Help with accessing page only once...

Eryqu

Hello once again, helpful PHPBuilder friends

My new problem lies in a quest page...
I want a user to be able to take a quest (test) on my quest page... but only one time...

say i have a list of quests:

Quest #1 (dragon killing)
Quest #2 (wizard helping)
Quest #3 (Lady saving)
Quest... ect...

and they are the links used to enter a quest... and their link looks like:

$row = mysql_fetch_array($result)
{
$id = $row["id"];
$title = $row["title"];
$question = $row["question"];
$reward = $row["reward"];
$money = $row["money"];
$level = $row["level"];
$atk = $row["atk"];
$dfs = $row["dfs"];

<a href='quest.php?link=$id'>$title</a>

and my question for help comes here...

How do i make it so if they try to enter a quest a second time... it says:

"Error. You have already taken this quest... Sorry."?

I would only need to regulate about 30 computers...

Like... this quests are only going to be played by 30 computers as a beta test in my computer tech 2 class. There for, blocking the ip might work, but i dont know how to...

what about assigning each quest a "special" number that gets thrown into a "users" table in phpMyAdmin under a coloum like "Quest_complete".

and every time you enter a quest, It adds that special # to your "quest_complete" coloum, and when you try to re-enter the quest. It says "Sorry the special number has been already recorded for this quest, Please try agian..."

is there any posibility in that?

Thanks
Erik~~~

kristianblom

I answered part of this question earlier, but I'll take it a little further.

Blockin IP:
on quest page...

if(ipRecorded($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'])){
print "Error. You have already taken this quest... Sorry.";
}
else{
and here goes the quest...

}

you make the function ipRecorded. This returns a boolean value.

like this.

function ipRecorded($ip){
$sql = "SELECT count(*) FROM table WHERE ip = 'xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx'";
//run query on your database.
//and retrieve $count from result set

if($count > 0){
    return true;
}
 else{
    return false;
 }

}

If you're not familiar to creating functions you can do the same, just retrieve the count before you perform the if statement.

The special number...
The only way you can do something like that is using cookies. But they can be deleted from the system so that won't work.

Sorry, but the only safe thing is the ip solution or a user login.

The ip solution has its limits though.

JakesSA

stick it in a session store or set a cookie.

session_start();
if(!session_is_registered('formVars')
session_register('formVars');

if(isset($_SESSION['formVars']){
   echo "you may not";
  }
  else
   {
    echo "carry on" ;}

Im not to sure if that is 100% correct, but it give you some sort of an idea.

Happy coding

kristianblom

the thing is that a session will die... and cookies can be deleted...

sanu

if(isset($_SESSION['formVars']) this is not working my php version is 4 so i tried $HTTP_SESSION_VARS it is also not working

Eryqu

Ok,

Ya sessions wouldn't work for my situation, because the next day some one comes in to play, and they re-open browser... they can play agian...

And cookies might be a solution... becasue i dont think the people i am dealing with know to delete the cookies... But still thats just a guess...

And blocking the IP's so far is the best, but still... if user "Bill" works on 1 computer 1 day... and the next day "Bill" goes to "kims" computer and uses it... he can then re-play the quests... So i dont know how well that will work...

So after thinking for a little longer... i thought of a couple plans...

What if:

#1) I used a .txt for every quest.... and each time some one opens the quest there name is added to that .txt
Example:

(first it checks for "Bill" in "Quest#1.txt")
"Bill" plays quest "Quest#1(dragon fighting)"
his name is added to the "Quest#1.txt" file in the same directory, and theirfor cant connect to that quest again...

#2) I could store the usernames in the Quest table in my database...???
like...
Example:

"Kim" plays quest#1
her name is added to the quest#1 row under coluom "Quests_complete"
"Bill" plays quest#1
and his name is added to the quest#1 row under coluom "Quests_complete"

And now the table looks like:

ID Quest "Quest_Complete"
1 Quest#1 Kim,Bill
2 Quest#2 [Blank]
3 Quest#3 [Blank]

Thanks for reading,
Erik~~~

kristianblom

and next time Bill signs in as Billy...

You're moving towards a simple login system.

But to answer your question... yes its possible, but no its not safe...

