Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Hi

I am creating a company website. On almost each page there is an
emailadres with the mailto: in the a href tag. My company want this
adres not to be visible through the html source code ( so that bots
cannot read the emailaddress from the source code from the internet).

What is the simplest way to do this? Do I have to create javascript
function that is triggered from the a href tag, and the javascript
function opens an email with the adres in it?

Regards

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Scripsit Harry Bellafonte:

> I am creating a company website. On almost each page there is an
> emailadres with the mailto: in the a href tag.

That's questionable. What will they do when the addresses change? It might
not be a problem if they have content management that lets them change an
address in one place only and have this reflected everywhere on the site,
via some authoring, preprocessing, or dynamic generation software.

> My company want this
> adres not to be visible through the html source code ( so that bots
> cannot read the emailaddress from the source code from the internet).

That's clueless, but if that's what they want, they can remove their
addresses, just as they can remove their phone numbers from catalogues to
prevent prank calls, their postal addresses from everywhere to prevent junk
mail, etc.

> What is the simplest way to do this?

Remove the web site. (You asked for the _simplest_ way, didn't you?)

> Do I have to create javascript
> function that is triggered from the a href tag, and the javascript
> function opens an email with the adres in it?

And wait for spammers to use tools that interpret JavaScript?

Just tell them to make up their mind. Either use the Internet, or stay away
from it. In the former case, stay tuned to getting spam. Deal with it.
There's a lot of software to filter out spam. Just preventing some address
harvesting, at the cost of aggravating your customers and making your site
crappy, wouldn't stop them from getting spam.

--
Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

On 13 nov, 10:49, "Jukka K. Korpela" wrote:
> Scripsit Harry Bellafonte:
>
> > I am creating a company website. On almost each page there is an
> > emailadres with the mailto: in the a href tag.
>
> That's questionable. What will they do when the addresses change? It might
> not be a problem if they have content management that lets them change an
> address in one place only and have this reflected everywhere on the site,
> via some authoring, preprocessing, or dynamic generation software.
>
> > My company want this
> > adres not to be visible through the html source code ( so that bots
> > cannot read the emailaddress from the source code from the internet).
>
> That's clueless, but if that's what they want, they can remove their
> addresses, just as they can remove their phone numbers from catalogues to
> prevent prank calls, their postal addresses from everywhere to prevent junk
> mail, etc.
>
> > What is the simplest way to do this?
>
> Remove the web site. (You asked for the _simplest_ way, didn't you?)
>
> > Do I have to create javascript
> > function that is triggered from the a href tag, and the javascript
> > function opens an email with the adres in it?
>
> And wait for spammers to use tools that interpret JavaScript?
>
> Just tell them to make up their mind. Either use the Internet, or stay away
> from it. In the former case, stay tuned to getting spam. Deal with it.
> There's a lot of software to filter out spam. Just preventing some address
> harvesting, at the cost of aggravating your customers and making your site
> crappy, wouldn't stop them from getting spam.
>
> --
> Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Hi Jukka

I understand your reaction. Each page has different email addresses on
it. This is what the company wants. I cannot tell them to remove the
addresses just because it is useless to prevent it from being used by
spammers. I need a good solution ( even if it is not 100% spamsafe)
not to show the email address in the source code but still visible via
the webpage.

Maybe that someone else can help me.

Regards

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Harry Bellafonte schrieb:
ybe that someone else can help me.

I tried a lot of hint from the internet. Nothing of them with "click and
write" helped for a long time, except making a picture with the e-mail
address but that's not "click and write" - the user is not able to
click onto the e-mail address to write one.

Regards Knut

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

On 2007-11-13, Harry Bellafonte wrote:

[...]

> I understand your reaction. Each page has different email addresses on
> it. This is what the company wants. I cannot tell them to remove the
> addresses just because it is useless to prevent it from being used by
> spammers. I need a good solution ( even if it is not 100% spamsafe)
> not to show the email address in the source code but still visible via
> the webpage.

I would not go so far as to describe it as a _good_ solution but some
have tried:

http://www.addressmunger.com/

There is an interesting discussion at:

http://nikitathespider.com/articles/IngenReklamTack.html

I have personally used numeric character references, it is ugly and
goes against many sound principles but appears to be an effective
barrier against _most_ spam.

Andrew

--
Now I can praise him, now that I can stand by to mourn
and speak before this web that killed my father; yet
I grieve for the thing done, the death, and all our race.
I have won; but my victory is soiled, and has no pride.

