This documentation always describes the latest published version.
¶ ALTCHA Spam Protection
Live Demo: Try this and other plugins live — no installation, no risk: demo.markus-michalski.net
¶ Overview
Spam protection for the contact form, the newsletter subscription and the registration in OXID eShop 7. The module combines an ALTCHA proof-of-work widget with a honeypot field, content validation and IP-based rate limiting. Visitors do not solve image puzzles: the browser computes a small task on submit.
Privacy: The module sets no cookies and stores IP addresses only as a hash. The widget script, however, is loaded from the CDN
cdn.jsdelivr.net, so the CDN operator receives the visitor's IP address and user agent. Details are on the Privacy page.
¶ Documentation
| Page | Content |
|---|---|
| Installation | Composer and manual, activation, update, uninstall |
| Configuration | All settings, content validation, examples |
| Storefront | Protected forms, templates, widget, ViewConfig, other themes |
| Challenge endpoint | Request, response, status codes, solution |
| Extending | Checking your own forms, rejection reasons |
| Privacy | Processed data, external request, retention |
| Troubleshooting | Common problems and known limitations |
| Technical | Check chain, extended classes, tables |
¶ Features
| Feature | Description |
|---|---|
| ALTCHA proof-of-work | The browser solves a task signed by the shop, every solution is valid only once |
| Honeypot | Hidden field that only bots fill in |
| Content validation | Detects gibberish in names and addresses as well as disposable email domains from a built-in list of 56 domains |
| Rate limiting | Database-backed limiting per client address and form |
| Challenge endpoint protection | Separate rate limit for fetching challenges |
| Apex theme | Templates for contact, newsletter and registration included for the Apex theme |
¶ Protected forms
- Contact form
- Newsletter subscription
- Registration on the page
cl=register
Registration during checkout and all other forms are not protected. Details are on the Storefront page.
¶ Requirements
| Requirement | Version | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| OXID eShop | oxid-esales/oxideshop-ce ^7.0 |
Templates for the Apex theme only |
| PHP | 8.2 or higher | |
| License | required |
¶ License
Commercial license - single installation license:
- CE/PE license: One OXID eShop installation
- EE license: One OXID eShop installation incl. all subshops
Development and staging environments included. 12 months of free updates.
See the LICENSE file for full terms.
¶ Support
For questions and support, contact Markus Michalski.
Email: support@markus-michalski.net