Eryqu

Oh sorry... I guess I didnt tell u guys... I already have a log-in system...

so there are already set users, that have set passwords...
and you have to register and stuff... sorry for not saying that...

So... Bill.... Couldn't log in as Billy...
or it would say
"Error. Wrong Username or Passowrd."

Just to update you 😃
(post if ya dont understand)
Erik~~~

kristianblom

well... that makes all clearer...
Just record it in your database...
Man, you should have told us a lot earlier... hehe

Eryqu

ok... sorry Noob at work...
How would i do that exactly???

like just INSERT INTO Quest_complete?

but how would i make it in the form of
Username,Username,Username,Username ??

and then how would i check for it?

Any help is gladly taken...
Thanks
Erik~~~

vccarvalho

Ok here's an idea.
To play your game the user must be registred right? Well, why don't you create a table containing information about answered questions per user? So no mather where the user connects or when, if he/she had already replyed to a question he/she wont be able to do it again.

🙂

Eryqu

Ya vccarvalho thats a good idea...

But because Im a noob... i dont really know the best way of doing that...
here was my idea agian:

Originally posted by Eryqu
Ok,

#2) I could store the usernames in the Quest table in my database...???
like...
Example:

"Kim" plays quest#1
her name is added to the quest#1 row under coluom "Quests_complete"
"Bill" plays quest#1
and his name is added to the quest#1 row under coluom "Quests_complete"

And now the table looks like:

__________________________________
ID Quest "Quest_Complete"
1 Quest#1 Kim,Bill
2 Quest#2 [Blank]
3 Quest#3 [Blank]

so should i just create a new table in phpMyAdmin called Quests_completed?
with like 4 coluoms?

ID User Quests_complete Ansers

something like that?

and one simple question... dose it matter how long a phpMyAdmin table gets?
is it ok to have 2000 rows in 1 table??
Im sorry i dont know the answer to that...

Thanks
Erik~~~

liquidchild

You should possibly create a new table to store the completed quests: ie.

CREATE TABLE completedQuests
{
username VARCHAR(3)
quest1 CHAR
quest2 CHAR....
(and so on for all your quests)
}

liquidchild

You should possibly create a new table to store the completed quests: ie.

CREATE TABLE completedQuests
{
username VARCHAR(3)
quest1 CHAR
quest2 CHAR....

PRIMARY KEY(username)
}

You could then have quest1 etc set to either not null or 'n', then when the user has completed there quest do

UPDATE completedQuests set quest1 = 'y' where username = ?

Depending on what quest they have completed and what there username is. However on the first attempt you may have to use insert, or possibily initilize you table with the usernames.

Hope this helps

Arc

Yes in your UserInfo table have a Primary key called UserID which is an auto_increment field.

Then Create another Table called Quests Complete. Have 2 Fields, QuestName and UserID. Every time a user completes a quest write to that table the QuestName and the UserID.

Then when the user attemts to access a quest search the QuestsComplete table for that QuestName and UserID.. If you get a result that means they have already done it.

Example: SELECT * FROM tblQuestsComplete WHERE QuestName = 'Quest' AND UserID = 15

Eryqu

Ok... im, for some reason, runnin into a small problem that I bet you guys can help with...

I now have a Quests_completed table in my DB...
it has 3 fields..
ID Quest_id User_name

and i have code like this:

$id = $GET["link"];
$username=$SESSION["username"];
$query = "INSERT INTO onlinewar_quests_completed (id, quest_complete, user) VALUES ('', '$id', '$username'); ";
$test = MYSQL_QUERY($query);

but its not inserting...and i dont know why...

Thanks for help
Erik~~~

kristianblom

can your id field be empty? If it can't, your query will fail

Eryqu

its auto-incremental.... So wont it put in its own number?

kristianblom

yes it will.

But in your query you insert an empty value as id...

"INSERT INTO onlinewar_quests_completed ( quest_complete, user) VALUES ('$id', '$username')";

vccarvalho

and one simple question... dose it matter how long a phpMyAdmin table gets?
is it ok to have 2000 rows in 1 table??
Im sorry i dont know the answer to that...

Don't worry with that dude! I had tables in mysql with over 700.000 rows, and when working with oracle some had135 million (estimated)