With this new version, we’ve added Project Groups to organize the projects within mosparo better. Additionally, mosparo now has a proof-of-work-based mechanism to protect forms. You can find more about these features and all the other features and changes in this news post.

This beta version (v1.3.0-beta.1) is not production-ready and should only be used for testing.

To test the version, download the beta version here or switch the update channel in your mosparo installation to “Beta” and search for updates.

If you find anything that looks weird or needs to be fixed, please create an issue on GitHub. Thank you very much for your help with testing mosparo. We’re looking forward to your feedback on the new version.

The post First beta of v1.3 ready for testing appeared first on mosparo.

New features

Project groups

mosparo is project-based. A project contains all settings that relate  to one website. mosparo can handle an unlimited number of projects in one mosparo installation. The idea behind this is that if you have more than one website, you need only one mosparo installation.

But if you have many websites, you need many projects. These projects are on one simple list, which can get messy.

Some time ago, we received a suggestion from a user to add project groups to allow better organization of the projects within one mosparo installation.

So, with the new version, v1.3, we’ve added project groups. It’s now possible to add an unlimited number of project groups. The project groups can be organized hierarchically (like a tree), and a project can then be assigned to one group.

With this new feature, we had to rework the main project list and the dropdown in the top left corner.

Suggested by SVillette

Proof of work mechanism security feature

In recent years, it has become popular to protect forms with an automatic puzzle for the browser. These proof-of-work-based puzzles require the browser to calculate a lot of stuff, making it too costly for spam bots to submit the form. For humans, proof-of-work-based spam protection methods are not a problem because the user does not have to do anything to solve them.

The mosparo team thinks this spam protection method is unreliable because all it needs to solve such an automatic puzzle is a processor – and every device connected to the internet has such a processor – so every bot and every human can solve it. Since everybody can solve it, it’s only a speed bump and not a protection method.

But since many people like these proof-of-work-based puzzles, we thought it’s a great addition to our security features. With this sixth security feature, protecting forms with a proof-of-work-based mechanism is now possible. In addition to this simple speed bump, you can add rules and use the other security features to catch even more spam than with other proof-of-work-based spam protection.

Choose the language source

mosparo uses your browser’s language to show the correct language in the mosparo frontend box. But sometimes, this looks weird because the browser has a different language than the whole page.

A user suggested that we should use the HTML lang attribute to decide the language for the mosparo box. We thought about that suggestion and added now an option, with which you can select for each project what the source of the language should be.

By default, we still use the browser language for the sentences. If the configured language is not translated, we fall back to English sentences.

With the newly added option, you can choose between “Browser Language> HTML Language > English” or “HTML Language > Browser Language > English”. This means we either use the browser or the HTML lang attribute language to determine the correct language. If that language is not available, we fall back to the other language, and if that’s also not available, we fall back to English.

With this change, the mosparo box can now be displayed in the same language as the rest of the website, making it fit better together.

Suggested by Sapper-Morton

Compatibility with SQLite

We decided to add SQLite as a third database engine in addition to the existing two, MySQL/MariaDB and PostgreSQL.

The good thing about SQLite is that it works with no additional server or software (except the PHP module). In addition, we had the idea to offer a demo installation of mosparo so new users can test mosparo before installing it.

We discussed different solutions, but since a demo can be ‘destroyed’, we have to make sure that we reset it from time to time. The SQLite database engine offered us an alternative to this. When you open the demo, we copy the SQLite database file for your session, so you have your own demo installation and can destroy that one, but all the other users can still use the demo without a problem.

But – of course – you can also install mosparo and use SQLite as the database engine. mosparo has been tested and works well with SQLite. We recommend using a database server (MySQL/MariaDB or PostgreSQL) instead of SQLite for large installations or websites with a lot of traffic.

Docker Health Check

Another new feature in the new version is the added health check route, which is used to check the health of the Docker container. The health route checks the connection to the database. If the connection works correctly, then mosparo should work perfectly. 

The mosparo Docker image uses the health check to check the health of the Docker container by default. However, the health route can also be used without Docker and with custom monitoring tools.

