al_email_protect

Email obfuscation for al-folio v1.x. Implements the plugin proposed in al-folio#3540.

What it does

When protect_email is on, addresses are never emitted as addresses. The HTML contains no user@host string and no mailto: target; the two halves are carried in separate attributes and rejoined by the browser when a visitor clicks.

This is the part that matters. An implementation that ships the plaintext address and rewrites it after DOMContentLoaded protects nobody — harvesters parse markup, they do not run your JavaScript. The obfuscation here happens at build time, in Liquid.

Clicking an address copies it to the clipboard and shows a brief toast, rather than opening a mail client.

Install

Add to your Gemfile:

gem "al_email_protect", "= 1.0.0"

and to _config.yml — both lists, or the plugin is inert:

plugins:
  - al_email_protect

protect_email: true # off by default

Usage

The al-folio theme calls the asset tags for you. In your own layouts:

{% al_email_protect_link site.data.socials.email %}

Renders a click-to-copy element when enabled, and a plain mailto: link when disabled — so it is safe to call unconditionally.

For contexts that show an address as text rather than a link (a CV contact block, say):

{{ cv.email | al_email_obfuscate }}

gives someone [at] example [dot] com when enabled, and the address unchanged when not.

Behaviour worth knowing

  • Splits on the last @. A quoted local part may legally contain one (RFC 5321).
  • Falls back rather than mangling. A value that is not a usable address (someone@localhost, no dot in the domain) renders as an ordinary mailto: link. Publishing a broken contact address is worse than publishing an unprotected one.
  • Clipboard needs a secure context. navigator.clipboard is undefined over plain HTTP, so the runtime falls back to a hidden-textarea copy, and if even that fails it shows the address so the visitor can copy it by hand.
  • Keyboard accessible. The element is a focusable <a>; Enter and Space both activate it, and the toast is announced via role="status".

Scope

This gem owns obfuscation of addresses it is asked to render. It does not scan arbitrary page text for things that look like addresses — that is unreliable and would corrupt legitimate content.

al_folio_cv renders CV contact details; wiring al_email_obfuscate into those layouts is a change in that gem, not this one. See docs/BOUNDARIES.md.

Development

bundle install
bundle exec rake test
npm ci && npm run lint:prettier

License

MIT