Revising an Ezine script to make it Opt-In

[Farmernate]

I need help changing a mailing list script to make it so that it requires people to opt in by clicking a link in an "activation email". I wrote the script using mysql and my server is a Windows server. I am fairly new to php programming and I am unable to figure out how to make it work. Basically, what I think I need help with is making a url that users can click on to add they're email address to another table in mysql for "opt-inned emails". I think that I can do the rest easily but can someone help me out with making a link that can move an email address from one table to another? Thanks in advance,

Farmernate

[sid]

what you want is an extra variable. letzs say you call it "key"

this should be some random code - there are numerous ways in php to have a random string created. just do a search on this board.

store the key and the user email as well as a boolean variable "verified" (value 0) in the database and send the signing up user an email then which includes instructions and the following link:

http://.../verify.php?email=" . $email . "&key=" . $key . "

verify.php checks in the database if there is an entry which matches $email and $key - if thats the case, set verified = 1 in that line. once thats done, just send out your newsletter to all email addresses where verified==1.

hope this helps!

[Farmernate]

Thank you for your help, the info you gave was just what I needed. I control-ced and edited the following. Is there any way that I can improve it or is it as good as it can get? The other parts of the code should be easy for me to do so I am just going to post the parts I need help with.

This is the script to make a random code:

<?
function makeRandomPassword() {
$salt = "abchefghjkmnpqrstuvwxyz0123456789";
srand((double)microtime()*1000000);
$i = 0;
while ($i <= 7) {
$num = rand() % 33;
$tmp = substr($salt, $num, 1);
$pass = $pass . $tmp;
$i++;
}
return $pass;
}
$random_password = makeRandomPassword();
?>

And this is the script to set the boolean value to 1 (the default is 0):

case "confirm":
     if(isset($_GET['code'])) {
         if(mysql_query("SELECT * FROM ".MY_TABLE." WHERE code='".$_GET['code']."'")) {
             mysql_query("UPDATE ".MY_TABLE." SET active = '1' WHERE code = '".$code."'");
             echo "Thank you for confirming, you are now added to the list";
         } else {
             echo "You have the wrong code or id, please double check";
         }
     } else {
         echo "Please use the link in email to confirm your subscription";
     }
     break;

I'm doing it basically the way you mentioned in the previous post.
Step 1. The user fills in a form and presses "subscribe"
Step 2. The form sends the information to a script which enters the subscriber's name, email address, code, boolean value 0, and date in a MySQL Database and sends an email to the subscriber with a short message and a link to confirm the subscription.
Step 3. The user (hopefully) clicks the link, which changes the boolean value to 1.
Step 4. When I send out mailings, I will send it to the members wheree "boolean value= 1"

Any suggestions? Critiques? Anything else? I am relatively new to php so any help is appreciated.

Farmernate

[Farmernate]

BTW, I really like the "error" in your sig line. I have seen my share of errors...