Captcha

Plugin Description

Simple:Press comes with a effective ‘math question’ query feature that helps to prevent spam registrations and posts.

Anti-SPAM can be taken a bit further using the Captcha plugin which will give an even more rigorous anti-spam check that requires a user to choose a requested image from a list and drag it to a drop area.

Plugin Features

Installing this Simple:Press plugin adds:

  • A new Captcha section in the “Available Plugins – Install Simple:Press Plugins” panel under the forum Admin menu path Forum > Plugins > Available Plugins. From this panel the plugin can be activated, or deleted by the admin.
  • When properly installed, a new folder in the “forum-plugin” folder named “captcha” containing the plugin’s files.

Activating this plugin provides:

  • A change to the new Captcha section in the “Available Plugins – Install Simple:Press Plugins” panel under the Admin menu path Forum > Plugins > Available Plugins so the Simple:Press plugin can be deactivated, uninstalled, or have its Options set up.
    • The Options link goes to the “Components – Login And Registration” forum Admin panel.
    • The “Getting Started” link associated with the “Deactivate/Uninstall/Options” selections should be selected to view the pertinent information regarding the plugin.
  • A new “Captcha on User Registration” section in the “Components – Login And Registration” forum Admin panel where
    • the selection can be made to add the Captcha check to the WP registration/signup form.

Note: It is advised that the “Math Spam” tool (enabled in the “User Registration” section also on this page) and this more sophisticated Captcha plugin not both be enabled for registrations at the same time. Select one or the other.

  • The “Help” link should be used for assistance in setting up the options.
  • The “Components – Login And Registration” forum Admin panel can also be accessed under the Admin menu path Forum > Components > Login And Registration

Plugin Requirements

Simple:Press version 5.5.5 and above is required.

The Simple:Press plugin must be downloaded, installed, activated, and its options set before it is operational.

  • As part of the installation, a Captcha section is added to the “Available Plugins – Install Simple:Press Plugins” panel under the admin menu Forum > Plugins > Available Plugins. From this panel the plugin can be activated, deactivated, uninstalled, deleted, or its options set using its “Activate/Delete” and “Deactivate/Uninstall/options” selections.
    • The Options link goes to the “Component – Login and Registration” forum Admin panel.

There is one (1) new permission added to the permission sets due to this plugin that must be set up.

  • A new permission “Can bypass the post captcha check” that must be enabled by the forum Admin in the permissions sets for usergroups being allowed to bypass the captcha check. A permission set is edited from the forum Admin menu at Forum > Permissions > Manage Permission Sets by clicking on the “Edit Permission” button associated with the permission set.

Note: It is advised that usergroups should not have to do both “answer a Math Spam question” and “perform the Captcha check” when submitting a post if this plugin is active.The “Can bypass the math question” permission selection is found in each usergroup permission set.

The forum admin may elect to have some usergroups perform neither the Math Spam question nor the Captcha check, other usergroups to perform the Math Spam questions only, and still other usergroups to perform the Captcha check only.

Select one or the other or none, but not both checks to be performed on a post submittal by any usergroup.

The plugin has no (0) template tags so there are no recommendations made regarding developing Child Themes or Custom Themes to accommodate changes to template tags.

Plugin Installation and Activation

Please see Using Plugins on how to obtain and install this Simple:Press plugin.

  • Whatever method is used to add the Simple:Press plugin, the folder that should have been added to the forum plugin folder is named “captcha“.
  • If using the “Simple:Press Upload Plugin – Upload a Simple:Press Plugin” panel at the forum Admin menu Forum > Plugins > Plugin Uploader, the folder to browse for after downloading it from the Simple:Press site is “captcha.zip” before clicking the “Upload Now” button.

As mentioned there the default location for Simple:Press plugin folders is …/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-plugins. If this path is changed, it is important to note that the plugin’s folder and its content need to reside in the forum plugins folder wherever it has been moved and however it has been renamed. See Storage Locations for more information.

Activation is accomplished from the Admin Dashboard panel menu by selecting Forum > Plugins > Available Plugins from the drop down forum Admin menu. On the “Available Plugins – Install Simple:Press Plugins” panel select the Captcha plugin and click on “Activate”. The “Activate/Delete” label changes to “Deactivate/Uninstall/Options” with a “Get Started” Link.

  • The “Getting Started” link associated with the “Deactivate/Uninstall/Options” selections should be selected to view the pertinent information regarding the plugin.

To deactivate the plugin, click on “Deactivate”. The “Deactivate/Uninstall/Options” label changes to “Activate/Delete”.

Plugin Administrative Options

After activation, a) on the aforementioned “Available Plugins – Install Simple:Press Plugins” panel, click “Options” on the Captcha plugin section or b) under the Components entry on the forum menu on the left side forum admin page click the Login And Registration sub-menu item to get the “Components – Login And Registration” panel with the “Captcha on User Registration” and the “User Registration” sections.

