[Resolved] [Resolved] [Resolved] blocking users in news commenting script

amadonbass

okay, I am not an official newbie.. I know a little, but not alot.. what I'm trying to do is restrict people commenting on my band's news from using certain names. I'm using a PHP / MySQL news script I wrote from a tutorial final code here

it's active on my site here

I want to bypass the comments from being sent to the database and display "Invalid Name" when a user tries to post with a name I don't want them to use. Damnit, Jim.. I'm a musician, not a coder!

the comment form goes like this

    echo "<FORM action=\"{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}" .
         "?action=addcomment&id=$id\" method=POST>\n";
    echo "Name: <input type=\"text\" " .
         "width=\"30\" name=\"name\"><BR>\n";
    echo "<TEXTAREA cols=\"40\" rows=\"5\" " .
         "name=\"comment\"></TEXTAREA><BR>\n";
    echo "<input type=\"submit\" name=\"submit\" " .
         "value=\"Add Comment\"\n";
    echo "</FORM>\n";

}

function addComment($id) {
    global $db;

/* insert the comment */
$query = "INSERT INTO news_comments " .
         "VALUES('',$id,'{$_POST['name']}'," .
         "'{$_POST['comment']}')";
mysql_query($query);

//begin coment successful
include 'commentstuff.php';

srand ((double) microtime() * 1000000);
$randomquote = rand(0,count($quotes)-1);

echo "<p align=center>" . $quotes[$randomquote] . "</p>";
//end comment successful

echo "<a href=\"{$_SERVER['PHP_SELF']}" .
     "?action=show&id=$id\">Back</a>\n";
echo "</TABLE>\n";
}

I've tried using IF statements, buuuut, I'm an idiot and eff up the syntax.. any help would be mucho appreciated.. thanks!

Merve

<?php
if ($condition) {
     //come on, you can find this crap on the web
}
?>

What you do is set a field in your database. If the person is allowed to comment, set that field to 1. If that person is not allowed to comment, set that field to 0. It's that simple. Then, using a switch or if statement, check to see if it's 1 or 0. It's that SIMPLE!

LordShryku

Or if it's just the one page, create an array of bad names on that page, and check against it.

$badNames = array("Jim", "Bob", "Harry", "Joe");

if(in_array($_POST['name'], $badNames)) {
   // You used a bad name
}
else {
   // All is good, carry on
}

amadonbass

hey! cool.. that works great.. only thing missing was a set of parentheses around the $_POST['name'] variable..

thanks a heap!