Customised home page....sessions

[gat]

I have created this login script
http://cars.uk-graffiti.co.uk/login.php

It has Javascript Validation as well as PHP validation.

What i plann to do is.....

When a user signs up, and selects "Continent" when they go to the home page. Depending on what continent their from.

I will display car news and a picture specific to the users location.

What i want to know is how to do this.
I understand i can find the users "continent" from their session.

so....
i could have something like

if continent = europe
display Ferrari & Display European news

if continent = north america
display corvette and american news

could some one start me off on this, or explain how this can be done.

many thanks.
gareth.

[devinemke]

it looks like you answered your own question:

if ($continent == 'Europe')
{
// display Ferrari & Display European news
}

if ($continent == 'North America')
{
// display corvette and american news
}

[gat]

ok cool, one more thing...

i read that i have to add <!--{SID}---!>
on every link within the site to keep the session going round?

because i want to use sessions without cookies!

and as for displaying a picture and some news...i guess i could do them as SSI's?

could you mention anything else that i may need to know about keeping the sessions working?

cheers....

[devinemke]

don't be afraid of cookies, use them. they are easier and more secure the URL session propagation. if fact, PHP handles the cookies for you so you don't have to really deal with it.

if you must go without cookies then look at the "session.use_trans_sid" setting in your php.ini. if you turn that on PHP will automagically append your session id to your URL's.

As to SSI, why bother? PHP can do everything SSI can do plus much more. I say use PHP for everything.

[batman]

If you want, what you can do is, after you get the session, you can set that equal to a variable. e.g.

session_start();
$var = $_SESSION['var'];

//then use $var however and whenever you want.

You can then use it as a post or get method to transfer it from page to page.

Hope that helps,

[gat]

I think i am being very thick indeed here.

If the users register via a regestration form to the DB.

username
f_name
s_name
password
location
age
emil

i dont need to use sessions?
because all their details are stored in the DB..

and for they dynami home page, i check the users table for his continent?

is this correct?
thanks

[devinemke]

the whole point of sessions is to store data accross several page accesses. rather than pulling the data out of the db for each page you would start a session with that data. if all you are going to do is show 1 page to the user with his/her info then you probably don't need sessions. if you are going to have a larger area of your site that the user will be able to navigate around then you should definitely use sessions. but again, the idea is to pull the data from the db once and then stick it in your session so you don't have to go back to the db for the next page (and so on).

i assume you are storing the "continent" in your "location" field? use that to dynamically show the page for that continent.

[gat]

ok, got login working, and im storing the db info to session vars...
this code works completeley...

<?
session_start();  

include 'scps_db.php';
// Conver to simple variables
$username = $_POST['username'];
$password = $_POST['password'];

if((!$username) || (!$password)){
	echo "Please enter ALL of the information! <br />";
	exit();
}
// check if the user info validates the db
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='$username' AND password='$password' ");
$login_check = mysql_num_rows($sql);

if($login_check > 0){
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
	foreach( $row AS $key => $val ){
		$$key = stripslashes( $val );
	}
		// Register some session variables!
		$_SESSION['f_name'] = $f_name;
		$_SESSION['s_name'] = $s_name;
		$_SESSION['email'] = $email;
		$_SESSION['location'] = $location;
		$_SESSION['age'] = $age;
		$_SESSION['location'] = $location;
		$_SESSION['username'] = $username;

}
} else {
	echo "You could not be logged in! Either the username and password do not match or you have not validated your membership!<br />
	Please try again!<br />";

}
?>

i can echo these fine "$_SESSION['f_name']" so its working...

however what i would like to know is....

on this page, i re-direct them to the home page...when they reach he home page i would like to display dynamic content according to their "location"

i just want to know how to keep this session alive on the click to the index page.

I have tried

<?php include 'scps_db.php';
session_start();
echo "<b>". $_SESSION['username'] ."</b>";
?>

on the index page...but this os obviously not enough as its not working....

p.s: Is it possible to have some code that...checks to see if a session is load ed...if not "display unknown user" else "display username"?

any help?
thanks

[batman]

Ok....your probably gonna have to use sessions. What your gonna want to do here is have the form's action on the login page point to another page, e.e. checkuser.php. On this page you will do the query, all the user verifications, and also set the sessions.

Checkuser.php page.

session_start();
$uname = $_POST['username'];
$pass = $_POST['password'];
$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table WHERE username='$uname' AND password='$pass'");
$result = mysql_fetch_array($sql);
$username = $result['username'];
$password = $result['password'];
$fname= $result['f_name'];
$sname = $result['s_name'];
$location = $result['location'];
$age = $result['age'];
$email = $result['email'];
$clear = "yes";

$_SESSION['usename']; = $username
$_SESSION['pass']; = $password
$_SESSION['fname']; = $fname
$_SESSION['sname']; = $sname
$_SESSION['location']; = $location
$_SESSION['age']; = $age
$_SESSION['email']; = $email
$_SESSION['clear']; = $clear

//now you have all the info for that use in sessions.

