EU e-Privacy Directive
Those are some mighty big claims, so I must explain that there are some caveats. 3rd party cookie blocking requires PHP 5.3 and the PHP Reflection Classes. Blocking cookies set by JavaScript requires IE8 or greater, FireFox, Chrome or Opera (probably other modern browsers as well)
This plugin and module combination aims to be the final solution to the EU cookie requirements. This plugin overrides and prevents any cookies sent by Joomla, and any JavaScript cookies from being set until the user accepts them. Many of the other extensions here in the JED don't block cookies at all - or they allow the cookies to be set and then immediately unset them with JavaScript (which is cheating and will fail when JS is disabled).
New in version 2.0 - Most of these additions are the result of user requests:
- 5 methods for display: Message, JS Confirm, Module, Modal or Ribbon.
- 1 method to just remove and prevent cookies.
- Option to decline - which shows a minimal message allowing users to reconsider.
- Option to remove cookies after they've been accepted.
- Option to display only to users visiting from EU countries.
- Option to log users who have accepted cookies (persuant to laws in certain EU countries)
- Option to block 3rd party cookies (requires PHP 5.3)
- Option to customize or omit the CSS style for certain output methods.
- 87% more awesome, bringing the total amount of awesome to 187%.
Update 1.8 - Joomla 1.5 long-term cookie test revised.
Update 2.6 - resolved bug in module when geoplugin enabled.
Update 2.7 - resolves issue with non-html pages
Update 2.8 - resolves an issue that prevented the javascript from loading in certain circumstances.
Update 2.9 - removed code that disabled geoplugin which was added for local testing
Update 2.10 - repaired bug on cookie checker code
Update 2.11 - fixes javascript load order issue
Joomla 1.5 users - please be patient. I am still backporting the J2.5 version! Joomla 1.5 is so inflexible compared to 2.5, I may not be able to replicate all of the functionality...
All of my extensions are free and none of my extensions display advertisements or links to my sites or services. If you feel that I have blessed you, then you can bless me by making a contribution to fund future development. Visit the "Website" link to make a contribution.
It works. Is easy to install (and customise).
A couple of small suggestions for future would be to:
1. allow back-end configuration of some of the front-end language strings, especially "PLG_SYS_EPRIVACY_MESSAGE"
2. and to be able to turn off the post-acceptance messages and buttons.
Those are only niggles really, thanks again for a very useful and nicely crafted Joomla! extension.
1. I've built this to be a multi-lingual extension - so adding a text field to allow editing of that string would be great - except that I would need to include one for every possible language. The language manager has a facility to override individual language strings. It's easy and fast and the recommended method.
2. You could add:
div.plg_system_eprivacy_declined,
div.plg_system_eprivacy_accepted {
width:0px;
height:0px
}
to your template css and those messages would go away...well, they would still be there and fulfill the requirements of the javascript, but they wouldn't be visible. It would work for every display method except the "System Message" method.
3. Thanks for the great review!
We have two different websites. One needs cookies for using shopping cart etc. Now the cookie is only set if the user agrees. Very good!
The other website doesn't need cookies at all. But joomla sets a session cookie all the time. Now this cookie is blocked. And because I didn't activate the modal message plugin and my template doesn't have a system message area, our visitors are not asked for agreeing in cookies - they just don't see it - and the session cookie isn't set at all - it's just don't needed.
Thanks for this great and non-commercial solution to all my problems. Keep up the good work.
I'm glad you described the way you're using it on your second site. The new version is coming soon, and I didn't design it to be used that way - but I will now make some modifications so it can be configured for use as a cookie blocker only.
At first there was a little problem with it, so I mailed Michael, and within the shortest period of time, he replied with an updated version of the plugin attached to the e-mail, which works perfectly.
Keep up the excellent work and support !
This plugin is under ACTIVE development. In addition to bug-reports, I take feedback and suggestions.
this plugin (in combination with Modal System Messages) works miracles in complying to the EU e-Privacy cookie law.
A must have!
Just had one issue: when using a cronjob that uses an url to kickoff a script (eg j!mailalerts) this doesn't work anymore because of the popup hitting the wget command. I found out that you need to append "&eprivacy=1" to the url to make it work again, just a tip for anybody running into this.
Keep up the good work!
Regards, Ruud.
I had a minor issue which the dev fixed within hours (on a weekend).
Highly recommended on all counts.
The public will never see 90% of my work, as I generally work on internal tools for my customers. When I can, I turn those tools into free extensions.
My reputation is built with free extensions for Joomla, so it's very important to me that I protect that reputation. I think I'm doing a good job.
A pitty that I have to change language files to change the message.
And it would be realy great when the visitor is acccepting cookies to set a cookie for this. The status is now not remebered for ever.
Starting with version 1.6, a cookie is set to prevent display after cookies have been accepted. It is a 30 day self-renewing cookie.
As far as the language files go, I'm offering this as a multi-lingual extension. I can't very well have an editable text field for every language - so I went with the language files. I wish I could please everyone...
Using the language manager and overriding the English strings is really the way to go. It's easy and reliable! Best of all - it survives upgrades!
Had a slight issue with installation, due to the particular configuration of my site but a quick e-mail to the author and he resolved it the same afternoon. It doesn't get better than that!
Bug reports work! This is a prime example of a user who had a configuration that I hadn't tested. Once the report was made, I set out to fix it straight away. Thanks for the great review!
After that it was all plain sailing and easy to use.
e-Privacy seems to be the most effective solution I have tried. It's also the easiest to install.
I have a couple of suggestions which I think would help improve the plug in.
It would be nice to have the ability to set the text in the frontend notification from the extension manager parameters, rather than editing the language file directly.
It would also be nice to have an option to assign a url or an article id for the sites cookie policy, which would then render a link in the frontend notification.
The ability to show or hide the link to the EU directive would also be a handy option to have.
Nice work and thanks for sharing.
I LIKE IT!!
Language, no. I am sticking with language files because you can use the language manager to override the English text, and other language files to enable other languages
Cookie policy link and option to disable the law link is great. Look for that in the near future.
