New Automatic Form Submission Prevention System

Automatic Form Submission is troublesome and annoying. I've been working on a prevention for some time. And, now, I am happy to announce the new auto-submit prevention system!

First, some background.

Some months ago, we set up a remotely hosted automatic form submission prevention center. It was nudged and tweaked and now it works like a charm.

Automatic form submission is done by robots, software on desktop/office computers, and software on remote servers. They send spam, mostly.

With the beta version of protection, close to a thousand forms a day, on four participating domains are protected. And, unlike some methods of protection, nobody has to type squiggly characters from an image to prove they are not a robot.

And that was the main idea, finding a way to prevent automated submissions without using a "type here what's on that image" captcha system. Such systems I consider intrusive, distrusting, and apt to discourage legitimate use of the form.

Site contact and feedback forms are responsible for starting conversations that result in long-term business relationships. Nothing should discourage their use.

Creating a non-intrusive method of detecting and preventing automatic form submissions for independent CGI software installations was an important goal for me.

The goal has been reached.

Lessons learned from and effective ideas implemented in that beta installation have now been incorporated into Master Form V4.

While I was rummaging around in the code anyway, I thought I would add other features, most of which were previously suggested by Master Form V4 users. Some of the new things the software can now accomplish will be welcomed.

A complete list of features would be rather extensive. This article describes only the new ones. (The user's manual addresses each feature.)

By the way, Mari wrote a new overview to provide a good understanding of the scope Master Form V4 operates within. It's linked at /software/formV4/support/

The New Features

Automatic Form Submission Prevention:

The protection is pretty good. Even so, I know full well it is not perfect. It never will be perfect so long as spammers and crackers target web page forms.

Therefore, Master Form V4 comes with another new feature ...

Automatic Update Installation:

Click a button in the control panel to make Master Form V4 check to see if a new update is available. If yes, it will install itself — if it can. The automatic upgrade will work on most servers. This feature is built with AJAX.

You must click a button to start the upgrade installation. It won't just do it on its own without your permission.

"New Update Available" Notification:

If you want to be notified when a new update is available, say so at the control panel.

Blocking IP Addresses:

You can now block certain IP addresses (or a range of IP addresses) from using your forms.

Web Page Form Locations:

See at a glance which forms use your installation of Master Form V4.

Database Module Choice:

If your hosting company has compatible database modules installed on your server (besides the standard SDBM_File), you can select the one you prefer to use.

Sequential Numbering of Form Use:

When you need serial numbers or other unique identification with form submissions, use this new feature.

Temporary Download Links (Separately Purchased Plug-In):

Available in a few days, this separately purchased plug-in is used to provide temporary download links in email and/or on "thank you" pages. Download links are valid for the length of time you specify in the control panel.

Submitting Information To Other Scripts:

Master Form V4 can submit some or all of the form information to other scripts located anywhere on the Internet. These might be for subscription or membership handling, as examples. The additional submissions can be method GET or POST.

All The Features

Of course, Master Form V4 still has all of the features available in earlier versions — personalized email and web pages, multi-page forms, anti-hijacking code, email address extraction, and other goodies.

Will you ever use all the features now available? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, they are built into the software and immediately available when and if you need them.

But first you must have the software installed.

Once it's set up, it just works.

If you are a current owner of Master Form V4, this is a free upgrade. The generation link is toward the bottom of the product description page. No Transaction ID required to generate for the same domain name as before.

Grab it, install it, and set your preferences in the new control panel.

Will Bontrager