Now you can use it however you want.

mainpage.php

session_start();

if(session_is_registered('clear'))
{

$uname = $_SESSION['username'];
$pass = $_SESSION['pass'];
$fname = $_SESSION['fname'];
$sname = $_SESSION['sname'];
$continent = $_SESSION['location'];
$age = $_SESSION['age'];
$email = $_SESSION['email'];

}

if ($continent == 'Europe') 
{ 
// display Ferrari & Display European news 
} 

if ($continent == 'North America') 
{ 
// display corvette and american news 
}

Hope that helps,

[gat]

Thanks for the help, i really appreciate this....im getting there.

I have this code on the login_check.php

<?
session_start();  

include 'scps_db.php';
$username = $_POST['username'];
$password = $_POST['password'];

if((!$username) || (!$password)){
	echo "Please enter ALL of the information! <br />";
	include 'login_form.html';
	exit();
}

$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='$username' AND password='$password' ");
$result = mysql_fetch_array($sql); 

if($result > 0){
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
	foreach( $row AS $key => $val ){
		$$key = stripslashes( $val );
	}
$f_name= $result['f_name']; 
$s_name = $result['s_name']; 
$location = $result['location']; 
$age = $result['age']; 
$email = $result['email']; 
$clear = "yes"; 

$_SESSION['f_name'] = $f_name;
$_SESSION['s_name'] = $s_name;
$_SESSION['email'] = $email;
$_SESSION['location'] = $location;
$_SESSION['age'] = $age;
$_SESSION['username'] = $username;

}
} else {
	echo "You could not be logged in! The username and password do not match!<br />
	Please try again!<br />";

}
?>

The page loads, but its displaying no results?

I have this on Index.php

<?php include 'scps_db.php';
						  session_start(); 
						  if(session_is_registered('clear')) { 

			            $username = $_SESSION['username']; 
						$password = $_SESSION['password']; 
						$f_name = $_SESSION['f_name']; 
						$s_name = $_SESSION['s_name']; 
						$location = $_SESSION['location']; 
						$age = $_SESSION['age']; 
						$email = $_SESSION['email']; 
					  }
					    echo "<b>". $_SESSION['username'] ."</B>";
					  ?>

This page loads, but displays no results?

Can you see any errors??

many thanks

[batman]

A few noticable errors. Try using this for your login_check.php page.

<? 
session_start();   

include 'scps_db.php'; 
$username = $_POST['username']; 
$password = $_POST['password']; 

if((!$username) || (!$password)){ 
    echo "Please enter ALL of the information! <br />"; 
    exit(); 
} 

$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='$username' AND password='$password' "); 
$result = mysql_fetch_array($sql);  

$pass = $result['password'];
$f_name= $result['f_name'];  

$s_name = $result['s_name'];  

$location = $result['location'];  

$age = $result['age'];  

$email = $result['email'];  

$clear = "yes";  

if($password != $pass)
{ 
    echo "You could not be logged in! Either your username and password do not match, or your password is incorrect!<br /> 
    Please try again!<br />"; 
     } 
else
{
$_SESSION['f_name'] = $f_name; 
$_SESSION['s_name'] = $s_name; 
$_SESSION['email'] = $email; 
$_SESSION['location'] = $location; 
$_SESSION['age'] = $age; 
$_SESSION['username'] = $username; 
$_SESSION['clear'] = $clear                     

include("index.php");
} 
?>

Also for the index page:

<?php include 'scps_db.php'; 
                          session_start();  

                          if(session_is_registered('clear')) {  

                        $username = $_SESSION['username'];  
                        $password = $_SESSION['password'];  
                        $f_name = $_SESSION['f_name'];  
                        $s_name = $_SESSION['s_name'];  
                        $location = $_SESSION['location'];  
                        $age = $_SESSION['age'];  
                        $email = $_SESSION['email'];  
                      } 
                         //you dont need to do this. echo "<b>". $_SESSION['username'] ."</B>";
                        //all you need to echo is $username.
                        echo "<b>$username</B>";
                      ?>

Let me know where that get's you.

[gat]

loaded them both in and login_check.php does not load.