Suggested by Digi92

General verifications in the submission detail view

Some of the security features, such as the check for Equal Submissions, are not visible in the submission detail view. This makes it hard to understand why a submission was accepted, and it’s not clear if the security features worked or didn’t work.

We added the general verifications to the submission detail view with the new version. The result of the Minimum Time, Equal Submissions, and Proof-of-Work mechanism security features are now visible with the needed and measured values.

Changes

Updated dependencies

With the new version, we’ve also updated all our frontend and backend dependencies. While these changes should not be notable, one was more important.

We’ve updated our primary framework for the user interface, Tabler, to the latest version. With this update, some technical things changed in the background, but we corrected some things, so the changes should not be visible to the user.

Other adjustments

Additionally, we adjusted different parts of the user interface and other small things. For example, the numbers in the filters are displayed as badges. We also adjusted the visibility of the user roles in the project members and users list.

Thank you

Developing such a project requires a lot of energy and time. This version took more time than planned. But thanks to our users, contributors, and testers, we received much support for our work. We thank you for all your feedback, support, ideas, translations, and all the other help!

If you have any suggestions to enhance or optimize mosparo, you can send them to us by creating a post in the Discussions section on GitHub.

The post New Features & Changes in Version 1.3 appeared first on mosparo.

A very important bug fix solves a problem with the project’s origin hosts. mosparo didn’t validate the hosts correctly. This changes with the new version, and the hosts are verified correctly. Please test your form after upgrading to v1.2.

You can find all the details about the new version 1.2 in this post: New Features & Changes in Version 1.2

We’ve also prepared a video introducing the new features, changes, and bug fixes. You can watch the video on YouTube or Vimeo.

Because of the accessibility adjustments, some translations have not yet been updated to this new version. Your help in updating the changed translations is always welcome. You can find the list of translations on Weblate. Learn more about translating mosparo in our documentation.

Thank you very much for your contributions. We’re thankful for all the bug reports, translations, questions, ideas, bug reports, and all the other feedback we get from our users.
We look forward to reading your issue, question, or idea on GitHub. You can also contact us by emailing feedback@mosparo.io or on all the possible social media platforms (see the website’s footer).

The post Version 1.2 of mosparo released appeared first on mosparo.

You can find all the details about the new version in this news post.

Important: One of the bug fixes could break the functionality of your form if you haven’t configured the project correctly. Read more about it in the news post with the changes or in the documentation.

This beta version (v1.2.0-beta.1) is not production-ready and should only be used for testing.

To test the version, download the beta version here or switch the update channel in your mosparo installation to “Beta” and search for updates.

If you find anything that looks weird or needs to be fixed, please create an issue on GitHub.

Thank you very much for your help with testing mosparo. We’re looking forward to your feedback on the new version.

The post First beta of v1.2 ready for testing appeared first on mosparo.

The two days

The first event occurred on the 20th of April, 2021, on a park bench between two villages in Switzerland. It was late afternoon, and the sun was setting in the background. We, Marc and Matthias, discussed different project ideas. One of these ideas was a very rough one for building a new CAPTCHA solution.

One day later, on the 21st of April, 2021, Matthias (zepich) wrote the concept for a project called “NoSpam”. Later that day, we discussed the concept in a phone call. On the same evening, the first domain was bought, and the project started to take shape.

Some more days later, the name “mosparo” was defined and the project was officially started.

The concept

The concept was written on the 21st of April 2021 and did not receive any adjustment since then. After settling on the name, we did not even update the project name in the concept. The concept describes the essential features and how the verification should generally work.

Of course, mosparo received many more features than we had in our minds three years ago. However, comparing the concept with the final software is interesting because we wrote the concept before we started to develop it and described the technical validation and verification process exactly how we developed it and how it’s still in the software today.

You can read the original concept here: Konzept Project NoSpam (PDF, 97 KB)
The concept is only available in German.

The rest is history

A half year after these two days in April 2021, mosparo was installed on the first website on the internet. It’s our test website for catching spam. Another year later, in August 2022, mosparo’s private beta started with more websites. And finally, another half year later, mosparo was officially released as a public beta.

Thank you for using and supporting mosparo!

