How We Implemented Salesforce Lightning Forms and Added CAPTCHA That Works in China

Most organizations around the globe use a user authentication mechanism to validate form fills on their websites. The need for such a mechanism arose to prevent bot attacks and record only genuine, human form fills.

reCAPTCHA is a widely-used mechanism that is placed on ‘Contact Us’ forms on a website. It is a free service from Google but doesn’t work for IP addresses that belong to China.

So, here’s how the story begins.

One of our customers—a holding company based in Manila—shared that they were looking for a solution to a problem that had been bothering them for a while.

THE CONTEXT

The customer has its business presence globally but the problem was with one specified region—China. Their company website has a number of marketing forms hosted on SAP Hybris.

They wanted to move those forms to Salesforce Lightning.

The customer also wanted to implement CAPTCHA on their forms that will work for users in China as well.

THE PROBLEM

There was a series of problems which are listed below:

• SAP’s Hybris requires access to the server of an organization for hosting the forms, which raises security concerns
• The customer is hugely invested in Salesforce and wanted to use Lightning forms hosted on Salesforce
• Google Captcha or reCAPTCHA is blocked in China and it was used to authenticate a user on their website
• For users in China, the CAPTCHAs have to be uploaded separately, which is a tricky task

THE SOLUTION

The client has been leveraging Grazitti’s Salesforce expertise to optimize Service, Sales, and Community Cloud. Our Salesforce experts are working on optimizing their Salesforce instance and also had completed their migration to Lightning Experience.

So, the client shared their requirement with us. Our experts assessed the requirements and came out with a solution.

Migrating and Hosting Marketing Forms on Salesforce Lightning

There were a number of marketing forms on their website. So, after analyzing the format and styling of each form, our Salesforce experts created an exact replica of the forms on Lightning using Apex code.

Manual creation of the forms was a demanding task but adding CAPTCHAs on Lightning forms was more complex.

Building custom CAPTCHAs for Users from China

As we stated earlier Google Captcha doesn’t work in China. But there are various free third-party tools that can enable CAPTCHA on a website. Implementing a 3rd party tool, however, requires additional cost for a server. Also, Salesforce Lightning doesn’t support third-party scripts.

Considering all the above-stated problems, our experts conceptualized and implemented a custom CAPTCHA that detects the IP address. If the IP address is from China then that CAPTCHA will be visible to the end user.

To get started, our experts added 20 patterns of CAPTCHA and made a different folder for images. This was done keeping in mind that in the future, the images might need to be changed or added.

We also enabled the admin to add more CAPTCHA images for IP addresses that belong to China. Each CAPTCHA image was encrypted with a private key for ensuring security on the website forms.

We also provided a public key to the client using which they can decrypt the code of the images, in case they want to add new images.

We, at Grazitti, are a firm believer of thinking outside the box. We are more than just an outsourcing partner. We suggest the best ways to optimize your business.

Conclusion

So, this is a useful solution for businesses that are eyeing the giant Chinese market. Not just that, in case you are looking for a solution to any Salesforce-related problem, consult with our Salesforce-certified experts today.

Following are some custom solutions that Grazitti’s Salesforce experts developed and implemented:

• How One Company Mapped a Complex Product Catalog in Zuora with Salesforce
• Insert Article Into Email in SF Lightning KB: Send Public URL Instead of the Entire Article
• How to Manage Closed-Lost Leads in Salesforce that Come Back Again?

Looking for a solution to a Salesforce-related problem or workflow? Contact Us.