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

"Harry Bellafonte" wrote in message
news:1194940747.283823.98260@v65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...
> Hi
>
> I am creating a company website. On almost each page there is an
> emailadres with the mailto: in the a href tag. My company want this
> adres not to be visible through the html source code ( so that bots
> cannot read the emailaddress from the source code from the internet).
>
> What is the simplest way to do this?

Did you ever think to try googling? "obfuscate email address" will do.

Couple of million hits.

--
Richard.

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Harry Bellafonte wrote:

> What is the simplest way to do this? Do I have to create javascript
> function that is triggered from the a href tag, and the javascript
> function opens an email with the adres in it?

http://examples.tobyinkster.co.uk/email-hide

--
Toby A Inkster BSc (Hons) ARCS
[Geek of HTML/SQL/Perl/PHP/Python/Apache/Linux]
[OS: Linux 2.6.12-12mdksmp, up 6 days, 22:54.]

TrivialEncoder/0.2
http://tobyinkster.co.uk/blog/2007/08/19/trivial-encoder/

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Toby A Inkster wrote:

Wow! Where have you been hiding? I guess reports of your death were
greatly exaggerated...


--
Take care,

Jonathan
-------------------
LITTLE WORKS STUDIO
http://www.LittleWorksStudio.com

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

> > > I am creating a company website. On almost each page there is an
> > > emailadres with the mailto: in the a href tag.

What I've done is create a contact form, not give out an email address.
The contact form can be used to contact several different mailboxes via a
dropdown, but the dropdown doesn't have a full email address in it, just a name
(any kind of reference), which the form looks up in a database and then emails
to the corresponding address.

Hope it helps
Mark

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Tue, 13 Nov 2007 09:49:30
GMT Jukka K. Korpela scribed:

>> My company want this
>> adres not to be visible through the html source code ( so that bots
>> cannot read the emailaddress from the source code from the internet).

>> What is the simplest way to do this?

> Remove the web site. (You asked for the _simplest_ way, didn't you?)

Sure... _You_ can give an inane answer, but when _I_ say something like
"Verdana only comes in white," I'm an international despot! Oh, the
discriminatory iniquities of the Old Worlder!

>> Do I have to create javascript
>> function that is triggered from the a href tag, and the javascript
>> function opens an email with the adres in it?
>
> And wait for spammers to use tools that interpret JavaScript?
>
> Just tell them to make up their mind. Either use the Internet, or stay
> away from it. In the former case, stay tuned to getting spam. Deal
> with it. There's a lot of software to filter out spam. Just preventing
> some address harvesting, at the cost of aggravating your customers and
> making your site crappy, wouldn't stop them from getting spam.

Pragmatic but undiplomatic. Are you on the government tit?

--
Bone Ur
Cavemen have formidable pheromones.

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Tue, 13 Nov 2007 17:21:34 GMT
Jonathan N. Little scribed:

> Toby A Inkster wrote:
>
> Wow! Where have you been hiding? I guess reports of your death were
> greatly exaggerated...

Or perhaps confused with reports of his life...

--
Bone Ur
Cavemen have formidable pheromones.

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

In article
<1194940747.283823.98260@v65g2000hsc.googlegroups.com>,
Harry Bellafonte wrote:

> Hi
>
> I am creating a company website. On almost each page there is an
> emailadres with the mailto: in the a href tag. My company want this
> adres not to be visible through the html source code ( so that bots
> cannot read the emailaddress from the source code from the internet).
>
> What is the simplest way to do this?

Try http://www.addressmunger.com/.

--
dorayme

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

andrew wrote:

> I have personally used numeric character references, it is ugly and
> goes against many sound principles but appears to be an effective
> barrier against _most_ spam.
>

It is by far the least harmful perverse "anti-spam" measure, but it's also
one of the weakest.
Well, that's worth what it's worth.

--
If you've a question that doesn't belong to Usenet, contact me at

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Usenet wrote:

> What I've done is create a contact form, not give out an email address.
> The contact form can be used to contact several different mailboxes via
> a dropdown, but the dropdown doesn't have a full email address in it,
> just a name (any kind of reference), which the form looks up in a
> database and then emails to the corresponding address.

Good. This has many advantages over e-mail address.
This is more accessible than e-mail, because people who browse the web
don't necessarily have an SMTP client or a means to send e-mails. However
they need a browser which, most probably, supports forms.
Sometimes, the only internet access I get is a HTTP proxy without SMTP
server. In that case I can still use a webmail, but, not requiring people
to have a webmail is an accessibility feature.

