BotDetect Laravel 5.5 CAPTCHA Integration Quickstart

Unlike Recaptcha the Stalker -- BotDetect CAPTCHA works in China! Licensable source-code; self-hosted -- doesn't stalk -- nor does it slurp your form-data! Think: GDPR & LGPD!

1. Installing the BotDetect Laravel Captcha Composer Package

Path Aliases Used Throughout This Guide

<MY_LARAVEL_WEBROOT>: the root of the application install (same as the base_path() Laravel helper)
<MY_LARAVEL_APP>: the app directory (same as the app_path() Laravel helper)
<BD_LARAVEL_PACK>: the downloaded and extracted contents of the BotDetect Captcha Laravel Package

Note: If you do not have Composer yet, you can install it by following the instructions on https://getcomposer.org

With local Git (Default)
Without local Git

If you have Git installed on your development machine, you should use the following installation procedure:

Step 1: Install the BotDetect Laravel Captcha Composer Package

Run the following command in your application's root directory:

Step 2: Register the Laravel Captcha service provider (<MY_LARAVEL_WEBROOT>/config/app.php):

"providers" => [
  ...
  LaravelCaptcha\Providers\LaravelCaptchaServiceProvider::class
]

If you DON'T have Git installed on your development machine, you should use the following installation procedure:

Step 1: Open composer.json file from your application's root directory and add the repository (<MY_LARAVEL_WEBROOT>/composer.json):

{
  "repositories": [
    {
      "type": "composer",
      "url": "http://packages.captcha.com"
    }
  ]
}

Step 2: Install the BotDetect Laravel Captcha Composer Package

Run the following command in your application's root directory:

Step 3: Register the Laravel Captcha service provider (<MY_LARAVEL_WEBROOT>/config/app.php):

"providers" => [
  ...
  LaravelCaptcha\Providers\LaravelCaptchaServiceProvider::class
]

2. Show a Captcha Challenge on the Form

a) If Laravel is a backend for your js-based frontend, perhaps you should start with a guide that describes integration from js-framework point of view: jQuery, Angular, AngularJS, or React.

b) If you are using Laravel forms, here is how to configure Captcha options, and display Captcha in your Laravel form:

Register GET and POST routes:

Route::get('example', 'ExampleController@getExample');
Route::post('example', 'ExampleController@postExample');

Captcha configuration options (/config/captcha.php):

<?php if (!class_exists('CaptchaConfiguration')) { return; }

// BotDetect PHP Captcha configuration options

return [
  // Captcha configuration for example page
  'ExampleCaptcha' => [
    'UserInputID' => 'CaptchaCode',
    'ImageWidth' => 250,
    'ImageHeight' => 50,
  ],

];

Showing a Captcha challenge in a View:

<link href="{{ captcha_layout_stylesheet_url() }}" type="text/css" rel="stylesheet">
</head>
  
  [...]

  {!! captcha_image_html('ExampleCaptcha') !!}
  <input type="text" id="CaptchaCode" name="CaptchaCode">

3. Check User Input During Form Submission

When a form is submitted, Captcha validation result must be checked in a Controller code:

<?php namespace App\Http\Controllers;

use Illuminate\Http\Request;

class ExampleController extends Controller
{
  public function getExample()
  {
    return view('example');
  }

  public function postExample(Request $request)
  {
    // validate the user-entered Captcha code when the form is submitted
    $code = $request->input('CaptchaCode');
    $isHuman = captcha_validate($code);

    if ($isHuman) {
      // TODO: Captcha validation passed, perform protected  action
    } else {
      // TODO: Captcha validation failed, show error message
    }
  }
 
}