It’s been a while now since I first created a module called the BotScout module for Drupal. I wanted to inform everyone that the project is back and in full force. If you have never heard of it the BotScout provides a way to block bots on your website based on their IP address, email, name, or any combination of the three. More information about BotScout in general can be found at http://www.botscout.com
I have developed a module to bring the functionality to your Drupal website! in the past I got stuck in the transaction from CVS to Git content management and had a real rough time with the project submission process to make it a fully supported module. I have now re-opened that project application and shouldn’t have the troubles I did before. There were allot of changes going on and the changes were for the best but created hassles for new projects for a short time.
You can get the latest version from my sandbox until it becomes a fully supported project. Info about the Drupal BotScout module including how to download can be found at https://www.drupal.org/project/botscout
if you want to clone it with Git then use command
git clone –branch 7.x-1.x http://git.drupal.org/sandbox/acetolyne/1082234.git
NOTE: you can now download it directly to your site without using git since its now a fully supported module
After you install the module on your site simply go to the modules page and enable it. From there you can go on over to the admin settings page and choose how you want to filter the bots. You can choose to block by IP address, username, email address, or any combination of the three. Users are encouraged to go over to www.botscout.com and get a free API key. Without an API key you can only check 20 submissions per day, but the key is free so go get yourself one. Also there is a good peice of information about what you should choose to block the bots by and why over on the botscout website at http://botscout.com/api_queries.htm
Any suggestions please provide them over at BotScout Project page on the Drupal site listed below. The module for Drupal 7.x core is much safer than the old module and its not suggested to use the old module, but you really should not be running Drupal 6.x core anyhow it is just as unsafe as the module was. Drupal now offers a better API for developers and I was able to totally re-write the BotScout module to be safer from XSS attacks and run alot more efficiently than the last module.
The Botscout 6x module was removed due to security issues and will not be supported please update to Drupal 7x to use this module and keep your site safer.
This project is now a fully supported Drupal module, you can find it by searching the Drupal site for modules or go directly to the page at
https://www.drupal.org/project/botscout
For issues or feature requests please submit a form at https://www.drupal.org/project/issues/botscout
Leave a Reply