Get Browser User Agent?

Question

Hello, I am having issues with search engine bots submitting blank forms, bypassing the required fields. I have read the post in regards to this issue although due to the fact that I have multiple forms on a page, I have run into difficulty implementing the accepted solutions. My thought is to use something similar to a suggestion I read which blocks a submission by IP address. As the search engines use a wide variety of IP addresses I am hoping there is a way I can block based on the User Agent (i.e. bingbot) instead of by IP. Does anyone know if there is a way to check this variable after the submission has occurred? It could be a hidden field which collects the information and passes it on or in could be in the PHP validation code (not sure if this second option will work after the form has been submitted). I would appreciate any recommendations.

millermulti · Accepted Answer

In case anyone else is looking for a similar solution, I am testing the following to stop Bing Bot from submitting blank forms, bypassing the built in form field javascript validation. On my form, under Events, I added "Custom Server Side Validation" as the first "On Submit" event. I then added the following PHP under "Configuration":

<?php
if(strstr(strtolower($_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT']), "bingbot"))
{
    $form->validation_errors['data'] = "Form submitted by BingBot. Failed.";
    return false;
}
?>

and an "Event Loop" in the OnFail field.

In testing I was able to successfully stop the BingBot user agent from submitting the form.

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Get Browser User Agent?