Introduction

This article is an updated version, of the previous one here

Google reCAPTCHA is a captcha like system. It assures that a computer user is a human. It is the best and most used captcha system available, where users are only required to click on a checkbox and in some cases select some similar images.

In this article, we will discuss how to implement Google reCAPTCHA in Laravel livewire projects. Just follow the below given easy steps to add Google reCAPTCHA into your livewire form, and you are ready to go.

Note If you are already an expert, and know how to deal with Laravel, and livewire. Just jump into the 9th step

I will guide you through these whole steps, all what I need from you to just bear with me. :)

What is Laravel Livewire?

Livewire is a full-stack framework for Laravel that makes building dynamic interfaces simple, without leaving the comfort of Laravel.

Step 1: Download Laravel app

the first step you're gonna to need is the installation of a fresh Laravel app (if you don't have an existing project) and I will be using Laravel ^10 and Livewire ^2

1composer create-project --prefer-dist laravel/laravel recaptcha-app

1laravel new recaptcha-app

after the installation goes well, you need to run NPM installation to scaffold the front-end

1npm install && npm run dev

Step 2: Add Database Credentials

You need to add the database credentials to store the messages after the user submitting the form.

In this case, I'll be using MySQl as a database driver.

1DB_CONNECTION=mysql
2DB_HOST=127.0.0.1
3DB_PORT=3306
4DB_DATABASE=recaptcha_app
5DB_USERNAME=database_username
6DB_PASSWORD=database_password

Step 3: Create Contact Model

After setting up the database, we need to create a new model called Contact by running:

1php artisan make:model Contact -m

The -m Flag is for creating a migration file.

For the sack of this example, I'll keep it simple, I just added an email field and a body

1public function up()
2{
3        Schema::create('contacts', function (Blueprint $table) {
4                $table->id();
5                $table->string('email');
6                $table->text('body');
7                $table->timestamps();
8        });
9}

After that, we add the fillable fields in the Contact model.

1class Contact extends Model
2{
3    use HasFactory;
4 
5    protected $fillable = ['email', 'body'];
6}

Step 5: Run Migration Command

After creating the project, adding the database credentials, and adding the model, we must run the migration command by:

1php artisan migrate

and after the migration, you will see in the contacts' table something like this:

Step 6: Install livewire to your existing project

We arrived at the exciting part 😊 which is installing Laravel livewire.

1composer require livewire/livewire

After the installation process completed successfully, We will add the following blade directives in the head tag, and before the end body tag in your template.

 1 
 2 
 3<html>
 4<head>
 5    ...
 6    @livewireStyles
 7</head>
 8<body>
 9    ...
10    @livewireScripts
11</body>
12</html>

You can alternatively use the tag syntax.

1<livewire:styles />
2...
3<livewire:scripts />

After that, we need to publish the config file and the Frontend Assets

1php artisan livewire:publish --config

1php artisan livewire:publish --assets

Step 7: Generate livewire Component

After we're successfully installing Livewire into our project, We need to generate a new component:

1php artisan livewire:make contact

This command will generate 2 files,

1CLASS: app/Http/Livewire/Contact.php
2VIEW:  resources/views/livewire/contact.blade.php

Step 8: Add Routes

Now we need to add some routes into our application to show the contact form.

In your routes/web.php add the following:

1Route::get('/contact', App\Http\Livewire\Contact::class)->name('contact');

Step 9: add Google reCAPTCHA

In this part we will be using reCAPTCHA V2 and all what you need to do is the following:

First add the captcha key and secret into the .env file

1CAPTCHA_SITE_KEY=xxxx
2CAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY=xxxx

and in contact.blade.php

 1<form wire:submit.prevent="store">
 2        <div class=" mt-5">
 3            <label class="block uppercase tracking-wide text-grey-darker text-gray-600 text-lg font-bold mb-2"
 4                    for="email">
 5                {{__('Email Address')}}
 6            </label>
 7            <input type="text"
 8                    name="email"
 9                    wire:model.debounce.365ms="email"
10                    placeholder="{{__('Enter Your Email address')}}"
11                    class="border p-3 rounded form-input focus:outline-none w-full shadow-md focus:shadow-lg transition duration-150 ease-in-out"
12                    value="{{old('email')}}">
13            @error('email')
14                <p class="text-red-700 font-semibold mt-2">
15                    {{$message}}
16                </p>
17            @enderror
18        </div>
19 
20        <div class=" mt-5">
21            <label class="block uppercase tracking-wide text-grey-darker text-gray-600 text-lg font-bold mb-2">
22                {{__('Your message')}}
23            </label>
24            <textarea name="body" id=""
25                        cols="10"
26                        rows="6"
27                        wire:model.debounce.365ms="body"
28                        placeholder="{{__('Enter Your Message')}}"
29                        class="border p-2 mt-3 w-full form-textarea shadow-md focus:outline-none focus:shadown-lg transition duration-150 ease-in-out rounded-sm">{{old('body')}}</textarea>
30            @error('body')
31                <p class="text-red-700 font-semibold mt-2">
32                    {{$message}}
33                </p>
34            @enderror
35        </div>
36 
37        <div id="captcha" class="mt-4" wire:ignore></div>
38 
39        @error('captcha')
40            <p class="mt-3 text-sm text-red-600 text-left">
41                {{ $message }}
42            </p>
43        @enderror
44 
45 
46       <button type="submit"
47               class="some-button-style">
48            Submit
49      </button>
50</form>

after we place the form, we must add google captcha scripts

 1<script src="https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api.js?onload=handle&render=explicit"
 2    async
 3    defer>
 4</script>
 5 
 6<script>
 7    var  handle = function(e) {
 8        widget = grecaptcha.render('captcha', {
 9            'sitekey': '{{ env('CAPTCHA_SITE_KEY') }}',
10            'theme': 'light', // you could switch between dark and light mode.
11            'callback': verify
12        });
13 
14    }
15    var verify = function (response) {
16        @this.set('captcha', response)
17    }
18</script>

and in your Contact Component do the following

 1// ...
 2 
 3public $captcha = null;
 4 
 5public function updatedCaptcha($token)
 6{
 7    $response = Http::post(
 8        'https://www.google.com/recaptcha/api/siteverify?secret='.
 9        env('CAPTCHA_SECRET_KEY').
10        '&response='.$token
11    );
12 
13    $success = $response->json()['success'];
14 
15    if (! $success) {
16        throw ValidationException::withMessages([
17            'captcha' => __('Google thinks, you are a bot, please refresh and try again!'),
18        ]);
19    } else {
20        $this->captcha = true;
21    }
22}
23 
24// validate the captcha rule
25protected function rules()
26{
27    return [
28        'captcha' => ['required'],
29        // ...
30    ];
31}
32 
33// ...

Once you verify that you are not a bot, the script above will check, and send an encrypted token to your backend to verify, and return if there are any issues as a session error on the captcha attribute.

Step 10: Run Development Server

After setting up all the dependencies, run your development server by:

1php artisan serve

Or any kind of methods you like, such as valet or homestead … Etc

Conclusion

In this article we take a look at Google reCAPTCHA and how to implement it using Laravel and Laravel livewire, for more information about google reCAPTCHA, you can take a look at the official documentation.

Thank you for stopping by, and I hope you find something useful.

Enhancing Security and User Experience: Leveraging reCAPTCHA with Laravel and Livewire

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