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yaCAPTCHA

yaCAPTCHA is Yet Another CAPTCHA plugin for WordPress based on KCAPTCHA.

yaCAPTCHA is a CAPTCHA plugin for WordPress that helps you block comment spam from automated bots. In order to post comments, users will have to write down the characters that are part of an image. Since it is relatively hard for automated programs to figure out those characters, this will help prevent comment spam from those programs.

Requirements

  • WordPress 1.5 or above.
  • PHP 4.0.6 or above with GD2 library support.
  • Theme must support the ‘comment_form’ action.

Strengths vs other solutions

  • Easy to install
  • Does not require Javascript to work
  • Broad Wordpress version support

How to install?

To install the plugin, you must first copy the directory yacaptcha in your WordPress plugin directory which must be /wp-content/plugins/. If you are using Wordpress 2.7 or above, you can simply use the plugin installer in your site admin section, search for yaCAPTCHA and click on install or upload the zip file.

After the installation, you need to go in your site admin, in the Plugins section and activate the yaCAPTCHA plugin.

It should works flawlessly with the default theme.

Optional intallation steps

The default theme and most themes place the additionnal comment form items after the submit button. I suggest you change it so that it appears before the submit button. Have a look at the “How can I customize it?” section.

The default Wordpress settings regarding comment appearance should be tweaked with this plugin. I suggest you uncheck these two options: “An administrator must always approve the comment” and “Comment author must have a previously approved comment” in the Discussion Settings, “Before a comment appears” area.

What does it looks like?

Here are some samples images that are produced by the CAPTCHA generator.

  • CAPTCHA Image Sample 1
  • CAPTCHA Image Sample 2
  • CAPTCHA Image Sample 3
  • CAPTCHA Image Sample 4

Here is what the comment form looks like with the default theme.

yaCAPTCHA comment form

Upgrade notice

Upgrading from any version will make you lose your customizations.

How can I customize it?

You can change the location of the CAPTCHA field within the comment form by changing the location of the ‘comment_form’ call in your theme’s comments.php file. The CAPTCHA field appears at the same location as the ‘comment_form’ call. The default location for the ‘comment_form’ call can make it confusing for some people because the CAPTCHA will appear after the submit button. I suggest you change it so that it appears before the submit button.

You can customize the messages that are shown by changing the content of $yaCaptchaCharInputMsg and $yaCaptchaCharNoMatchMsg in the yacaptcha.php file. The default messages should be good enough for most English blogs.

You can customize the HTML code that is used in the comment section to match your theme preferences by changing the code in the yaCaptchaCommentForm function in the yacaptcha.php file. The default HTML code match the default Wordpress theme.

You can customize the image properties like how many characters are shown or which characters are used by changing values in the kcaptcha_config.php file. The default values should be good enough for most people.

I cannot see the CAPTCHA when I am logged in

The CAPTCHA is not shown and it is not validated for logged in users. It assumes that logged in users are already validated and they will not post spam.

It does not work!

First, make sure that you meet all the requirements. Make sure that your theme support the ‘comment_form’ action. There should be a call similar to do_action(’comment_form’, $post->ID) in your theme’s comments.php file where the comment form section is located.

If you are still having problems, you can contact me.

Version history

  • 1.3 (January 28th, 2009): Tested to work with Wordpress 1.5 and the default theme. Tested to work with Wordpress 2.7 and the default theme. Some code refactoring. Updated plugin documentation.
  • 1.2.2 (January 19th, 2009): Changed files and directories structure to make it work with the new upgrading/installation process.
  • 1.2.1 (January 19th, 2009): Changed files and directories structure to make it work with the new upgrading/installation process. Updated plugin documentation.
  • 1.2 (January 17th, 2009): Tested to work with Wordpress 2.7 and the default theme. Removed the redirection after an invalid CAPTCHA (bug fix for 2.7). Updated plugin documentation.
  • 1.1 (August 5th, 2008): Tested to work with Wordpress 2.6 and the default theme.
  • 1.0 (May 11th, 2008): Updated the CAPTCHA generator, KCAPTCHA, to the latest version. Tested to work with Wordpress 2.5.1 and the default theme.
  • 0.9 (February 11th, 2008): Make all file cases lower to prevent potential problems. Remove CAPTCHA for logged users.
  • 0.8 (February 9th, 2008): Initial version. Should work flawlessly with WordPress 2.3.2 and the default theme.

Thanks

Thanks to Kruglov Sergei for creating KCAPTCHA, his pretty good CAPTCHA. You can visit KCAPTCHA website here.

Download

Download yaCAPTCHA (version 1.3).