Book Image

concrete5 Cookbook

Book Image

concrete5 Cookbook

Overview of this book

concrete5 is an increasingly popular open source content management system because of its incredible and easy-to-use interface. But, it also comes complete with a robust PHP framework, allowing web developers to create custom websites and applications with ease. "concrete5 Cookbook" is a practical collection of solutions to tasks that both novice and experienced concrete5 developers face on a regular basis. Readers will learn multiple subjects, including full blueprints for developing an event calendar add-on and an image gallery block. Developers new to concrete5 will quickly learn how to customize concrete5 to their needs, and seasoned pros will find it an excellent quick reference for performing specific tasks. "concrete5 Cookbook" will transform ordinary PHP developers into concrete5 experts capable of bending concrete5 to their will and unleashing the true power of this up-and-coming content management system. Throughout the course of over 140 recipes and 3 bonus project blueprint chapters, PHP developers will learn how to create custom blocks and dashboard interfaces as well as programmatically work with pages, files, users, permissions, and more. Discover the built-in Active Record support that makes working with databases simple and maintainable. Readers will also learn how to take advantage of the numerous helper classes included in concrete5, and will dive deep into the concrete5 MVC framework to create powerful custom websites and applications. Tie together all of the concepts learned in the recipes with 3 bonus chapters featuring complete blueprints to create a calendar add-on, an image gallery block type, and tips on how to sell your themes and add-ons for money! "concrete5 Cookbook" is a complete collection of recipes to solve the most common (and some not-so-common) tasks that concrete5 developers will face on a regular basis.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
concrete5 Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Preventing spam using the Captcha helper


As most web developers who have ever published a form online know, spam is an annoying and potentially damaging issue for site owners. concrete5 can help mitigate this problem with a built-in Captcha helper that can verify that form submissions are coming from humans, rather than automated scripts.

Getting ready

This recipe will explain how to use the Captcha helper. Typically, you will use this helper in the HTML views that your end-user would see (single page views, block views, and so on). An example of this helper in the context of a single page is included in the book's code download.

How to do it...

  1. Load the Captcha helper:

    $captcha = Loader::helper('validation/captcha');
  2. At the bottom of your form, display the CAPTCHA image and the input to allow the user to solve it:

    <?php echo $captcha->display(); ?> <br />
    <?php echo $captcha->showInput(); ?>
  3. In the server-side code that processes the form submission, verify that the CAPTCHA...