Changing greetings.

zzz

I'd like to have one greeting message when a user logs in, say:

Welcome ZZZ.

and after a user leaves a page and comes back later change this greeting to something like:

You're logged in as ZZZ.

Is there a quick solution to this? Preferably I'd stay away from using db for this. Perhaps write it ina .txt file?..

Any ideas on this one?

dalecosp

Sounds like a classic case for COOKIES or SESSIONS. How are you keeping track of the logged-in name, anyhow?

zzz

Member needs to register. The username is in the db. All i do is check if the authentication is correct and if yes, let them in. Classic way of doing it, isn't it?

dalecosp

Originally posted by zzz
Member needs to register. The username is in the db. All i do is check if the authentication is correct and if yes, let them in. Classic way of doing it, isn't it?

Classic; absolutely. But, how do you know it's user "ZZZ" when he comes back, anyway? That was my point. Most people use cookie or session vars for this...you're not.

Um, is that what you're asking how to do? 🙂

drag0n

SESSIONS sound real nice with that, basic portal functions I guess, but to have "welcome ZZZ" theyd have to be logged in first... and what do you mean leave and come back and have "Your logged in ZZZ"? With sessions once you close the window its dead, cookies only last for so and so much time...
Maybe its my misunderstanding or something...

zzz

Sorry, I wasn't very clear. I have several pages that they can view while being logged in. Say they come on page1.php Once they leave that page and go to page2.php etc and then come back to page1.php or even refresh, I'd like to change the greeting. I'm currently not using sessions but am thinking of it.

The way I know their ID is by running the loging information they submin upon loging through my db table that contains username and pw. If both match I let in.

drag0n

ooo... so how does ur login work right now?
Say.. pass and username matches.. you let them in... do you hjave like a secret page name or something thatur login directs them to.. because u said ur not using sessions now.. are you using cookies to track if their logged in or not?

zzz

if (login OK) {

show welcome page

}

else {

show oops page

}

drag0n

wow... you should definitely do sessions

clandestine555

you really should do session variables... but this should give you a headstart

<?
   if ($_SESSION['username'])
   {
      if ($_SESSION['readcount'] == 0)
      {
         echo "Welcome $_SESSION['username']."
         $_SESSION['readcount'] = 1;

  }
  else
  {
     echo "You're logged in as ZZZ.";
  };

   };

?>

switch the variables how you feel like. i use sessions when i deal with logins and such, as they go from page to page.

a rundown of this is to set it the first time they see the information, a value gets set to 1. if the value is not 1 (they've never seen the page), one message is displayed, after that, then they will see another message.

fairly simple. tip: learn sessions, it seems weird to not use globals (i dont like doing it yet, but living with it) but sometimes it gets easier.

Chizzad

hey guys,

sorry to get involved in the discussion here but I currently use the same method as ZZZ and when the users navigate through the pages I have each link pass a variable through the post method that tells the next page the user is logged in. It works but I would like to move into the use of Sessions. I have heard a lot about them but haven't been able to find any truly good documentation, including searching php.net. ANybody know where I can find a good tut. or some good sample code to go over?

Thanks,
Chad

dalecosp

Well, yeah. This board, the manual ... all kinda places.

But really, it's pretty easy. Simplified example follows...

loginform.html

<form action="logincheck.php" method=post>
Name:<input type=text name=username><br>
Password:<input type=password name=pw><br>
<input type=submit name=submit>

logincheck.php

<?
$username=$_POST['username'];
$pw=$_POST['pw'];

if ($username=="Bob" && $pw=="BobsPW") {
   session_start();
   $_SESSION['user']="Bob";
   $_SESSION['first_look']=1;
   header("Location: index.html");
   }
else {
   header("Location: login.html");
   }
?>

index.html

<?
session_start();
if (!$_SESSION['user']) { //invalid access, send 'em back
   header("Location: login.php");
   }
if ($_SESSION['first_look']) {
   $greeting="Welcome, ";
   }
else {
   $greeting="You're logged in as ";
   }
echo $greeting.$_SESSION['user'];
?>

Ravenous

www.sitepoint.com has a good article on php sessions. www.phpfreaks.com has a basic tutorial written by a simpleton for simpletons. it will help you to get going.