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Email and Captcha

These docs will walk you through self hosting just a backend for recieving form data to your email and a PoW captcha with docker.

First, let's get the docker image​

docker pull oia123/formbee-email-and-captcha

Next, let's run the docker image​

If You're Using An SMTP Provider That Still Supports App Passwords​

docker run -e EMAIL_PROVIDER=smtp.example.com -e [email protected] -e EMAIL_PASSWORD=password -e [email protected] -e ORIGIN=* -e SMTP_PORT=465 -p 3000:3000 oia123/formbee-email-and-captcha

Make sure to replace these environmental variables with your own. Find out more about how to get your SMTP credentials here.

  • EMAIL_PROVIDER is the SMTP provider you are using. EMAIL_USER is your username (email address).
  • EMAIL_USER is your username (email address).
  • EMAIL_PASSWORD is your email password, for some SMTP providers you will need to use an app specific password they provide instead of your actual email password.
  • EMAIL_TO is the email address you want to recieve the form data at.
  • ORIGIN is the domain you want to allow to access the backend input * if you want to allow all domains to access the backend.
  • SMTP_PORT is the port you are using for your SMTP provider this defaults to 465.

If You're Using Gmail​

The web as a whole is moving towards OAuth2, and avoiding regular passwords or app specific passwords so using gmail takes some extra work.

docker run -e [email protected] -e [email protected] -e ORIGIN=* -e GMAIL_CLIENT=Google_Client -e GMAIL_SECRET=Google_Secret -e GMAIL_TRUE=True -e GMAIL_REFRESH=Google_Refresh_Token -e GMAIL_ACCESS=Gmail_AccessToken -p 3000:3000 oia123/formbee-email-and-captcha
  • EMAIL_USER is your username (email address).
  • EMAIL_TO is the email address you want to recieve the form data at.
  • ORIGIN is the domain you want to allow to access the backend input * if you want to allow all domains to access the backend.
  • GMAIL_CLIENT Obtain this from your google cloud engine dashboard (create credentials) Google Cloud Dashboard
  • GMAIL_SECRET Obtain this from your google cloud engine dashboard (create credentials) Google Cloud Dashboard

In the google cloud console be sure to enable the gmail API, and add https://developers.google.com/oauthplayground to your authorized redirect URIs for the next step.

  • GMAIL_TRUE Keep set to True if you're using gmail.
  • GMAIL_REFRESH Obtain this by inputing your gmail clientID, and Secret into Google Oauth Playground
  • GMAIL_ACCESS Obtain this by inputing your gmail clientID, and Secret into Google Oauth Playground

Make sure to select the Gmail API v1 scope in the Oauth playground. You can find where to set your own ClientID, and Secret by clicking the gear in the top right of the playground, and scrolling to the bottom.

Once you're up and running​

You can now access the backend at http://localhost:3000.

Available endpoints​

  • / is a basic endpoint you can use to make sure your server is running it will respond "Formbee Email-Only is running"
  • /challenge is the endpoint to pass into the "challengeurl" of the altcha-widget, see PoW Captcha Docs
  • /formbee/email-only is the endpoint you submit form data to, to recieve it in your email.

Source Code For This Image​

Formbee is fully open-source, you're welcome to check out the source code for this image here.

Deploy where you like!​

You can self host this image wherever you like to run your containers! I like to use either AWS ECS or Railway to host my containers.