Copyright (c) 2007 Francois Zaninotto
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sfModeration plugin
The sfModerationPlugin is a symfony plugin that provides tools to handle moderation tasks on your contents:
Automatic filtering based on a new column, to hide contents declared as unsafe
Automatic copy of unsafe content into a new table, to handle moderation for all types of contents in a single place.
The plugin includes two components to implement these tools:
a new Propel behavior related to moderation and spam filtering on records. If you enable this behavior for one of your model class, all objects of this class with the attribute moderation_status set to more than 1 will no longer appear on database queries.
a new module to list, delete and tag as safe contents that were considered unsafe.
Installation
Install the plugin
$ symfony plugin-install http://plugins.symfony-project.com/sfModerationPlugin
Enable Propel behavior support in propel.ini:
propel.builder.AddBehaviors = true
If you use symfony 1.0, change one builder class in propel.ini to avoid a bug in behaviors (not necessary in symfony 1.1):
; builder settings
propel.builder.peer.class = plugins.sfModerationPlugin.lib.SfPeerBuilder
Each table for which you want this behavior enabled must have one integer column to support the moderation status. If there is none, add a moderation_status column in schema.yml
propel:
item:
id:
title: varchar(255)
body: longvarchar
created_at:
updated_at:
moderation_status: { type: integer, default: 1, index: true } # Add this column to each table
If you can't change the schema.yml (for instance if this schema is in a plugin), use the sfPropelAlternativeSchemaPlugin to add the moderation_status column to your tables.
Activate the behavior for those of your Propel models that need spam moderation:
// lib/model/Item.php
class Item
{
}
sfPropelBehavior::add('Item', array('moderation'));
By default, the plugin will consider the moderation_status column for this model. You can also specify another column if your model doesn't allow you to use a moderation_status column:
sfPropelBehavior::add('Item', array('moderation' => array('status_column' => 'my_spam_tag')));
Note that the column must still be an integer with default value equal to '1'.
Alternatively, you can let the plugin register the behavior on models on its own. This is particularly useful if you need to add the behavior to models defined in a third party plugin, or if you have many models to extend. To do so, you just need to list the models to be extended in your app.yml:
all:
sfModerationPlugin:
auto_register_behavior: true
moderated_classes: [Item]
Rebuild your model:
$ symfony propel-build-model
Basic Usage
If you enable the behavior on a model, selection methods of this model (retrieveByPk, doCount, doSelect, doSelectOne, doSelectJoinXXX, doSelectJoinAll, doSelectJoinAllExceptXXX, doSelectRS) will not return objects marked as unsafe.
$item = new Item();
$item->save();
$id = $item->getId();
$item->tagAsUnsafe();
$item = ItemPeer::retrieveByPk($id); // Returns null
You can inspect the moderation status of any object through the getModerationStatus() method.
$status = $item->getModerationStatus();
switch($status)
{
case sfPropelModerationBehavior::TAGGED_SAFE:
echo "The item has been checked and marked as safe";
break;
case sfPropelModerationBehavior::NOT_CHECKED:
echo "The item is not yet checked";
break;
case sfPropelModerationBehavior::AUTO_TAGGED_UNSAFE:
echo "The item has been checked by an automated service and marked as spam";
break;
case sfPropelModerationBehavior::TAGGED_UNSAFE:
echo "The item has been checked and marked as spam";
}
By default, records with a NOT_CHECKED and TAGGED_SAFE status are shown, others are hidden. Nevertheless, if you want to force moderation, you just need to change one setting in the app.yml:
all:
sfModerationPlugin:
display_treshold: 0 # Only allow records marked TAGGED_SAFE
#display_treshold: 1 # Allow records marked TAGGED_SAFE, and NOT_CHECKED
#display_treshold: 2 # Allow records marked TAGGED_SAFE, NOT_CHECKED, and AUTO_TAGGED_UNSAFE
#display_treshold: 3 # Allow all records
With this setting, only records marked with TAGGED_SAFE are returned by selection methods.
The behavior can be deactivated temporarily for all models through the sfPropelModerationBehavior::disable() method. This will allow you to query the database for tagged records.
$item = ItemPeer::retrieveByPk($id); // Returns null
sfPropelModerationBehavior::disable();
$item = ItemPeer::retrieveByPk($id); // Returns an item
Don't forget to enable the behavior again afterwards:
sfPropelModerationBehavior::enable();
Browsing through moderated content
An object tagged as unsafe doesn't appear anymore in the frontend, however it is still in the database. This is to allow a two-step moderation:
A first moderator (can be a robot) spots a content as unsafe and tags it as such
A second moderator (should be a human) checks the list of moderated contents, and decides either to delete, or to republish the reported contents.
However, if you want to list all the moderated content, you'd have to iterate over all the models in which the behavior is activated.
To avoid this limitation, the plugin offers the ability to automatically save a small copy of a moderated content upon moderation, in a new table called sf_moderated_content. Here is the data kept in the table:
sf_moderated_content:
_attributes: { phpName: sfModeratedContent }
id:
object_id: { type: integer, required: true }
object_model: { type: varchar, size: 50 }
user_name: { type: varchar, size: 100 }
user_email: { type: varchar, size: 100 }
title: { type: longvarchar }
content: { type: longvarchar }
url: { type: longvarchar }
status: { type: integer, default: 1, index: true }
comment: { type: longvarchar }
moderated_at: { type: timestamp, index: true }
object_updated_at: { type: timestamp, index: true }
To enable this feature, you must set the app_sfModeration_plugin_is_monitored setting to true:
all:
sfModerationPlugin:
is_monitored: true
The plugin also offers a module to browse the moderated content table. It is called sfModeration and needs to be enabled in settings.yml in order to be made accessible to the browser.
all:
.settings:
enabled_modules: [sfModeration](default,)
Once the configuration finished, you can browse to the moderated content list at the following URL:
http://myapp/frontend_dev.php/sfModeration
You will see a list of moderated content, and you will be able to delete or republish them.
Todo
- Document all the features, including the advanced configuration
- Add a Report table to allow users to complain about a content (hash between user_id, object_id and object_class)
- Add an optional verification against Akismet
- Add lists for moderators (reported content, latest published content, latest spammed content)
- Add a batch to remove old contents marked as spam
- Save IP address in sfModeratedContent when user updates content
- Save moderator name in sfModeratedContent when moderator tags content
- Send an email to content author on deletion in sfModeration module
Changelog
Trunk
2007-11-09 | 0.6.1 Alpha
- francois: Added auto-registering system
- francois: Added PHPDoc
- francois: Added a table of moderated content to get all moderated content in one place (based on a patch by Nicolas Perriault)
- francois: Added a module to manage moderated content
- francois: Moderating a Propel object doesn't change its
updated_at value
2007-09-09 | 0.6.0 Alpha
- francois: Initial release (based on sfPropelSpamTagBehavior 0.9.1)
Francois Zaninotto 
