I used this component on very different pages with Joomla 1.5.2; 1.5.3; 1.5.4; 1.5.6; 1.5.7; and now 1.5.8. So there is quite some experience I do have with it.

But, although I do very much appreciate the tremendeous work Walter Cedric there are some questions about it, which in part go to the Joomla! team rather than to Walter.

First of all, why on earth does Joomla! not contain this component! Every time we get a new release of Joomla!, it is recommended for security reasons to upgrade. This means, I will have to get the new patches from Walters SecurityImages too (they are quite a lot).

Everytime I do this It is the same procedure.

1. Override the original files
2. Test it - it does not work properly (mostly because some of the uploads do not work etc.
3. Download the files again and override it again.
4. After I have done this three or four times, it starts to work. But mostly not everything. So I have to go through all the files to find the faults. As I mentioned, I have got some experience and I do get it run everytime. But as some of the other mention here, there is no real tutorial here. Maybe Watler could create one, which one could buy?
5. After that, you'll have to fine tune it and finally it works great! Thanks Walter!!!
6. The newer the versions of Security Images go, the more Ads and links are put into the admin. I highly agree that the creator should have hers or his links and some ads, but it is definately overdone here. Once again, sorry do say that.
But as you might see, its a lot of hassle everytime I do upgrade Joomla which always runs smooth and this is in fact very sad, because the component is a good thing which keeps away spammers efficiently.

Pleaset Joomla! team: Make Captcha a part of Joomla!

I downloaded the component RC1) for Jooomla 1.5.x and it installed without difficulty. Then tried installing the patch for Joomla 1.5.6 and quit after concluding that I needed to overwrite what seem to be core Joomla 1.5 files in a number of directories (administrator/components/com_contact/contact_items.xml for example). Fortunately, I had renamed the original files so I could just change them back.

I then went to uninstall the package and ended up with two errors relating to being unable to remove tables from the database so I'm not sure the extension ever installed properly.

Lastly, it appears that support for Security Images is exceedingly limited. The documentation is essentially nonexistent and the support forum has four threads dating back to 2006. The latest thread, dated sometime in August 2008, has gone unanswered.

Owner's reply:
Not true, I can not respond in less than 2 days...sometimes I can, sometimes not...



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The wiki is here for that and it is quite complete:

http://wiki.waltercedric.com/index.php?title=SecurityImages5.0.X



I did start tagging articles on my homepage to help people finding waht they are searching for..result twice more traffic



Not bad isnt'it? ;-)

No idea how to rate this thing, as I've never seen it work. I spent a few hours with it and am no more capcha'd than I was when I got up today.

I have a couple of questions. Can anyone tell me where the "Save" button the developer tells you to go the Control Panel and "hit save" is? I go to the very specifically named section of my Joomla installation, the "Control Panel" and I'll be darned if there is any "save" button to hit or even to click on.

Or how about the "use security images=true" that he also tells me to go to the control panel to set? I've looked in every single module and component and plug-in page I have and have yet to see an option to set "use security images" to "=true".

I appreciate the work of ALL open source developers and appreciate the fact that Walter and I speak different languages but I can't understand why someone would put so much work into something and then publish it with such poor directions.

I've tried many Plug-Ins for my Joomla 1.0.15. This is the best one I found. It's easy to use and the most important is we can configure the look of the verify image, font type, font rotation, font size and select background images, etc.

The other tool like recaptcha is impossible to read from the image. Therefore, I have to give up recaptcha. This tool SecurityImages is 100% greater than others.

After installing the component, you need to replace some patch files. And you can enable or disable the ability from the SecurityImages' configuration panel. Very cool...

I was looking for a easy to use captcha system to integrate into my registration pages and this extension did just that plus more.

A good feature I like about this extension is that it includes several different types of Captcha styles and the ability to configure them even further by specifying background colours, fonts, rotation etc.

This Component and Plugin worked exactly as I needed it to.
Was extremely easy to set-up on a 1.5 site.

Thank you for all your work on this component.

I installed it on 1.0.15 with no trouble. I only needed it for registrations so that means I only had to replace/hack 3 core files. A lot of people complain about having to alter core Joomla files but that is the only way to implement captcha in registrations other than installing a separate registration component. If you're familiar with FTP and Joomla's file structure then the hacks shouldn't be a problem. However, upgrades might be a problem and require you to re-hack. I've tried many captcha solutions but this is the first one that really worked as promised.