Note: It is advised that the “Math Spam” tool (enabled in the “User Registration section) and this more sophisticated Captcha plugin not both be enabled for registrations at the same time. Select one or the other.

  • Setting up “Captcha on User Registration” Section

In this option the Captcha spam check can be enabled on the WP registration and multi-site signup page if desired. The Captcha is a rigorous anti-spam check that requires a user to choose a requested image from a list and drag it to a drop area.

  • Find the “Captcha on User Registration” section of the admin panel.
  • To use Captcha on User Registration, enable the option by clicking in the check box to the left of “Add Captcha form to WP registration/signup form”.
    • The option is enabled when there is a green check mark in the check box.
  • If there are no other selections to make on the panel, click on the “Update Login and Registration Components” button at the bottom of the panel to save the settings. Otherwise, proceed to the next option to select.
  • At a later time, to disable “Captcha” click on the check box containing a green check mark to remove the check mark and then click on the “Update and Registration Components” button to save the new selection.

From the Forum Admin menu on the left of admin pages, select Forum > Permissions > Manage Permission Sets to see the permission sets available.

Note: It is advised that usergroups should not have to do both “answer a Math Spam question” and “perform the Captcha check” when submitting a post if this plugin is active.The “Can bypass the math question” permission selection is found in each usergroup permission set.

The forum admin may elect to have some usergroups perform neither the Math Spam question nor the Captcha check, other usergroups to perform the Math Spam questions only, and still other usergroups to perform the Captcha check only.

Select one or the other or none, but not both checks to be performed on a post submittal by any usergroup.

  • Assigning New Permissions
    • Can Bypass the Post Captcha check
    • Allowing users to bypass the Captcha check when authoring a post is controlled by their group permissions.
    • Each member group that is to have the ability to bypass the Captcha check must have the permission turned on.
    • This is accomplished from the Simple:Press Administration panel Admin menu by clicking/opening Forum > Permissions > Manage Permission Sets.
    • Select “Edit Permission” for the permission set to be updated to view the “Permissions – Manage Permissions” panel.
    • Under “Moderation” click the check box next to “Can bypass the post captcha check” to set/enable the permission. When enabled, the check box contains a green check mark.
    • Click “Update Permission” at the bottom of the page to have the selection saved.
    • At a later time clicking the check box when it has a green check mark removes the check mark and will remove the permission when followed by clicking “Update Permission” to save the revised selection.
    • Repeat these steps on each usergroup to have this permission.
  • Removing Math Spam Requirement
    • Can Bypass the Post Math Question check
    • Allowing users to bypass the Math Question check when authoring a post if the Captcha check is being required is controlled by their group permissions.
    • Each member group that is to have the ability to bypass the Math Question check must have the permission turned on.
    • This is accomplished from the Simple:Press Administration panel Admin menu by clicking/opening Forum > Permissions > Manage Permission Sets.
    • Select “Edit Permission” for the permission set to be updated to view the “Permissions – Manage Permissions” panel.
    • Under “Moderation” click the check box next to “Can bypass the math question” to set/enable the permission. When enabled, the check box contains a green check mark.
    • Click “Update Permission” at the bottom of the page to have the selection saved.
    • At a later time clicking the check box when it has a green check mark removes the check mark and will remove the permission when followed by clicking “Update Permission” to save the revised selection.
    • Repeat these steps on each usergroup to have this permission.

To be complete for multilingual forums, the language translation files for this plugin, “Private Post” should be installed or downloaded/properly placed in the appropriate forum-language folder for SP plugins using one of the procedures below in the “Plugin Language Translation” section of this page.

Plugin Language Translation

A plugin may not have language translation files, but in general each Simple:Press plugin has its own language translation files each with multiple pages for translating the forum plugin’s message strings.

Forum Plugin translation files are to reside in a unique forum folder location as defined by the “Simple:Press Plugin Language Files” entry on the “Integration – Storage Locations” forum Admin panel available through the forum Admin menu at Forum > Integration > Storage Locations.

  • The default location for forum plugin translation files is the folder “…/wp-content/sp-resources/forum-language/sp-plugins”.

Information regarding downloading language files, “mo’ language file placement, and translation (language localization) is found at Localization.

WARNING: On the Localization page, the Language Translation “.mo” Files Overview should be reviewed and well understood for naming convention and language translation file placement.

More information is available regarding translation files at Simple:Press Translations. which is the repository for Simple:Press language translation files. On the base page, select the “Getting Started Guide” link for basics about it’s use. On that page, select the “register a username here” link to obtain a password to the site. Use the “Contact Form” link to request the desired language if it is not currently available. The “Contact Form” link may also be used to volunteer to be a validator for a translation project.

This plugin’s available language translation files with translation statistics, and message translations can be viewed at Captcha within the repository for Simple:Press language translation files.

