How to use Recaptcha in Joomla

Native reCAPTCHA was added into Joomla in version 2.5. Using reCAPTCHA is a great way of preventing bots from making fake accounts and content on your site. There are four steps to setting up reCAPTCHA:

1. Log in to your administrator back-end, yourdoomainname.com/administrator
2. Go to your Plugin Manager. You can find this under the Extensions drop-down menu in the top menu or in the Control Pannel page.
3. Edit the Plugin Captcha – ReCaptcha
   • Set Status to Enabled
   • Copy and paste the Public and Private keys in their appropriate fields.
     • You will get the Public and Private keys by signing in with your Google account (create it if you don’t have one) here: Create a reCAPTCHA key
     • Once you have registered your website domain, Google will provide your ReCAPTCHA keys.
   • Click Save & Close
4. To enable reCAPTCHA
   • For Contact forms and the Registration form
     • Go to Global Configuration, and select the Site tab.
     • Choose Captcha – ReCaptcha in the Default Captcha field.
     • Click Save & Close.
   • For the Registration form only
     • Go to the User Manager. You can find it under the Users top menu or in the Control Pannel page.
     • In the Component tab in the Options chooses one of the following for the Captcha:
       • Use Default – that is the default setting and follows the Default Captcha field setting in your Global Configuration.
       • None Selected – that setting ignores the Default Captcha setting in Global Configuration. Use it when you want ReCAPTCHA in the Contact forms but not in the Registration form.
       • Captcha – ReCaptcha – Only needed if the Default Captcha in the Global Configuration is set to None Selected but you want the ReCAPTCHA not in Contact forms but in the Registration form.
     • Click Save & Close.

That’s it! You’re done!

Originally posted on December 9, 2016 @ 8:58 am