Its anoying as the server displays no errors, so i dont know what it can be. I have apache and mysql but for some reason phpmyadmin was not connecting, so i couldnt create the database localy.

you can see for youself
http://cars.uk-graffiti.co.uk/login.php

user: Test
pass: tester

page is just blank?
any ideas?

do we need some sort of loop for the array like?

if($result > 0){
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
	foreach( $row AS $key => $val ){
		$$key = stripslashes( $val );
	}

cheers.

[batman]

Ok....I made a mistake on the login_check.php page. I noticed I did and edited it to be correct, but it doesnt look like I did it in time. Whats happening is its doing everything just like it should, its just not including another page to show.

What you want to do is add: include("index.php"); to the bottom of login_check.php before the ?>

Hope that works,

[gat]

This is all the "PHP" code i have on login_check.php
But it is a template, like the rest of the pages and is displays the users details with <?php echo $_SESSION['username']; ?>
taggs in a table.

so i dont really want to include the index.php as it will mess up the page.

i think there is just an error in the code as the page is still not doing anything?

<?  

session_start();    

include 'scps_db.php';  

$username = $_POST['username'];  

$password = $_POST['password'];  

if((!$username) || (!$password)){  

    echo "Please enter ALL of the information! <br />";  

    exit();  

}  

$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='$username' AND password='$password' ");  

$login_check = mysql_fetch_array($sql);   

$pass = $login_check['password']; 
$f_name= $login_check['f_name'];   

$s_name = $login_check['s_name'];   

$location = $login_check['location'];   

$age = $login_check['age'];   

$email = $login_check['email'];   

$clear = "yes";   

if($password != $pass) 
{  

    echo "You could not be logged in! Either your username and password do not match, or your password is incorrect!<br /> 
    Please try again!<br />";  

     }  

else 
{ 
$_SESSION['f_name'] = $f_name;  

$_SESSION['s_name'] = $s_name;  

$_SESSION['email'] = $email;  

$_SESSION['location'] = $location;  

$_SESSION['age'] = $age;  

$_SESSION['username'] = $username;  

$_SESSION['clear'] = $clear  

include("index.php");                     

}  

?>

[batman]

Try:

<?   

session_start();     

include 'scps_db.php';   

$username = $_POST['username'];   

$password = $_POST['password'];   

if((!$username) || (!$password)){   

    echo "Please enter ALL of the information! <br />";   

    exit();   

}   

$sql = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM users WHERE username='$username' AND password='$password' ");   

$login_check = mysql_num_rows($sql);

if($login_check > 0){
	while($row = mysql_fetch_array($sql)){
	foreach( $row AS $key => $val ){
		$$key = stripslashes( $val );
	}    

$pass = $login_check['password'];  

$f_name= $login_check['f_name'];    

$s_name = $login_check['s_name'];    

$location = $login_check['location'];    

$age = $login_check['age'];    

$email = $login_check['email'];    

$clear = "yes";    

$_SESSION['f_name'] = $f_name;   

$_SESSION['s_name'] = $s_name;   

$_SESSION['email'] = $email;   

$_SESSION['location'] = $location;   

$_SESSION['age'] = $age;   

$_SESSION['username'] = $username;   

$_SESSION['clear'] = $clear;   

header("Location: index.php");                   

}
else
{   

    echo "You could not be logged in! Either your username and password do not match, or your password is incorrect!<br /> 
    Please try again!<br />";   

     }   

?>

[gat]

yeh, that did not work either...but i spent a few hours on it and got it all working and got the sessions ta carry over all the pages.
http://cars.uk-graffiti.co.uk
^here try registering and loggin in...

only problem i know of it you can enter 'me@.com' in email

I have another question?

How could i add a web service?

i understand i could have the weather for example, displayed on my site linked from another?

that would be a webservice right?

ok, so what could i do as an example?
and to the providers of the webservice give you the code to put on your site?

could someone ellaborate?

many thanks

[batman]

Im not sure what your using as far as email validation. As far as the webservice, im not sure what you mean. Give more of what oyu want to do, then ill see if I can help.

Also one Idea you might want to do is something like this:

if(session_is_registerd('clear'))
{
echo "<a href='logoff.php'><img src='logoff.gif'></a>";
}
else
{
echo "<a href='logon.php'><img src='logon.gif'></a>";
}

Something like above will take your login button, and if the user is logged in it will show log off, and if there not logged in it will show log in. If this doesnt make sense let me know.

[gat]

ok thanks for that.

about the web service.
This is the brief:

" additionally, you can include the results of using a web service somewhere on the page. Examples of web services are available from www.amazon.com and sites like www.xmethods.com "

i have searched on webservices and checked his sources, but im finding it hard to understand how to implement.

Do they give you a link to include?
Could someone ellaborate, or think of an example that i could use with my site?

many thanks