Patches to enhance TracPastePlugin

[Michael Renzmann]

Attached is a series of patches that improve TracPastePlugin and/or implement new features.

01_recent_pastes_configurable.patch

Default number of recent pastes that get displayed on the "main" pastebin page can be configured in trac.ini, section [pastebin], option default_recent (default: 10).

02_recent_pastes_rss_feed.patch

Allow to fetch list of recent pastes as RSS feed. This allows for example to let a Supybot announce new pastes in IRC channels. Similar to the timeline RSS feed, the number of items that get displayed in the feed can be adjusted using the max query parameter. The maximum amount of items that may be requested this way can be limited in trac.ini, section [pastebin], option max_recent (default: 30).

03_other_formats_configurable.patch

The Download in other formats functionality can be disabled in trac.ini, section [pastebin], option enable_other_formats (default: enabled). For example, this might help a little to prevent search engine spiders from getting HTML-ized spam pastes and using them to boost page rank of spamvertized sites.

04_other_formats_filter.patch

Allows finer-grained control over which pastes may be downloaded in other formats. Download is disabled if the MIME-type of a paste matches one of the filters defined in trac.ini, section [pastebin], option filter_other_formats. * may be used as wildcard.

05_use_same_formatter_in_reply.patch

When replying to a paste, the formatter that was used in the paste that is replied to will be pre-selected for the reply.

06_show_metadata.patch

Show additional information (Content-Type and formatter/highlighter) when viewing a paste.

07_rename_permission.patch

Rename permission PASTEBIN_USE to PASTEBIN_VIEW. Introduce new permission PASTEBIN_ADMIN.

08_finegrained_permission.patch

Implement fine-grained permissions for creating new pastes (PASTEBIN_CREATE) and replying to existing ones (PASTEBIN_REPLY). PASTEBIN_CREATE and PASTEBIN_REPLY both include the PASTEBIN_VIEW permission.

09_delete_pastes.patch

Introduce new permission PASTEBIN_DELETE; users with this permission are allowed to delete pastes.

10_turing_test.patch

Implements a simple turing test that might help against spambots. A new field is added to the form that's used for creating pastes. Pastes will not be accepted if anything is filled into this field; the idea behind it is that many spambots will fill each field of a form, and thus can be identified this way. The field is hidden with CSS, and for cases where CSS is not supported a clear warning is displayed along with the field. This feature can be disabled in trac.ini, section [pastebin], option turing_test. It's enabled by default.

I have some more patches in my queue which I will add to this ticket over time. Comments and suggestions welcome.

[osimons]

I've quickly skimmed through the patches:

• 01-06 looks generally useful and adds nice improvements to the features and configuration.
• 07-09 mostly deals with permissions, but I think I'd want the core of these patches implemented using the resource system instead. Certainly anything with fine-grained permissions should have pastes as resources to allow other plugins to implement permission policies that also filter pastes.
• 10 i'm not so keen on. All other plugins that deal with spam implement optional plugins to the ​trac:SpamFilter plugin, so that if you have that installed then it will also automatically check the entered pastes. That means implementing something like an IPasteManipulator interface to allow other plugins to hook into the paste creation and potentially veto the changes. An IPasteListener would also be nice while you are at it... :-)

[osimons]

Oops. Missed one comment: The 02-RSS feature should really be a timeline provider - providing items to the general timeline of the project. I really don't see the point of a separate paste-only feed.

[Michael Renzmann]

Replying to osimons:

I've quickly skimmed through the patches:

Thanks for your feedback.

• 07-09 mostly deals with permissions, but I think I'd want the core of these patches implemented using the resource system instead.

Although I have hacked some Trac plugins, I'm unexperienced when it comes to the more advanced features that Trac offers. Can you please advise where I can find more details about the changes you're suggesting here? Pointing to another plugin that implements the things the way you've described above would be enough for a start, I think.

• 10 ... That means implementing something like an IPasteManipulator interface to allow other plugins to hook into the paste creation

Agreed. Patch 10 is meant as a quick and dirty solution that just works, until I figure out how to implement a more general interface to the spamfilter plugin.

An IPasteListener would also be nice while you are at it... :-)

That would allow other plugins to react on newly posted pastes, right?

Replying to osimons:

The 02-RSS feature should really be a timeline provider - providing items to the general timeline of the project.

Ack, that's actually on my to do list already. Patch 2 was my original motivation to start working on this plugin; I've implemented it to allow pastes to be announced in a IRC support channel by a Supybot that I run.

[osimons]

My FullBlogPlugin I suppose already have all these features - posts as resources, fine-grained permissions, timeline feed for all details, search provider, optional spamfilter module, and both manipulator and listener interfaces to make these integrations possible ++. See its source (including the sample plugins). There should be enough hints in there to get you started :-)

[Michael Renzmann]

Replying to otaku42:

01_recent_pastes_configurable.patch ...
03_other_formats_configurable.patch ...
04_other_formats_filter.patch ...
05_use_same_formatter_in_reply.patch ...
06_show_metadata.patch ...

Committed in r4885, r4886, r4887, r4888 and r4889 respectively.

[Michael Renzmann]

Replying to otaku42:

02_recent_pastes_rss_feed.patch ...

Voided by r4892.

[dclark]

Going to give #10 a try to see if it helps with paste spam I've been getting recently. Adding name to cc: list as I'm interested in any updates to this ticket.

[dclark]

Turning test patch updated for current svn version (gzipped to get past spam filter)

[dclark]

Updated 10_turing_test.patch to work against current svn - 10_turing_test_for_r6222.patch.gz - note that the css to hide the turning test works under icecat (firefox) 3.0.11, but not under 3.5.

[Michael Renzmann]

Replying to otaku42:

07_rename_permission.patch ...
08_finegrained_permission.patch ...

r4983

09_delete_pastes.patch ...

r4984

10_turing_test.patch ...

That's the only patch of the series that's left open. I'm tending to replace it with an implementation of such a feature following osimmon's suggestion above (plugging it into the spamfilter framework). But I won't have the time for that anytime soon, it seems :(

[lkraav]

since only patch 10 is left to be implemented, perhaps we can close this ticket and move spam filtering implementation to a new ticket?

[Michael Renzmann]

Replying to lkraav:

since only patch 10 is left to be implemented, perhaps we can close this ticket and move spam filtering implementation to a new ticket?

Good point. Closing this ticket as fixed, spam filter integration has been moved to #6144.