[Resolved] Database

Anthony_john5

For the content section (jokes, sms messages etc) of my site I've made a voting script allowing users to rate the content on a scale of one to five.

However at the present the users can vote as many times as they like. So what I want to do is record both the user's IP address and phpBB ID number. I was wondering if the best way to do it is to create a table for votes and record the content id no, the users ip and their id number. With this everytime an item was voted on I could add a query the db to see if that user id or Ip had voted on this item before today. At the same time write a script that the crontab could execute at the end of every day to clear the votes table.

Have I got the right idea logically?

Anthony

Pig

I would create one many-to-many table that has the id of the joke, the IP and the phpbb id.

Then, before they get to vote, do a simple query to see if either the phpbb id or the IP is in the table AND the joke is the correct one.

SELECT * FROM table WHERE table_jokeid=$id AND (table_phpbbid=$phpbbid OR table_ip=$ip)

If you get a result, then kill the script.

dalecosp

Hmm, I'd think a cookie might be better in this case, if there's no login required to vote.

If they're logged in, all you should need is the login name. If you start checking IP's, what do you do with people behind NAT?

Pig

It's just like "The Club". It's just a deterrent. Checking the IP and phpbb id keeps peeps from registerring multiple accounts to vote (since he is using the phpbb id, I think we can assume they have to be logged in to use it). Sure, someone savy can get around it, and it will not work as well for peeps with dynamic IP's, but it's a precaution. The club has never stopped a single car theif that wanted that car. It just made the other cars an easier target. A deterrent.

Anthony_john5

Thanks a lot for your help. 🙂

Anthony