Mollom (modMollom Class) for MODx

This is a working (for me anyway) Mollom class for MODx.

Mollom is a web service that evaluates content for spamminess. It’s free (although a faster commercial account is available) and it gives you the option of only showing captcha challenges for potential spam content.

They claim that the captchas are unbreakable (and they’re much easier to read than reCaptcha). They also claim 99.9% accuracy in identifying spam. IOW, if they say it’s spam, it’s almost certainly spam. You also get a quality assessment based on things like content length, spelling and grammar, profanity, etc. that you can use to reject posts (or present a captcha challenge). You can also use Mollom just for presenting image and audio captcha without evaluating content.

Mollom also claims to keep track of spammers’ IPs, email addresses, names, etc. and it will use the MODx web user’s MODx ID to establish his or her reputation so they’ll see fewer captchas. The class automatically sends the user’s MODx ID when sending content to Mollom for evaluation (in theory -- I don’t have any real users on the test site so I’m not sure it works).

Mollom is a cool idea, IMO, although I’ve never used it on a live site. It’s relatively new but initial reports are favorable and it’s available in plugins for WordPress and other blog software.

The attached zip file has the class and a test snippet that demonstrates Mollom in action with an email form. It works in both Revolution, and earlier versions of MODx. I tried to make it as easy to use as possible and it’s pretty well documented. I’m hoping some of you will give it an acid test. You’ll need a free account at mollom (http://mollom.com), but it only takes a few minutes to get one. BTW, the mollom.com web site is a complete embarassment, I hope it doesn’t reflect the quality of the service.

Note that the example snippet (mollomtest.php) doesn’t actually send any email -- it’s just a demo.

Important: It’s mollom, not mollum, and, as I learned the hard way, it’s very easy to mistype (no doubt the influence of Lord of the Rings).

[Update 02/20/09] Mollom 1.1.0. Now creates a property set automatically in Revo on first run. Added reject_quality and captcha_quality parameters. Important: parameter name form change -- &privateKey is now &private_key, etc. to conform with form of MODx system settings and property keys. Now caches the Mollom server list.

Good show BobRay. I will definitely check this out. Thanks.

Kudos for this BobRay !

I have had the opportunity to check out Mollom drupal module and it works pretty well, better than akismet from what I have read... will definitely try this !

[Update 02/20/09] Mollom 1.1.0. Now creates a property set automatically in Revo on first run. Added reject_quality and captcha_quality parameters. Important: parameter name form change -- &privateKey is now &private_key, etc. to conform with form of MODx system settings and property keys. Now caches the Mollom server list.

New zip file at top of this thread.

Please note the changes to the parameter names if you’re integrating this into your own component. Sorry for any inconvenience.

Are these changes only for the Revo version or valid for 096x also? I haven’t had time to check this out yet just curious.

Quote from: dev_cw at Feb 20, 2009, 06:38 AM

Are these changes only for the Revo version or valid for 096x also? I haven’t had time to check this out yet just curious.

Both (sort of). The param name changes are for both, and in 0.9.6, the server list is now cached in a file rather than properties.

The property set is just for Revo because I didn’t have time to figure out how to create a property set in 0.9.6 and since 0.9.6 properties are tied to a specific snippet, it wasn’t really appropriate anyway because this class might be used in several snippets or plugins. I was too lazy to create a custom DB table for them just for 0.9.6.

The bottom line is that everyone should use the new version because, otherwise, their references to the parameters won’t work with any future versions. Also, not having the server list cached in version 1.0.0 of the class will slow things down and tax the mollom servers unnecessarily.

Will you release a polished version of Mollom for both Evolution and Revolution? Like a plugin which any snippets can hook to instead of the MODx native captcha?

Maybe submit the plugin for the download page on the Mollom website?

Quote from: lossendae at Aug 18, 2009, 03:40 AM

Will you release a polished version of Mollom for both Evolution and Revolution? Like a plugin which any snippets can hook to instead of the MODx native captcha?

Maybe submit the plugin for the download page on the Mollom website?

I kind of intended to integrate it with the Revolution version of SPForm someday and might consider doing it for the MODx login screen (if no one else does it first). Right now, I’m way too busy and don’t see it happening before next year.

The class is fairly well tested and (I hope) well documented so it shouldn’t be too much work to add it to SPForm or eForm.

Good news.

I imagined more a module than a snippet dependent.
Then any 3rd party services could call Mollom for their use.

It may be difficult to implement, or too time consuming.

I tried to design the Mollom class so it would have all the methods you’d need to implement it in any setting (module, plugin, or snippet).

You just need to "include" the class file, instantiate the Mollom object, and call its methods when you need them.