Integration

Form spam protection

How it works

1. User submits the form.
2. FormIt runs preHook crawlerDetectBlock before validation and send.
3. If isCrawler treats the request as a bot (JayBizzle headers, not User-Agent alone), the form is not processed. The message from settings is shown.
4. If human, the form is processed as usual.

crawlerDetectBlock

PHP service: $modx->services->get('CrawlerDetect\\CrawlerDetectService'). Methods: isCrawler($ua = null) and getMatches(). Missing vendor class: method returns false with no log line.

Regular form (FormIt)

Add crawlerDetectBlock to FormIt’s &preHooks. List other preHooks comma-separated.

modx

&preHooks=`crawlerDetectBlock,otherHook`

fenom

'preHooks' => 'crawlerDetectBlock,otherHook'

AJAX form (FetchIt)

FetchIt processes forms via FormIt on the server.

1. In FetchIt config set the URL or page where FormIt is called.
2. In that page’s FormIt call add &preHooks=`crawlerDetectBlock`.
3. When a bot is blocked FetchIt gets an error response and shows the message from crawlerdetect_block_message.

AJAX form (SendIt)

SendIt uses FormIt. Parameters are set in presets (file from si_path_to_presets).

1. Open your presets file. Do not edit the default core/components/sendit/presets/sendit.inc.php: it is overwritten on SendIt update.
2. Add preHooks with crawlerDetectBlock to the needed preset.
3. When a bot is blocked SendIt returns an error and shows the message from CrawlerDetect settings.

Preset example:

return [
  'contact' => [
    'preHooks' => 'crawlerDetectBlock',
    'hooks' => 'email,FormItSaveForm',
    'validate' => 'name:required,email:email:required',
    'emailTo' => 'manager@site.com',
    'emailSubject' => 'Contact form',
    // ...
  ],
];

If preHooks already exists, add comma-separated: 'preHooks' => 'crawlerDetectBlock,otherHook'.

Hiding content from bots

Snippet isCrawler returns "1" (bot) or "0" (not bot). Call it uncached.

Widget for humans only

modx

[[!isCrawler:eq=`0`:then=`[[$chatWidget]]`]]

fenom

{if $modx->runSnippet('isCrawler', []) == '0'}
  {$modx->getChunk('chatWidget')}
{/if}

Analytics for humans only

modx

[[!isCrawler:eq=`0`:then=`[[$googleAnalytics]]`]]

fenom

{if $modx->runSnippet('isCrawler', []) == '0'}
  {$modx->getChunk('googleAnalytics')}
{/if}

isCrawler

Typical scenarios

Contact form

Add crawlerDetectBlock to FormIt preHooks. See Quick start.

Multiple forms on the site

Add crawlerDetectBlock to &preHooks in each FormIt call.

“N users online” counter

Run the counter snippet only when the visitor is not a bot:

modx

[[!isCrawler:eq=`0`:then=`[[!yourVisitorCounterSnippet]]`]]

fenom

{if $modx->runSnippet('isCrawler', []) == '0'}
  {$modx->runSnippet('yourVisitorCounterSnippet', [])}
{/if}

“Request a call” form (FetchIt)

Same steps as AJAX form (FetchIt).

E‑commerce — “Viewing this product”

Exclude bots from product view count:

modx

[[!isCrawler:eq=`0`:then=`[[!msProductViews? &id=`[[*id]]`]]`]]

fenom

{if $modx->runSnippet('isCrawler', []) == '0'}
  {$modx->runSnippet('msProductViews', ['id' => $productId])}
{/if}