BB Code Enhancements - Safe Tags Obfuscation

Safe Tags v1.0

by Thalamus - October 2007

Nearly two years ago, I was looking at trying to write some code for a forum that would obfuscate certain text within posts. This (somewhat specialized) forum needed a function where, within posts, users could insert text (such as a name, nickname or other reference) that would be humanly readable on the forum pages, but that could not be picked up by search engines or trawler bots.

What I came up with at the time, was using vBcode tags that were 'built-in' by making core file changes to the bbcode class files. These then used javascript to call the base64 functions to meet the requirements. It all worked very well, but unfortunately played havoc with upgrades to vBulletin - each one meant having to re-input the code into the core php files.

With the introduction of the latest versions, and the addition and availability of more hooks, I've developed the function into a product that uses the available hooks, and making things much simpler for updates. There is a file upload, but this is simply a javascript file containing the base64 encode and decode functions.

Tested on vBulletin 3.6.8

What this product does, is to set up a vBcode (BB Code) tag called "safe" which, when used, enables you to place text into your forum posts that, although seen by human viewers of your site pages, obfuscates that text on the raw HTML page for any passing bot or search engine spider.

It does that by using a simple javascript call, to utilize the base64 encode method of encryption. What it does mean, is that if you have instances where you may want something posted on your forum but you don't want it picked up by spiders (names, places), you can now do it quite freely and easily using the Safe Tags method!

If you place an email address or a URL within the [safe] tags, it will not be parsed (although it will be encrypted) and no link will be automatically added to it.

Example:

A simple line of text that contains [safe]a name in here[/safe] means that the text between the safe tags will be encrypted on the raw HTML but viewable on the thread page.

Installation

In the zip file you should have three files:

safe_encode.js
product-safetags.xml
safetags-readme.txt

To install, extract the files within the zip file to your own hard drive, then upload the safe_encode.js file into your forum's clientscript folder.

Go to your AdminCP -> Plugins & Products -> Manage Products, then click Add/Import Product.

In the Import Product section, browse for the file product-safetags.xml wherever you extracted it on your hard drive, set Allow Overwrite to Yes, then click Import.
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The product installation will create a new custom BBcode which you can check in your AdminCP -> Custom BB Codes -> BB Code Manager.

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This is my first published plugin, and I really don't know how much I can offer in terms of support, so please don't expect too much. It's a very easy and simple mod if you look through the xml file.

My grateful thanks to those who have helped me on here, and also to the authors of the code snippets I've used in this (I'm sorry I can't remember who you are - I'm old, and tnat's my excuse...)

Thanks for reading

[yoyoyoyo]

I just installed this, and tried it out and got a weird error. I wrote:

[safe]this is hidden[/safe] this is visible

and submitted the post.

After I posted, instead of the page refreshing and taking me to the page where my post was, instead it displayed an all white page that only said "this is hidden" in the upper left corner, and nothing else.

When I refreshed the forum, the post was there, and the text was hidden, but I did receive that error when posting. I am running a SEO engine, I don't know if that makes a difference, but just thought I would let you know.

[thalamus]

thanks yoyoyo - I've had a look and cannot replicate the problem - did you View the Page Source on your errored page? I don't have any SEO engines so I can't comment unfortunately, but the safetags plugin only uses two hooks as can be seen in your AdminCP->Plugins & Products->Plugin Manager. It doesn't change any templates apart from appending a <script> tag at the end of the headinclude.

An icon can be added in your BBCode Manager as the information is stored as a Custom BBcode tag.

[theFAILURE]

Originally Posted by yoyoyoyo

cool idea -I am just wondering what type of text you would want to obfuscate from search engines, though?

Take a look at my sig and you will understand why some forums need this.

Excellent work! Congratulation's on your 1st great add on!

[thalamus]

thank you tF and yes, it's pretty essential for some forums () to have this kind of function

[TigerWare]

Originally Posted by thalamus

An icon can be added in your BBCode Manager as the information is stored as a Custom BBcode tag.

Beat me to it... Here's a donation for anyone that wants to add a custom icon for the bbCode.

[thalamus]

Many thanks TigerWare! :up:

[Elenna]

Thank you very much for this! This will be a great help for my site, where we don't want personal information walking off.

/me clicks installed.

[Gwyrgyn]

Originally Posted by yoyoyoyo

I just installed this, and tried it out and got a weird error. I wrote:

[safe]this is hidden[/safe] this is visible

and submitted the post.

After I posted, instead of the page refreshing and taking me to the page where my post was, instead it displayed an all white page that only said "this is hidden" in the upper left corner, and nothing else.

When I refreshed the forum, the post was there, and the text was hidden, but I did receive that error when posting. I am running a SEO engine, I don't know if that makes a difference, but just thought I would let you know.

Yes I have the same problem. It's a problem with the Quick Reply AJAX it seems, if you submit a post with the custom tag in the Quick Reply it will do this. Unfortunately I haven't found a solution to it yet, hopefully somebody else knows something.

I am using 3.6.4 and not 3.6.8 though, is it possible something changed between these versions that might do it?

[TigerWare]

Originally Posted by Gwyrgyn

Yes I have the same problem. It's a problem with the Quick Reply AJAX it seems ...
I am using 3.6.4 and not 3.6.8 though, is it possible something changed between these versions that might do it?

I can confirm this too on 3.6.8 PL2 with a quick reply.

[thalamus]

Thanks for reporting this; it's something that hadn't come up during development.

I'll have a look at it and see how it develops... meantime I've amended the first post to reflect the bug.