I seldom write reviews, but this one REALLY warranted one. I've been using this script for a while and finally decided to begin migrating some accounts over to 1.5. I must admit that the instructions for this new 5.0.0 version truly suck. If it were not for the post from portablejim, (June 9, 2008), I would not have been able to install the darn thing. I just wanted to add one more step that portablejim, forgot to mention -- You must remember to activate the plugin in the plugin manager. Additionally, depending on your server configuration, you may have to chmod ... The problem may be related to the permissions of the file imageGenerator.php. Use Joomlaxplorer and browse to the folder where the file is in (components/com_securityimages/plugins/xxx/y.y/imageGenerator.php). Check the permission for the file img.php or whatever file you use and be sure that permissions are set to 755. Many times it is set to 644 and it doesn't allow the CAPTCHA to being bult. It doesn't matter that the folder has permissions set to 755, the file itself must have it. Change form 644 to 755 and il will work....

Here's a little caveat ... once you've gotten it installed you will find very detailed instructions INSIDE the control panel ... lmao But none the less, I would not even think of using another captcha solution. I know this one works and works very well once installed. It has never failed me yet.

I too had problems installing the extension. The way to get it to work in Joomla 1.5.x is:
1. Get "SecurityImages 5.0 0RC1 for Joomla! 1.5" from the 1.5 downloads page for the extension (possibly http://www.waltercedric.com/downloads-for-joomla/cat_view/333-joomla15/334-securityimages.html?limit=5&limitstart=0&order=date&dir=DESC)

2. Get plugin_system_securityimages5.0.0RC1 from the downloads page

3. Get Joomla_1.5.x-Stable-Full_PackageForSecurityImages5.0.0

4. Install 1 and 2, then apply the patch(3).

I wanted this component mainly to use with the PerForms forms component. I questioned it due to the reviews about having to hack core Joomla files. However, I discovered that those hacks are not required. They are only needed if you want to add CAPTCHA to core components such as com_contact, com_register and com_login. Anything outside of that requires no core hacks.

I also discovered that you need to set the security image component directories to 755 instead of 777 for it to work in PHP5. Now, it works just fine. Thanks!

SecurityImages is a good component, the author must had put much more efforts in the development. But it requires hacks to the Joomla! core files and other 3rd party extensions which want to use this CAPTCHA engine. I think these hacks will creat difficulties for later updates. This is just like cut foot to fit the boot.

Maybe a better solution is to add CAPTCHA engine to the Joomla! core. I mean, let Joomla! has its own CAPTCHA component and plugin and API. Then any 3rd party extension can call and show security code if it was coded to use this API.

Thanks for your efforts, hope Joomla! team will add this feature soon.

Security images provides easy installation, detailed integration info for developers, and multiple captcha options in one solution. I Look forward to seeing the integration of re-captcha, which will make this component rock!

Great job and thanks for sharing!

Being highly irritated by the robot registrations this was just the extension i needed.
Installing was easy. Install the extension, backup the site, overwrite files with the correct patch and voila....i've got captcha security. Thanks for building this!

My team has tried for hours to get this component working, with no luck. The component is installed, however, the captcha images are not showing up. We have followed all the instructions that we could find from peer postings, to no avail. Documentation for this product is very poor, and it is unacceptable for this component not to work out of the box.

I downloaded and installed the latest version of this extension along with the required patched files and it works great with many configuration options. For the n00bs, heres how you install it:

1) Go to this page:
http://www.waltercedric.com/component/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,291/Itemid,64/

2)Download and install the "com_securityimages" file using the Joomla Component Installer

3)From the same page, download the correct patch version for your version of Joomla (e.g. 1.0.14).

4) Backup your Joomla installation

5) Copy over the files from the patch archive into your root Joomla directory

6) You're ready to rumble! Lots of it comes default configured, and you can get a wide array of additional options through the "Security Images" component control panel.

This worked great for me, and its the best one I've tested because you don't need to add an additional module, you patch the existing one which makes it much easier because the ones that come in separate modules, you have to go through and manually change some of the links to the Log in and register pages!