AI oppenent that the player will be able to face. Should I have time, I will make the AI vary in difficulty.