Rules
With version 1.5, we've renamed the rules to field rules and added a secondary type of rules called "Submission rules". The field rules process the value of a single form field, while the submission rules are predefined by us and process the whole submission.
Submission rules
We develop all submission rules, and you can enable them if you want. It is not possible to create your own submission rules.
With the start of version 1.5, we have only one submission rule.
In the future, we plan to add more submission rules as soon as we see reasons for additional ones.
Random values submission rule
The submission rule catches random values that spam bots like to submit. These random values are hard to catch with simple field rules, since you need multiple rules that work with negative ratings to prevent fields from accidentally matching. With the random values submission rule, you can define how many fields must match and how many characters each random value must have. You can also decide whether to match the textarea and whether the rule should be case-sensitive.
Field rules
With the help of rules, mosparo recognizes whether a submission is spam or valid. You must select a rule type for each rule. Within a rule, any number of items can be created, which are always based on the same rule type. A rule is always entered per project and cannot be automatically exchanged between projects.
Creating a field rule
Do you prefer a video instead of reading text? Watch our HowTo about creating a rule on YouTube.
To create a rule, select "Rules" in the navigation and then "Create rule" on the right. After that, a list of all rule types is displayed. Select the rule type you want to use to create a rule.
After you have selected a rule type, you see a field to enter the name of the rule. Give the rule a name so that you have a better overview when managing the rules.
After creating the rule, you see the rule editor. You can add a description of the rule in the "Description" field. You can also choose whether the rule should be active or inactive. The spam rating factor increases or decreases the entries in this rule. Each entry usually has a value of 1 by default. The spam rating factor can increase or decrease this value for all items.
On the right side, you can manage the items. The list of items is an editable table. You can click on a cell to edit the value. Depending on the rule type, you have to either insert a value or select a value from the list (for example, Unicode Block). Certain rule types also have subtypes that you can choose for each item (for example: "Text" and "Regular Expression" for the rule type "Word").
The cells with an orange background are unsaved and will be saved automatically after a few seconds. At the bottom of the screen, you can see the save button as well as a summary of how many unsaved changes you have.
With the checkbox at the front of each row, you can select multiple rows and then use the dropdown at the top of the table to delete the selected items at once.
To add items, you can either add a single item or multiple items. When you choose multiple items, you can enter a list of values and add them at once. You can also choose to import a text or a CSV file directly into the rule. When you use import functionality or the option to add multiple items at once, you'll see an overlay when the system processes the data. If you close the window, then the import process will be stopped. Please keep the window open until the screen shows that the process is completed. When importing or adding multiple items at once, the import process will skip all existing items.
With the "Filter" button on the right side, you can filter the visible items.
The rating field defines the spam score of an entry. If the field is empty, the value 1.0 is used. However, you can enter a numeric value from -1000000 to 1000000. If a negative number is entered, the item will decrease the number of points a submission receives. See Rating example
The save button at the bottom of the screen will save all unsaved changes. Usually, after some seconds, a change is saved to the database. But if that is not the case, or you want to leave the page, you can use the button to save them manually.
With the "Export items" button at the bottom of the screen, you can get a CSV export of your rule items. You can import the CSV again later.
Managing the field rules
In the administration of the rules, you will find all stored rules. You can create additional rules using the "Create Rule" button in the upper right.
In the list of rules, you can see the rule's name, the rule type, and whether the rule is active. You can edit or delete the existing rules if a rule is no longer needed.
With the filter dropdown in the top right corner, you can filter the list for only one of the rule types.
Before a rule is deleted, you must confirm that you want to delete the rule.
Rating example
Do you prefer a video instead of reading text? Watch our HowTo about spam rating on YouTube.
You have two rules configured in mosparo:
- Rule 1 is a rule of the type Word. It has an item for the word
Medicinewith a spam rating of5.0 - Rule 2 is a rule of the type Unicode Block. It has an item for the Unicode block
Emoticonswith a spam rating of-10.0
If a submission contains the text Medicine 💊, the rating will be -5.0 (= 5.0 + (-10.0)) and, with that, below the configured spam detection minimum of 5.0 for this project. mosparo will not block the submission.