(Giving both an e-mail address and an HTML form provides the best
accessibility).

Beware: HTML forms can be spammed.

--
If you've a question that doesn't belong to Usenet, contact me at

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Scripsit André Gillibert:

> Usenet wrote:
>
>> What I've done is create a contact form, not give out an email
>> address. The contact form can be used to contact several different
>> mailboxes via a dropdown, but the dropdown doesn't have a full email
>> address in it, just a name (any kind of reference), which the form
>> looks up in a database and then emails to the corresponding address.
>
> Good.

Bad.

> This has many advantages over e-mail address.

Partly, but also disadvantages, so using a form _instead of_ an email
address is foolish.

> This is more accessible than e-mail,

Partly, but consider a user who needs his favorite e-mail program since it
has nice accessibility features, as opposite to the lousy implementation of
forms in web browsers. HTML forms are very primitive, and implementations
are even worse.

> (Giving both an e-mail address and an HTML form provides the best
> accessibility).

Not really. Giving them both _right_ provides the best accessibility. E-mail
is simple: just type the address. Making it a mailto: link is less relevant,
but probably a nice feature. Creating a form that avoids the basic flaws
seems to be almost impossible to mortals, given the fact that 99% of forms
on web pages have one or more _essential_ problem that could have easily
been avoided. Consider just too small textarea, presence of "reset" (=
destroy) button, and lack of adequate labels with markup, and you
can probably find essential flaws in the great majority of forms.

> Beware: HTML forms can be spammed.

Yes, of course.

--
Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Scripsit Bone Ur:

>> Remove the web site. (You asked for the _simplest_ way, didn't you?)
>
> Sure... _You_ can give an inane answer, but when _I_ say something
> like "Verdana only comes in white," I'm an international despot!

No, you are just a person who makes himself or herself a fool in public.

There's a slight difference: my statement was factually correct, whereas
yours was grotesquely wrong.

--
Jukka K. Korpela ("Yucca")
http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Well bust mah britches and call me cheeky, on Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:19:33 GMT
Jukka K. Korpela scribed:

> Scripsit Bone Ur:
>
>>> Remove the web site. (You asked for the _simplest_ way, didn't you?)
>>
>> Sure... _You_ can give an inane answer, but when _I_ say something
>> like "Verdana only comes in white," I'm an international despot!
>
> No, you are just a person who makes himself or herself a fool in public.

Perhaps one of my moderately distant ancestors was a court jester. Perhaps
I like jestering, as opposed to gesturing, for the mere fun of it. That
doesn't make me a bad guy.

> There's a slight difference: my statement was factually correct, whereas
> yours was grotesquely wrong.

Oh, yes, _grotesquely_ wrong...

Anyway, let's end this here (instead of starting yet another interminable
argument such as the Web 1001 debacle above.) You have your perspective
and I have mine. The only comment I shall make is that I probably enjoy
mine more.

--
Bone Ur
Cavemen have formidable pheromones.

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

On Nov 13, 2:59 am, Harry Bellafonte wrote:
> Hi
>
> I am creating a company website. On almost each page there is an
> emailadres with the mailto: in the a href tag. My company want this
> adres not to be visible through the html source code ( so that bots
> cannot read the emailaddress from the source code from the internet).
>
> What is the simplest way to do this? Do I have to create javascript
> function that is triggered from the a href tag, and the javascript
> function opens an email with the adres in it?
>
> Regards

This is very easy to do despite the many comments so far in this
thread. The best is probably using variables in javascript. People
in the javascript forum should be able to give you the information to
get this to work.

www.richardfisher.com

Re: Hiding emailaddress from the HTML source code

Harry Bellafonte wrote:
> Hi
>
> I am creating a company website. On almost each page there is an
> emailadres with the mailto: in the a href tag. My company want this
> adres not to be visible through the html source code ( so that bots
> cannot read the emailaddress from the source code from the internet).
>
> What is the simplest way to do this? Do I have to create javascript
> function that is triggered from the a href tag, and the javascript
> function opens an email with the adres in it?
>
> Regards
>

I'd say use a FORM linked to a server-side script that can filter out
all non-essentials (read possible spam) like suggested in another reply.
Obfuscation methods can 'help' but are not the answer. Especially with
some browsers capability to display 'rendered' code as well as source.
This in conjunction with a CAPTCHA system as part of the form can reduce
spam even more - but some will still get through.

Do a google for:

email obfuscation
and
CAPTCHA

Norm