Email Address Encoder for WordPress

A lightweight plugin to protect plain email addresses and mailto links from email-harvesting robots by encoding them into decimal and hexadecimal entities. Has effect on the posts, pages, comments, excerpts and text widgets. No UI, no shortcode, no JavaScript — just simple spam protection.

Installation

For detailed installation instructions, please read the standard installation procedure for WordPress plugins.

1. Upload the /email-address-encoder/ directory and its contents to /wp-content/plugins/.
2. Login to your WordPress installation and activate the plugin through the Plugins menu.
3. Done. This plugin has no user interface or configuration options.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this plugin do?

This plugin hooks into the WordPress filters like the_content, widget_text and others (additional filters can be added). On each filter a quick (disableable) search for an @-sign is performed. If an @-sign is found, a (overridable) regular expression looks for plain text email addresses. Found email addresses are replaced with the return value of eae_encode_str() (changeable), which obfuscates the email addresses to protect it from being read by email-harvesting robots. This function is slightly faster than WP's built-in antispambot() and uses additional hexadecimal entities.

Alternatively, you can use the [encode] shortcode: [encode]+1 (234) 567-8900[/encode]

How can I make sure the plugin works?

You cannot use Firebug, Web Inspector or Dragonfly, because they decode decimal/hexadecimal entities into plain text. To make sure email addresses are encoded, right-/secondary-click the page, click "View Source", "View Page Source" or "Source" and search for any plain text email addresses. In Firefox, be sure to test with "View Source" not "View Selection Source".

How can I use WP's built-in antispambot() function instead?

You specify any valid callback function with the eae_method filter to apply to found email addresses: add_filter('eae_method', function() { return 'antispambot'; });

How can I filter other parts of my site?

• If the content supports WordPress filters, register the eae_encode_emails() function to it: add_filter( $tag, 'eae_encode_emails' );.
• If the content is a PHP string, run it through the eae_encode_emails() function: $text = eae_encode_emails( $text );.
• If you want to encode a single email address, use the eae_encode_str() function: <?php echo eae_encode_str( '[email protected]' ); ?>

This plugin doesn't encode the entire website for performance reasons, it encodes only the content of the following WordPress filters the_content, the_excerpt, widget_text, comment_text, comment_excerpt.

How can I change the regular expression pattern?

You can override the pattern with the eae_regexp filter: add_filter( 'eae_regexp', function () { return '/^pattern$/'; } );

How can I change the priority of the default filters?

The default filter priority is 1000 and you can adjust it by defining the EAE_FILTER_PRIORITY constant: define( 'EAE_FILTER_PRIORITY', 99999 );. The constant has to be defined before this plugin is loaded, e.g. in your wp-config.php or in Must-use plugin (a.k.a. mu-plugin).

How can I disable the @-sign check?

Like this: add_filter( 'eae_at_sign_check', '__return_false' );