I have been researching and testing any and all the CAPTCHA components and plugins for J! 1.0 that I could find without much success. Either they don't work, are outdated and don't work, or they are simply too much work for the end results. I thought Secure Forms and Security Images had promise, but they fit the above descriptions?
Is there a J! 1.013 and above CAPTCHA component that is easy to install and works to protect contact forms and registration forms?
Better yet, isn't there a contact form that comes with CAPTCHA protection (silly they do not)?
I'm surprised this isn't included in Joomla core. This should be a bigger issue than I am finding.
There is a solution that works very well on both 1.0.x and 1.5.x.
I have been using RSForm! for some time now and it has worked very well indeed. The drawback is that it is a commercial component/plugin which manages all your forms, be it contact or other forms that you would like to include in your site. The cost is around 9 euros per license, i.e. each site equals a new license but you can change the site that the license is attached to up to three times allowing for development on one domain and then if you move the dev site to another domain you don't have to buy another license for the live site.
The component itself is pretty intuitive and adding captcha to any form is just a click of a button. I would recommend the pro version simply because that is what I have been using on one of my customer's sites to do exactly the same.
The pro version comes with three different layout templates and you are also able to make your own form templates. The trick with this version when adding your own layout template is to untick the auto generate tick box, add your layout code and just save it out.
Can you create fairly robust forms with that component? For example, could you create a form with radio buttons, check buttons, drop down fields, an upload item field etc?
Looks quite promising.
Did more in depth reading at the site:
# RSform! allows you to create unlimited elaborate forms within minutes.
# Create all types of form objects such as text, selectboxes, radio & check boxes etc
# Send customized HTML-Text E-mails to the administrators and to the client
# Upload images, Pdf's, and any other format with File Type and File Size Control
# Export your gathered data to Excel
Although I have not done a lot of this myself it does do what it says on the box. I would say you have quite a vast scope for making many types of forms and I think mini apps too if you have a mind to.