Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress
I’ve created a plugin for WordPress that can cloak outgoing links in your posts and/or pages.
Features
- Choose what to cloak – all links, only the links you specify or no links at all.
- Choose where to cloak – posts, pages or both.
- Configure the URL – you can set the “prefix” part of the URL (see examples below).
- Exception list – links pointing to domains in this list will not be cloaked. For example, this is useful if you have chosen to cloak all links but don’t want to cloak the links to your own domains.
- Compatible with all browsers – the link cloaker plugin doesn’t use JavaScript so it will work even for visitors that have disabled JS.
- “Smart” cloaking – relative, ambiguous or malformed URLs will not be cloaked. Better safe than sorry.
- As of version 1.1, static link cloaking.
New! The premium version of this plugin is now available and includes several new features :
- Cloak links in any part of your site, including the comment section and the sidebar.
- Five new cloaking types – for example, you can display the cloaked URL in a frame, or use a special redirect that hides the referrer.
- Improved link management and click statistics.
- Free automatic updates.
- And more. Check out EclipseCloaker.com for complete details.
Examples
Here’s a link explicitly tagged for cloaking -
<a href="http://evil-guide.tripod.com/"><!--cloak-->A Cloaked Link</a>
And here’s what it looks like in the post – A Cloaked Link
If you have configured the plugin to cloak all links (the default) you don’t need the <!–cloak–> tag inside your links.
Installation
- Download the link-cloaking-plugin.zip file.
- Unzip the file.
- Upload the `link-cloaking-plugin` folder to the `/wp-content/plugins/` directory.
- Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress.
- (Optional) Go to Options -> Link Cloaking and modify the default settings to your liking.
- Re-save your permalink settings to insert the plugin’s link redirection code to the WordPress .htaccess file :
- WP 2.7 and above : Go to Settings -> Permalinks and click “Save Changes”.
- Older versions of WP : Go to Options -> Permalinks and click “Update Permalinks”.
Download
Version 1.3 : link-cloaking-plugin.zip (9 KB)
Requirements :
- WordPress 2.2 – 2.8.4
mod_rewrite. If “pretty permalinks” work on your blog then you probably have this already.
I changed it to goto, but nothing happened! hmm… how can i check, if the redirector is called? ^^ i’m not such a pro
Well, a simple way would be to open wplc_redirector.php in a text editor and put something – anything – before the first “<?” string. Then click a cloaked link and see if the text you placed there shows up.
i put “roflmao
” before the first <?php and it appeard in the left corner of the whole website including the admin menu
I find that unlikely/strange. wplc_redirector.php should only be called when you click a cloaked link. Maybe you modified wplc_link_cloaking_plugin.php?
oh
you’re right 
i modified the wrong file! ;D;D
but if i put it into the redirector.php file, nothing happens if i click on a cloaked link… he always says, that this page doenst exist oO
I think the .htaccess is to blame, because it doesn’t call the redirector… and that’s all I can say
If I was in a situation like this I would try to mess around with the .htaccess file, trying various things, to see why it doesn’t work. However, I don’t have a tutorial for that…
I met same problem with Christoph…:-0, hope I can find the solution soon….
a BIG fat thanks for this plug!!
Was going nuts because I had only 404s in the beginning, but found the solution in the comments here – maybe you can add it to the readme that the code in .htaccess has to be at the top – by default it is added in between and wordpress (2.3.2 on my site) adds the WP defaults to the end of the file again… so editing .htaccess manually seems to be a must.
Now just have to manually redirect the sidebar links.
All best and again THANKS for this one!
Good idea, I’ll add it to the readme.
pls try to find a solution for my problem =\
i need your plugin very much ^^
Eh, I don’t know. Maybe you need to put the plugin code before the authentication codes? Or something?… No new ideas :/
I put the plugin code on the top of the .htaccess, yeah,it works!! Thanks
I have seen this is a great one for a nice Wp plugins
Thank You..
[...] einfachste Methode ist meiner Meinung nach: Link Cloaking Plugin von W-Shadow. Einfach [...]
Seems still not working with wordpress version 2.3.3 any advice?..
Check some of the comments above. You probably need to move the plugin code in .htaccess to the top of that file.
[...] W-Shadow developed a Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress and is pretty much well-supported by its developer. I suppose it’s a nice alternative to other “affiliate link manager” (as they like to call themselves, but they’re just fancy words for masking or cloaking links! ) scripts out there, and it seems pretty easy to install, although from reading the comments it also looks like you need to meddle a bit with your htaccess file to make it really work well. [...]
[...] into a clickable link. You might want to use a link cloaking plugin for Wordpress such as this : ø Link Cloaking Plugin for WordPress | W-Shadow.com ø Highlighting sales, special offers, discount codes etc should help especially if they are [...]
hey, nice and neat plugin. Thank you!
I’ve been trying this plugin here
http://www.hyperhigh.co.uk/orbounder-trampoline.html
but every click sends me back to the home page
Without the plugin activated it sends me to the right place – any advice is much appreciated!
I’ve looked at your page. The links redirect back to the homepage because the plugin can’t find the original (uncloaked) link in the post.
This can happen if the original link was created by another plugin, or if it uses some unusual code (as opposed to the normal <a href=’….’>lalala</a> way).
ah I see, yeah the post is pulling some of the information from a database using PHP so that could be the problem. thanks for taking a look.
Hi Techs,
i have a blog where i publish Freeware posts (http://www.telebajar.com) .
I am looking for a wp plugin to wrap
the URL´s to the download sites so that i link to a cloaked URL and i can avoid to have broken links to non existing download URLs (outdated)
a good example is sourceforge.net whre the download links and the mirros are always changing. Do you think this plugin will be useful for this?
Thank a lot in advance
Telebajador
You could use the static cloaking feature to do this. Alternatively, you could use a plugin that checks for broken links.
Hi
Trying out the plugin now and like it so far!
But one thing, is it possible to use it whitout the prototype js?
prototype.js is only necessary if you use “static” cloaked links – it’s used on the AJAX-y link editing screen. Other kinds of cloaked links – like those marked with <–cloak–> – don’t need any JavaScript.
Ok. Thanks for the answer, will try to take out the pototype then
And thanks again for a nice plugin!
I’m stupid hehe.. Did not manage to remove prototype..
Could I ask for som pointers in what to edit? If it aint to much
Thanks
Comment out this line:
in wplc_link_cloaking_plugin.php. It’s around line 148.
There’s other stuff that could/should be removed as well, but the above line is the only one you need to remove if you just want to prevent the plugin from adding prototype.js inside the <head> tags.
I hope that makes sense
Woks like a charm! Thanks a milion!