Conceal Email Address with JavaScript

I wrote this perl script years ago when I needed to include my email address on a webpage, but also conceal it from spam bots and spiders.


#!/usr/bin/perl -w

# /usr/local/bin/esc-mailto.pl
# Conceal email address with javaScript.
# by Jean-Sebastien Morisset (https://surniaulula.com/)

use strict;

my ($email, $text) = @ARGV;
$text = $email if (!$text);

if ($email && $text) {
	my $mailto = "<a href=\"mailto:$email\" class=\"esc-mailto\">$text</a>";
	$mailto =~ s/(.)/sprintf("%%%x", ord($1))/ge;
	print "<script language=\"JavaScript\">document.write(unescape(\"$mailto\"))</script>\n";
} else {
	print "syntax: $0 {email_address} [optional_link_text]\n";
	exit 1;
}

exit 0;

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

# /usr/local/bin/esc-mailto.pl

# Conceal email address with javaScript.

# by Jean-Sebastien Morisset (https://surniaulula.com/)

use strict;

my ($email, $text) = @ARGV;

$text = $email if (!$text);

if ($email && $text) {

my $mailto = "<a href=\"mailto:$email\" class=\"esc-mailto\">$text</a>";

$mailto =~ s/(.)/sprintf("%%%x", ord($1))/ge;

print "<script language=\"JavaScript\">document.write(unescape(\"$mailto\"))</script>\n";

} else {

print "syntax: $0 {email_address} [optional_link_text]\n";

exit 1;

}

exit 0;

Download the esc-mailto.pl script.

Cut-and-paste the resulting javascript output to any webpage. The client’s browser will execute the JavaScript and display the resulting HTML text. For example, here’s the output for esc-mailto.pl user@domain.com.


<script type="text/javascript">document.write(unescape("%3c%61%20%68%72%65%66%3d%22%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%3a%75%73%65%72%40%64%6f%6d%61%69%6e%2e%63%6f%6d%22%20%63%6c%61%73%73%3d%22%65%73%63%2d%6d%61%69%6c%74%6f%22%3e%75%73%65%72%40%64%6f%6d%61%69%6e%2e%63%6f%6d%3c%2f%61%3e"))</script>