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A captcha is a 'Completely automated public Turing test to tell computers and humans apart', you use them on web site forms to help prevent a 'bot' from using your form. Users now have two captcha options, an image or a math question which is dynamically created for your form. Depending on which option you use the form user has to answer a simple math question or enter the text shown on the image before submitting the form, so the script knows there is a good chance that the form has been submitted by a human.

easiCaptcha is a package of two captcha options that you can add to your web forms easily and quickly, it consists of 2 php script options with their configuration files and a decrypt loader folder that you can use to adjust the selected easiCaptcha's preferences... if you feel the need to. You need to have a php form processing script which is not covered in this tutorial but can be bought with easiForm as a bundle. We recommend using easiCaptcha with easiForm.

Freeway tutorial: easiCaptcha with Freeway

Have a look at an: easiCaptcha Example | easiCaptchaM Example

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What do I need to use easiCaptcha?

1# A copy of easiCaptcha, a fully operational copy will be sent to you on purchasing your license but you can use a demo copy to get everything up and running. Download Demo

2# The server you place the easiCaptcha scripts on needs to have PHP 4.0.3 or above installed, PHP needs to have the GD library installed and activated. (If PHP is installed then you will probably find that the GD library is installed also). If you are unsure then you can upload a phpinfo() script to your server and then load it from a internet browser, or contact your ISP (Internet service provider) and ask them if PHP is installed with the GD library.

3# You need a web form, this can be written by hand, in Dreamweaver, in Freeway or any other program used to create web sites with.

4# A loader file to decrypt the easiScript, the loaded used depends on the system and server type that the easiScript is used on. The default download of easiCaptcha includes the loaders needed for both Windows and Linux servers, if you need a loader for another server type such as OSX, FreeBSD, Solaris or other then those loaders can be downloaded from the ioncube loaders download page. If you are unsure as to which loader to use or have other questions you can Download a folder that will check the loader you need, or if you are having problems you can Contact us.

Note: The form page needs to end in .php, so this following name would not work: 'myform.html' it would need to be: 'myform.php'

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How much does easiCaptcha cost?

The license for easiCaptcha is $15 per domain (Not IP Address), this allows as many copies of easiCaptcha and or easiCaptchaM to be used on the same domain it is registered for. Once bought a license cannot be used for any other domain than the one it has been registered for, nor is it interchangable. Each domain needs it's own licence. Buy easiCaptcha. You could Download the Demo and get your form up and running before you buy.

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How does easiCaptcha work?

Every time the form page is loaded easiCaptcha will create a unique image and text, if used in it's default state (without the configuration script) the background image colour will alternate at random between 'Green', 'Blue', 'Yellow', 'White' and 'Grey', the user can set the background to be fixed to the same colour if preferred. Every time easiCaptcha loads: whatever background colour loads it will be of a slightly different RGB values each time, the text colour will alter slightly at random for each character, the text position will alter at random for each character, the background image pixel speckle and speckle colour will alter at random, any lines grid or otherwise will draw accross the background at random and at a slightly differen RGB colour.

Cookies need to be enabled to use easyCaptcha.

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What control do I have?

There is a configuration script included with easiCaptcha, if you want to you can have control over:

Base colour, select one colour for the background or alternate at random. 'Green', 'Blue', 'Yellow', 'White', 'Grey' or random.

Text case, select the case of the captcha text, 'up', 'low' or 'random' (Upper and lower) case.

Grid or Lines, select to either draw 'lines', 'grid' or 'random' (lines or grid randomly) over the backgound.

Readability, 3 levels of readability, 1 (high), 2 (med) or 3 (low).
High - to make the captcha easier to read for humans. This option basically is the captcha using more or less lines set over the background.
Med - to make the captcha more difficult to read for humans, this is the default and recommended setting.
Low - makes the captcha a lot more difficult to read for both humans and bots, generally it darkens the lines to a colour within the same range as the text, most people should be able to read this but it might present problems for the elderly and sight impaired. Making the captcha easier or more difficult to read also affects the ease and difficulty that bots can read the image.