If you want to help make mosparo better, you can find all information about contributions on our Contribution page. If you find an issue, please report it as an Issue on GitHub. Please let us know in the GitHub discussions if you have any questions or suggestions. We look forward to hearing from you!

The post Back in time: The start of mosparo appeared first on mosparo.

In recent weeks, “Access for all”, the Swiss foundation for technology adapted to people with disabilities, has tested the mosparo spam protection mechanism for compliance with WCAG 2.1 by the W3C.

Access for all confirms that mosparo is fully compliant with all success criteria at levels of conformance A and AA. To verify compliance, Access for all tested with different experts and different technologies and devices.

Since mosparo was built with accessibility and data privacy in mind, the mechanism of mosparo in the frontend is straightforward and, therefore, not a problem for assistance tools like screen readers and other accessibility tools.

Technical details

Access for all tested the visible and invisible modes of mosparo with version 1.1. We prepared an installation of mosparo and a demonstration form for Access for all. We’ve added some rules to test the spam and non-spam scenarios.

Some optimizations, which Access for all found while testing the mosparo spam protection, were already added with version v1.1.2, while some additional optimizations will be added with mosparo v1.2.

WCAG 2.1 AAA

We’re planning to go a step further and want to verify the compliance with the success criteria at the level of conformance AAA. We will inform you once we have more information about that project.

Accessibility Conformance Declaration

Accessibility conformance declaration WCAG 2.1 A and AA (PDF, 183 KB)

If you want to help make mosparo better, you can find all information about contributions on our Contribution page. If you find an issue, please report it as an Issue on GitHub. Please let us know in the GitHub discussions if you have any questions or suggestions. We look forward to hearing from you!

The post Compliance with WCAG 2.1 A and AA appeared first on mosparo.

Enough of the numbers. Last year was great, and we’re always happy to find mosparo on websites in the internet. We added many new features with the versions last year and also with the new version 1.1.

You can find all the details about version 1.1 in the post here: New Features & Changes in version 1.1

We’ve also prepared a small video to present the new features. You can watch the video on YouTube or Vimeo.

This year, we will continue with the development of mosparo. We have some ideas ready, and some users have given us ideas for new features. We’re always looking forward to seeing your ideas.

Thank you very much for your contributions. We’re thankful for all the ideas, bug reports, translations, and all the other feedback we get from our users.

We look forward to reading your issue, question, or idea on GitHub. You can also contact us by emailing feedback@mosparo.io or on all the possible social media platforms (see the website’s footer).

The post mosparo version 1.1 released appeared first on mosparo.

You can find all the details about the new version in this post.

This beta version (v1.1.0-beta.1) is not production-ready and should only be used for testing.

To test the version, download the beta version here or switch the update channel in your mosparo installation to “Beta” and search for updates.

If you find anything that looks weird or needs to be fixed, please create an issue on GitHub.

Thank you very much for your help with testing mosparo. We’re looking forward to your feedback on the new version.

The post First beta of v1.1 ready for testing appeared first on mosparo.

We got great feedback over the last months about the project and the software, so that we could develop mosparo in a very good direction. With version 1.0, we’ve added another round of new features, for example, the invisible mode. You can find an overview of all features and changes in version 1.0 in this post. Additionally, we prepared a video with the most significant changes. You can watch it on YouTube or Vimeo.

We additionally produced a video to explain the general functionality of mosparo. You can watch the video on YouTube or Vimeo.

We’re thankful for all the support, feedback, ideas, and kind words we got to hear from our contributors and fans over the last months.

We’re looking forward to reading your issue, question, or idea on GitHub or your Product Hunt review. You can also contact us by emailing feedback@mosparo.io or on all the possible social media platforms (see footer of the website).

The post mosparo releases version 1.0 and ends public beta appeared first on mosparo.

You can find all the new features and details about the new version in this post.

This version (v1.0.0-beta.1) is not production-ready and should only be used for testing.

To test the version, download the beta version here or switch the update channel in your mosparo installation to “Beta” and search for updates.

If you find anything that looks weird or needs to be fixed, please create an issue on GitHub.

Thank you very much for your help with testing mosparo. We’re looking forward to hearing your feedback on the new version.

The post First Beta of v1.0 ready for testing appeared first on mosparo.