djangospam

Django antispam module aimed at Django with an invisible fake comment/contact form, cookie based middleware and Akismet verification.

See http://pythonhosted.org/djangospam for complete documentation. Djangospam is compatible with both Python 2 and 3.

See https://github.com/leandroarndt/djangospam for development versions.

Quick start

These are the basic steps for using djangospam. You can get more info on the cited modules and at djangospam.settings.

Fake form with cookie middleware

New in version 0.3.0

The cookie middleware uses cookies to identify known spam bots. Simple crawlers usually don't accept cookies, but spam bots may accept, since a website may require this to receive comments. In order to use the cookie middleware, add djangospam.cookie.middleware.SpamCookieMiddleware to MIDDLEWARE_CLASSES or MIDDLEWARE at your settings file (usually settings.py). In your template, insert before the true form::

{% include 'djangospam/cookieform.html' %}

You must also add (r"^somewhere/", include("djangospam.cookie.urls") to your url patterns (usually in your root urls.conf; somewhere may be any path, except the one used for true posts). I suggest using the following paths::

(r'^comments/', include('djangospam.cookie.urls')),
(r'^spam/', include('django_comments.urls')),

Fake form without middleware

You may also use the fake form without the cookie middleware. This will not block access from known spam bots. In order to do this, include djangospam in your installed modules (at settings.py) and insert the following code in your template, before the true form::

{% include 'djangospam/form.html' %}

You may also define a spam_uri context variable with the fake formulary destination URI. If no URI is defined, the form will be posted at the same address of the page in which the form has been placed (it will be used a <form method="post" action="">...</form> code). The destination address must accept POST requests and should not change the database.

You may customize the fake formulary by copying it's template to template/djangospam at your application's directory and editing it.

Cookie-based moderator

New in version 0.4.0

djangospam.cookie.moderator defines a cookie-based comment moderator that should be attached to your commented model. This moderator tests comment post requests for the djangospam cookie and discards those which don't have it. See djangospam.cookie.middleware for more info on the cookie system. Code that uses this comment moderator must use that middleware.

Your models file should be like this::

from djangospam.cookie import moderator as cookie

class MyModel(...):
    ...

try:
    cookie.register(MyModel)
except cookie.AlreadyModerated:
    pass

Akismet

New in version 0.2.0

djangospam.akismet.moderator defines an Akismet-based comment moderator. Besides including djangospam in your installed modules (at settings.py), you should insert the following code to your models file::

from djangospam.akismet import moderator as akismet

class MyModel(...):
    ...

try:
    akismet.register(MyModel)
except akismet.AlreadyModerated:
    pass

Warning: Since version 0.4.0, the Akismet moderator has been turned a separate subpackage. Code using it must be rewritten as follows::

    from djangospam import akismet
    
must be changed to::
    
    from djangospam.akismet import moderator as akismet

Using from `djangospam import akismet` is now deprecated and won't be
available from 1.0.0 on.

You also must define the variables below at settings.py:

AKISMET_BLOG Your home page URL, including http:// AKISMET_KEY Your application key at akismet.com AKISMET_USERAGENT Your application name AKISMET_USERAGENT_VERSION Your application version

Results

Since version 0.4.3, the cookie-based middleware (with fake forms and the cookie-based comment moderator) has achieved 100% efficiency at late http://www.correioprogressista.com.br/, which used to have more than 200 spam comments each day. Even so, I recommend using Akismet or another spam analysis tool.

Since version 0.3.0 (first with cookie middleware) up to 8th april 2013, the cookie middleware identified 5166 spammers and blocked 1917 requests from known spammers at the same website::

 $ grep -c "BLOCK RESPONSE" spam.log 
5166
 $ grep -c "SPAM REQUEST" spam.log 
1917

Change log

• 1.1:
  • 1.1.6 (2022-04-07):
    • Compatibility with new Django middleware pattern.
  • 1.1.4a (2016-10-18):
    • Corrected previous version, which was not uploaded correctly.
  • 1.1.4 (2016-10-04):
    • Adapted to Django 1.10.
  • 1.1.3 (2015-02-10):
    • Fixed cookie moderator issue killing comments which should pass.
  • 1.1.2 (2015-02-07):
    • Tries to import django_comments before django.comments.moderator.
  • 1.1.1 (2015-02-05):
    • Fixed Windows compatibility issue on logger.
  • 1.1.0 (2015-02-05):
    • Added support for django_comments (former django.contrib.comments)
• 1.0:
  • 1.0.1 (2015-01-10):
    • Added support for Django 1.4 and later.
  • 1.0.0 (2013-04-01):
    • Changed version number and labeled as "stable".
• 0.4:
  • 0.4.3 (2013-03-23):
    • Fake forms made invisible via javascript.
  • 0.4.2 (2013-03-22):
    • Akismet settings made optional for non-Akismet users.
  • 0.4.1 (2013-03-21):
    • Bugfix at djangospam.akismet.
  • 0.4.0 (2013-03-20):
    • Added cookie-based comment moderator.
    • Transformed Akismet module into a separate subpackage. Warning: Code that used Akismet module needs to be rewritten. See djangospam.akismet for the current code. Old code should work until 1.0.0.
    • Improved logger.
• 0.3:
  • 0.3.4 (2013-03-18):
    • Improved forms and URL.
  • 0.3.3 (2013-03-17):
    • Worked around pip bug.
  • 0.3.2 (2013-03-17):
    • Fixed new setup bug (setup.py) - NOT A BUG, see v. 0.3.3.
  • 0.3.1 (2013-03-17):
    • Fixed setup bug (in Manifest.in)
  • 0.3.0 (2013-03-17):
    • Implemented cookie middleware
• 0.2:
  • 0.2.2 (2013-03-16):
    • Fixed bug at akismet module.
  • 0.2.1 (2013-03-13):
    • Made compatible with both Python 2 and 3.
  • 0.2.0 (2013-03-10):
    • Implemented Akismet verification.
• 0.1:
  • 0.1.1-0.1.6 (2013-03-10):
    • Bugfixes.
  • 0.1.0 (2013-03-09):
    • First version.