  • Installing this Simple:Press Plugin’s Language Translation “.mo” files
    This plugin’s language translations files for each language can be correctly located in two ways.
    • Using the Admin Word:Press “Site Language” and Simple:Press “Language Translation” FeaturesWARNING: On the Localization codex page, the Language Translation “.mo” Files Overview should be reviewed and well understood for naming convention and language translation file placement.
      • Under the “Language Translation Selection Sequences” heading, the “Coordinated Language Translation File Download Using the Simple:Press ‘Language Translation’ Selection” section, follow the instructions at “Adding its Translation File(s) After Downloading/Activating a Simple:Press Theme or Simple:Press Plugin”.
        • Follow the instructions to select the “Site Language” and then get to the admin page with the “Integration – Language Translations” section where this plugin should have an entry.
        • Click on the “Install” button for this plugin, “Captcha” to install the language translation file for the current “Site Language” language.
          • Note: If a translation file for the language actually exists, but has no translations in it yet, the message “No Translation Project Exists” may be displayed rather than the “Install” button. Consider starting the translations.
        • Be sure to verify the locale (filename) for the “.mo” file matches the language code for the language as referenced in the “Warning” above. If it does not, change it to match.
        • As called out in the section, continue to change the “Site Language” language and repeat the process until all desired “Private Post” plugin translation files have been installed.
    • Manually Finding and Storing Simple:Press Plugin’s Language Translation ‘mo’ files
    • WARNING: On the Localization codex page, the Language Translation “.mo” Files Overview should be reviewed and well understood for naming convention and language translation file placement.
    • After reviewing the material discussed under the “Language Translation Selection Sequences” heading, the “Manual Installation of Simple:Press Language Translation Files section, follow the steps outlined at “Finding and Storing ANY Simple:Press Plugin’s Language Translation ‘mo’ files”.
    • Each time through the process at the step, “Scroll down the list and click on the name of the plugin whose language files are being sought to see the translation file Version Number available”, substitute “Captcha” for the phrase “the name of the plugin whose language files are being sought”.
    • Be sure to verify the locale (filename) for the “.mo” file matches the language code for the language as referenced in the “Warning” above. If it does not, change it to match.
    • Repeat the steps for each language it is desired to have a translation file (french, spanish, etc.) for the plugin on the website.

Plugin Special Notes

Once this plugin is installed and activated it is recommended that the  math question check in the Simple:Press admin > Components  > Login And Registration page if it is currently being used.

The Captcha spam check on the WordPress registration page can be activated by turning on that option on the same page.

The option of who is required and not required to use the Spam Captcha during forum post submittal is set up in the User Group Permissions in the Simple:Press admin > Permissions and selecting “Edit Permission” for each usergroup to enable/disable the “Can bypass the post captcha check” permission under “Moderation”. As an example you may require guests to pass the captcha test but not logged in members.

Plugin Usage

Forum Admins use the plugin to set up its options.
Forum Users who are registering or are authoring posts may be expected to perform the Captcha check depending on the selections the forum Admin has made on login and registration options or bypass permissions.

  • Captcha on User Registration

If the forum Admin has selected to add the Captcha form to the WP registration/signup form, the registering user must choose a requested image from a list and drag it to a drop area as part of the registration process.

  • After clicking the “Register” button, progress through the registration panels depending on the various policy acceptance or registration options the forum Admin has selected.
  • When the “Captcha” check is shown during the registration process, choose a requested image from a list and drag it to a drop area.
  • Complete the registration process by clicking the “Submit” button.
  • Captcha on Post Submittals

If the forum Admin has not enabled the usergroup permission “Can bypass the post captcha check”, in the captcha check area of the post form the post author must choose a requested image from a list and drag it to a drop area prior to submitting the post.

  • In the Forum View or Topic View after clicking the “Add Topic” button to display the New Topic form or in Topic View after clicking the “Add Reply” button to display the Topic Reply forum:
  • Fill out the form with Topic Name if a new topic.
  • Put in the desired text for the post.
  • Complete any other selections desired for the the post depending on options set by the forum Admin and active plugins.
  • In the “Captcha” check area choose the requested image from a list and drag it to a drop area.
  • Complete the process by clicking the “Submit Topic” or “Submit Reply” button.

Template Tags Used in the Plugin

There are no Template Tags used in this plugin.

Actions and Hooks Used in the Plugin

There are no Actions and Hooks available in Template Tags for this plugin.

There are other Actions and Hooks available for this plugin

Used in file ‘sp-captcha-admin-options-save.php’

  • do_action(‘sph_captcha_uploads_save’) – Hook fired after the Captcha check option has been updated and prior to the message “Captcha options updated” has been displayed.

Used in file ‘sp-captcha-admin-options.php’

  • do_action(‘sph_captcha_options_panel’) – Hook fired after the ‘Captcha on User Registration’ section was added to the “Component – Login and Registration” admin panel and displayed.