This is how you set up the SilentShield plugin in WordPress, from the plugin directory to a form that shows the protection notice to visitors. The film below shows it in a WordPress test site, silent and with short captions. The text under it says the same in words, so you can follow along without playing the film.
The film in short
The film searches the WordPress directory, installs and activates the plugin, switches on Contact Form 7, enters an API key and checks it, activates the API and ends on the contact page as a visitor sees it. It runs on a test site with sample data; nothing in it belongs to a real customer. It has no sound and does not start by itself.
Step 1: find, install and activate the plugin
In your WordPress admin open Plugins, then “Add Plugin”, and search for “SilentShield captcha”. Press “Install Now” and, when the button changes, “Activate”. The plugin protects forms with its own methods such as captcha, honeypot and timer, even without a SilentShield account; the SilentShield API is an optional extra layer that you connect in step 4.
Step 2: read what the plugin tells you
Right after activation WordPress shows a notice from the plugin: “SilentShield is active but not protecting any form yet. Every form plugin has to be switched on individually.” Below it the plugin lists the form plugins it found on your site. So active does not yet mean protected: the next step switches your form plugin on.
Step 3: switch on Contact Form 7
Press “Choose what to protect” in that notice. It opens the Forms page of the plugin with one switch per form plugin. Scroll to “Contact Forms 7” and turn its switch on; the plugin answers with “Contact Forms 7 enabled” and saves it at once, you do not need to press Save. Other form plugins you use are switched on the same way, one by one.
Step 4: connect your API key (optional)
Open “API / SilentShield” in the plugin menu. Paste the key from your SilentShield account into the field “API Key” and press “Validate”. The plugin asks the SilentShield server and reports “API key valid – connection established” when the key is accepted. How to create a key is in setting up SilentShield step by step.
Step 5: activate the API and look at your form
Turn on “Activate API” (“Enable API checks for all forms”) and press “Save”; the plugin confirms with “Settings saved”. Now open your contact page in a browser where you are not signed in to WordPress. Under the form visitors see a small notice that names SilentShield, for example “Protected by SilentShield”; its wording is one of several variants. A signed-in administrator sees the form without it, so test as a visitor.
What the film does not show
The film does not show every setting of the plugin and does not promise a detection rate. The visitors in it are a test script. If you use an optimiser plugin that delays JavaScript, read the notes in the WordPress guide first; it lists what to exclude. Once visitors reach your form, how to read the result shows where to look in your SilentShield dashboard.