SPAM entries through Frontend Submissions

[Benjamin Ogg]

Hi there.
The SPAM entries made through Frontend Submissions raised quite heavily. Even with activated reCaptcha we are facing a lot of SPAM submissions.
Is there any other way to protect the form and avoid SPAM entries?
Cheers, Benjamin

[Stephen Harris]

Hi Benjamin,

So beyond captchas, they are a few things you can do:

• Require the user be logged in (effective, but not always practical)
• Perform validation on the input (e.g. by filtering out event titles/descriptions with key words, or event date/times outside what you would expect)
• A two step process where events are left as draft until the user has confirmed their email or contact phone number

For (2), you can use the

add_filter('eventorganiser_fes_submit_event', function( $event, $form ) {
    // Inspect $event an apply rules

    if ( $isSpam ) {
        $form->add_error( 'spam', 'Error message...' );
    }

}, 10, 2 );

For (3) you could use the eventorganiser_fes_submitted_event hook

add_filter('eventorganiser_fes_submitted_event', function( $event_id, $event, $form ) {
    // generate a random key
    $key = wp_generate_password(16, false, false );

    // Store the key
    update_post_meta( "_fes_user_confirmation", $key, true );

    //Send a link containing $key and $event_id in the url to the user's email.
    //The user clicks the link creating a `GET` back to your site request containing those parameters

}, 10, 3 );

You’ll need to listen for that GET request and respond accordingly. In the code where you respond to that request:

$event_id = intval($_GET['event_id'])
$key = $_GET['key'];

if (get_post_meta( $event_id, "_fes_user_confirmation", true ) === $key) {
    // If the key matches what is stored, publish the event
    wp_publish_post($event_id);

    // Then remove to prevent repeat requests potentially republishing the event
    delete_post_meta( $event_id, "_fes_user_confirmation" );
}

[Benjamin Ogg]

Hi Stephen
Thanks for your kind input. I will try one of your proposals …
Cheers, Benjamin

[Author]

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