How To use BotDetect ASP.NET CAPTCHA in Visual Studio 2005 (BotDetect v2.0)

This guide demonstrated how to use BotDetect ASP.NET CAPTCHA in a new Visual Studio 2005 Web Site project.

Step 1. Create new ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site

• Start Visual Studio 2005

• Select the project location, name and programming language used

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Step 2. Add a BotDetect reference to the project

• In the Solution Explorer, right-click the Web Site project, and Choose "Add Reference"

• Browse to the Lanap.BotDetect.dll file located in the BotDetect CAPTCHA installation folder

• The reference is added to the project's Bin folder

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Step 3. Configure your site to use BotDetect CAPTCHA

• In the Solution Explorer, right-click the Web Site project, and Choose "Add New Item"

• Add a new Configuration File to the project

• Add the following lines to the <system.web> section of the newly created "Web.config" file:

<httpHandlers>
  <add verb="*" path="LanapCaptcha.aspx" 
    type="Lanap.BotDetect.CaptchaHandler, Lanap.BotDetect" />
</httpHandlers>

<sessionState mode="InProc" cookieless="AutoDetect" 
  timeout="20" sessionIDManagerType="
    Lanap.BotDetect.Persistence.CustomSessionIDManager, 
    Lanap.BotDetect" />

• If you want to deploy your project on servers running IIS 7.0 in integrated mode, you will also have to add a <system.webServer> element at the bottom of the <configuration> element, with the following content:

<system.webServer>
  <validation validateIntegratedModeConfiguration="false"/>
  <handlers>
    <remove name="LanapCaptchaHandler" />
    <add name="LanapCaptchaHandler" 
      preCondition="integratedMode" verb="*" 
      path="LanapCaptcha.aspx" 
      type="Lanap.BotDetect.CaptchaHandler, Lanap.BotDetect" />
  </handlers>
</system.webServer>

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Step 4. Add BotDetect CAPTCHA to the Visual Studio Toolbox for future reference.

• Right-click anywhere in the Toolbox and select "Choose Items"

• Once again, browse to the Lanap.BotDetect.dll file located in the BotDetect CAPTCHA installation folder

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Step 5. Add the BotDetect CAPTCHA control to a page

• Drag the newly added Captcha control from the Toolbox to the Default.aspx page

• Save all files, then compile and run the project. You will see a CAPTCHA image rendered on your web form.

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Step 6. Add user input validation logic

• Add a TextBox, a Button, and a Label server control to the page

• Rename the controls and set the page layout - the .aspx file fragment should look like:

  <div>
    <BotDetect:Captcha ID="SampleCaptcha" runat="server" />
  </div>
  <div>
    <asp:TextBox ID="CodeTextBox" runat="server"></asp:TextBox>
    <asp:Button ID="ValidateButton" Text="Validate" />
    <asp:Label ID="MessageLabel" runat="server"></asp:Label>
  </div>

• Add the following code to the Page_Load handler in the page codebehind:

  protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  {
    if (IsPostBack)
    {
      string code = CodeTextBox.Text.Trim().ToUpper();
  	
      if (SampleCaptcha.Validate(code))
      {
        MessageLabel.Text = "Correct";
      }
      else
      {
        MessageLabel.Text = "Incorrect";
      }
  
      CodeTextBox.Text = null;
    }
  }

• Save all files, then compile and run the project. You can then try CAPTCHA validation in action

• On production web sites you will typically change the validation code to redirect the user to the resource requested if CAPTCHA validation succeeds

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Sample BotDetect CAPTCHA project source code

You can find the full source code similar to the result you should get when following these instructions in the sample project coming with the BotDetect CAPTCHA installation.

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