Error alert, you can set a custom error alert that you want to be shown to the user if the value is entered wrong, this can be set in text or you can use the value of 'true' and handle the error as you like. If you leave this blank then the default error will be show. If you set this value to true then if there is an error the variable $captcha_error will return true so you can handle this as you prefer.

Font size, select the size of the error text font from 1 through to 5.

Error font, select the font you wish to use for the text error, we allow 3 options in the example but you can actually type the fonts you want to use in the configuration file.

Colour, set the error text colour, we allow a selection from 3 in our example but you can set this to whatever colour you want in the configuration file.

Position, the position of the error text, 'left' or 'center'.

If preferred you can just let easiCaptcha run at it's default settings by either not changing the configuration values, or not uploading the configuration file to the server, not uploading the configuration file will not cause any error.

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How effective is easiCaptcha?

It is highly unlikely there is any prevention that has 100% protection that a visitor to your web site would use but the more security you add to your form the more difficult it will be for a bot to use them. easiCaptcha will certainly be a great hinderance to bots using your form, and hopefully be all you every need.

The odd time the easyCaptcha is loaded it might be very difficult to read, there will be more chance of this happening if 'Readability' is set to 'low' and also depend on the coloured base, selecting 'Grey' for example will reduce this from happening to some extent but again this can be of an advantage, if it was easy for humans to read all the time then it might be easy for bots. Placing a link or submit button to the right of the captcha that will allow the user to reload the page may be of help to users under these rare circumstances, if you did this then passing on the values of the form will avoid the user need to refill any of the form values or selections, thus creating a more friendly interface. (Our example does this).

There are so many random calculations added into easiCaptcha for background colours, character position and colours, line position and colours, speckle position and colours etc. that the chances of any two captchas ever matching or being of the same structure is probably as near to zero as possible. easiCaptcha is one of the very few catchas I know of that appears to have this many random calculations and variations affecting colour and positioning.

Download a demo copy and give it a try or see it in action on the example page.

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Do I get access to the code for easiCaptcha?

No, easiCaptcha comes as 3 scripts (files) and a 'Ioncube' folder, 3 of these scripts are needed, the code content of these 3 files is encrypted 'non readable', the 3rd is a configuration script, this is optional and is not encrypted but it can be edited with a text editor. easiCaptcha is distributed like this so no one can alter it or know it's structure and therefore make it more difficult to krack.

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Do I need to add any code to my form to use easiCaptcha?

Yes, but it is very simple, you just need to copy the code from the fields below and follow the directions:

1# This needs to be added to the very top of the form, before any other code:

<?php include_once('easiCaptcha_a.php'); ?>

2# This needs to be added to the table cell or part of the form where you want the catcha to be drawn:

<img src='easiCaptcha_b.php'>

3# You need to add a text field directly under the captcha code from 2# - You can do this using the code below or if using Dreamweaver or Freeway just add a text field to accept a max of 5 chars and set it to a length of 6

<input name='easiCaptcha' size=7 maxlength=6>

4# You need to catch any user entered captcha error, this could be in the form or form handling script. - An example of PHP code to add to your php script to handle a captcha error could be along the lines of:

<?php
// Suggestion - You can check other form values here so the form knows of user value errors.
if ($captcha_error) {
// Captcha filled in wrong.
} else {
// Include your PHP form code to send the form
}
?>

IMPORTANT:

The 'submit' button you use on your form needs to have a 'name' of 'submit' and a 'value', the 'value' can be anything you like but it cannot be empty or easiCaptcha will not work.

For example: <inputtype=submit name="submit" value="Submit">

If you are using Freeway to build your web form with then there are Freeway 4 Pro examples here.

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Copyright © Mike Brackenridge 2006 - 2010