So you want to add a link, or even a button to your page that says "Contact Me". Well, that's easy enough, just add the URL mailto:[email protected] and you're good to go. And guaranteed – from the second day onward that your site is online, you'll be spammed! Don't want spam? You'll need to obfuscate your mail address by going to one of the online services, adding your contact details and your link text. Then you'll be safe!
But what if you want a "Call Me", or a Skype Me" button? Do you really want to be pestered every twenty minutes?

Enter TouchBase from Stacks4Stacks. TouchBase can mask Facetime, MailTo, Skype, Telephone or VoIP details with ease and can even add a subject line and header text to your email, or automatically launch a chat, or a video connection. You no longer need to trawl the internet for obfuscation sites; a few keystrokes and you're done!

Generally, there are two main methods of obfuscation available: HTML and Javascript. Javascript falls flat if your site's visitor has disabled JS. For this reason TouchBase inserts the obfuscated HTML into a PHP file and loads it from there (for this reason your links will be visible, but won't function in preview mode), effectively hiding it from spambots.

TouchBase is a brilliant stack because it makes obfuscation so simple and because it can mask so many link formats. It can add a simple text link to your page, or a fully configurable button with rollover effects to match other buttons on your site. And whilst no obfuscation method will give 100% protection against bots, and certainly won't protect against manual attacks, TouchBase does its job admirably.