skype number recognition

Question

Is it possible to turn off skype number recognition with some html or javascript? I'm NOT interested in turning it off only for my machine but for anyone visiting my page. I have seen the

<meta name="SKYPE_TOOLBAR" content="SKYPE_TOOLBAR_PARSER_COMPATIBLE" />

business but it does not work for me with Firefox. I've also seen comments that this meta is not recognized in skype 4.2.

This is quite a problem since skype is recognizing data in table as phone numbers. For example, the line with two angles

00 23 58 17 45 00

is recognized as a phone number in Chad!

I know I could add some invisible rubbish to these numbers but there are a bunch of them and that's pretty ugly.

Mckinney

Works for me in firefox. – Otey

Answer 1

You could always add the following CSS:

#skype_pnh_container, #skype_plugin_object, #skype_highlighting_settings {
    display: none !important;
}

Gaylordgaylussac

Answer 2

yes its possible. you have to split the number in your html code, so that it is not recognised as a whole. seperate it by an zero width span or an transparent image or something. it could even be enough if you wrap the routing code and the number in seperat span tags. or better floating left div tags... i have no skype installed so you have to try it out, but thats the way to go.

update: you could as well see what html code is generaged and remove it with a javascript code but thats deadly inefficient and unnecessary

SOLUTION: it seems to be enough to use the soft hyphen character ­

heres an article on that: http://www.ambrosite.com/blog/hide-phone-numbers-from-skype-using-the-html-soft-hyphen

Hothouse

spans have no effect. divs cause new lines. – Mckinney

i said floating divs --- and check out that link i added – Hothouse

Answer 3

I saw over the interweb a lot of possible solutions javascript solutions, meta tags, css and maybe I found an hack actually working for my websites, I tested on some computers and it work and I think it will work until skype don't change something in their code.

I was looking what is the skype exactly doing on our pages, and it creates some span around the phone numbers, as you already said, but it even add an <object> tag at the end of the document, just after the body closed tag.

And here I saw the trick! Just before that object there is a configuration tag:

<span id="skype_highlighting_settings" display="none" autoextractnumbers="1"></span>

This is added dynamically by the plugin! but here the solution become obvious, to finally stop skype messing with your design and avoid changing phone number the solution is to insert very early in the document the following tag:

<span id="skype_highlighting_settings" display="none" autoextractnumbers="0"></span>

notice the autoextractnumbers="0", here is the trick. The document will not validate anyway with that tag because there is no attribute "autoextractnumbers" but i noticed that it works even if commented:

<!-- <span id="skype_highlighting_settings" display="none" autoextractnumbers="0"></span> -->

And that's it! Enjoy your webpages free from messy plugins! And your web page will still validate correctly. Hope it works for you too! I have tested on a couple of computer 3 different browsers and 2 different skype versions, for now it works for me, let me know if it works for you too and if it works share it :)

Ectoenzyme

Answer 4

I would try adding the CSS:

span.skype_pnh_container {
  display: none !important;
}

Unfortunately I can't test it because I can't get the toolbar to work in Firefox, and IE's developer tools aren't cutting it. If it doesn't work, I'd try adding it through javascript after the page loads.

Vullo

I added this css script and enclosed the entire body with a <span class=skype_pnh_container> ... </span>. The onlt effect was to turn off line feeds between paragraphs. – Mckinney

span.skype_pnh_container is the formatting for the Skype link. You shouldn't have to add one. – Vullo

Do you mean I should not add a span around the body? Also, I have used JS but I am really a novice. How would I add the definition to my <head> using JS? – Mckinney

Do not add any spans. Just put these in the head tag: <script type="text/javascript" src="code.jquery.com/jquery-1.4.2.min.js"></script> <script type="text/javascript">$(document).ready(function() { $('.skype_pnh_container').css('display', 'none !important'); })</script> – Vullo

ok, I put these lines between the <head> and </head> but the skype stuff is still displayed. Does the body have to call the function or is ready equivalent to <body onload....>? – Mckinney

Answer 5

Try this JavaScript:

http://www.codeblog.co.uk/2010/04/07/web-development/how-to-stop-skype-toolbar-from-changing-numbers-to-skype-buttons-ruining-your-website-design-update/

Sorb

This is better. any idea why the first two numbers get killed while the third and fourth do not? I'd prefer to turn all recognition off. – Mckinney

Answer 6

All of the solutions provided to this question are no longer working, or aren't very efficient. The following CSS will remove the Skype Click-to-Call buttons very efficiently.

body span[class ^= "skype_pnh_print_container"] {
    display: inline !important;
}

body span.skype_pnh_container {
    display: none !important;
}

Spokesman