Main Page Login = Forum Login

DaVuLf

Okay, I'm having huge trouble with this problem as I'm pretty new to php.

I will explain the situation from top to bottom.

Issue 1:
This is going to be a website for a club im in at University. Now, I only want members of that club to be able to register. The problem is that they pay a member fee. I want to know a way that when they pay me the fee (in person) I can give them a unique confirmation number from which they can register properly (sorta like a CD-Key).

Issue 2:
After these members register, they will be able to login to the site which I want to be able to give them access to restricted content. How do I do this?

Issue 3:
When the members login to the main site, I want it to also log them in on a forum. I believe this is possible with passing variables, but just not how exactly to do it.

I have some code already, but they're all disconnected. I am willing to start from scratch, but again, I'm not really sure how to go about doing this.

I must stress that this is not for profit (as I don't generally like doing most of the groundwork for people if they're making money off it (I'm good at Flash 🙂)) and that this is also a learning experience.

Anything you have to contribute would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you,
DaVuLf

leatherback

Hi,

Sounds to me like you are a newnewnewnewbie. So that is where this post should be.

In general: Have a look through some of the FAQ threads on this site, and read the articles

From there, you are pretty much on your way to get started. Just start simple (With posting / retrieving variables). Once you got those patted down, go to the login-verification.

Build on knowledge you have. Do not try to learn all the steps in one go.

[mod: Please move this thread to newbies]

DaVuLf

Leatherback: I appreciate the concern, although due to time constraints (work and night school) I don't have the available resources to research all this as much as I'd like to. This is why I posted it here, in the hopes that someone would lend a guy a hand.

I need to get this site up and running, hopefully by the end of this month. This php stuff is the only thing holding that back.

Thanks.

edit: I briefly glanced through that article list, sadly, none of those seems to explain how to do what I'm looking for. I appreciate the gesture though.

leatherback

The problem is..

If you are on your way to such a project, without knowledge of PhP, you are going to be in here with a question every 5 minutes.

In principle, we work according to the idea that you give it a try yourself, show where you get stuck, and we try to helkp you fighure out why. That's why I pointed you to the articles and manual. The articles have some real basic stuff in there, which is as good as us talking you through it. And to avoid you asking the same questions everybody asks when they start, I pointed you to the FAQ section (Hey, that's why they were made in the first place!)

Sorry if that sounds a bit short and cold. But unfortunately none of us get payed, and a lot of people get stuck, and of course nobody has enough time..

I got a similar answer 2 years ago, now I am building several websites at any given moment for comps. using PhP.

Trust me.. It will not be too hard to learn if you have some basic prog. skills.

J.,
J.

leatherback

That was a quick glance. Particularly since you seem to have missed this then

DaVuLf

As I said, it was a quick glance 😉.

Thanks for that link, I will go through it.

I don't mean to be pushy, but please understand that this is not my "business" and I need to get this stuff done on my 'free' time (which is negligible to say the least).

I know that most people after being contributors to support forums for a long time, myself included, like to really help out and write things for people in the beginning. That all changes when you find out someone took what you had helped them do 'as a school project' and are now charging $15 for. That said, I do appreciate the help. Even on my home forum I haven't gotten that quick of a reply (although this is far above the majority of their heads, as they're Flash and not php).

DaVuLf

Another quick question. I read through that article, but I don't know what this means:

"Set your database's username, password and hostname in the database.php file. Create a table called user using the SQL at the top of user.php."

What does it mean by database? Again, I don't mean to be dense, but is this a simple issue of copying and pasting this into my web directory for use?

In speaking about a database, I think about something already existing... Without users though, how would one exist?

LoganK

Another quick question. I read through that article, but I don't know what this means:

"Set your database's username, password and hostname in the database.php file. Create a table called user using the SQL at the top of user.php."

What does it mean by database? Again, I don't mean to be dense, but is this a simple issue of copying and pasting this into my web directory for use?

In speaking about a database, I think about something already existing... Without users though, how would one exist?

If you're still reading this, by "database" it means that you need to set up something like MySQL or any other type of SQL database. I'd reccomend for you to d/l and install MySQL, then install phpMyAdmin and configure it for MySQL. It's a lot easier to manage MySQL databases through phpMyAdmin than it is through the command prompt. Then just create the "user" table it tells you to create and give database.php the username, password, and hostname (most likely "localhost") of your SQL server.

Hope this was helpful!

DaVuLf

Okay, so my web provider has phpMyAdmin as well as MySQL support, which I suppose is a good thing.

I shall give it a shot, thank you.

Don't worry, I will have more questions once I try this out 🙂.

DaVuLf

Okay, phpMyAdmin SQL table creator looks exactly like Access. I'm familiar with that program. The difference I can see is that I don't have a code window to type this:

create table user (
user_id int not null auto_increment primary key,
user_name text,
real_name text,
email text,
password text,
remote_addr text,
confirm_hash text,
is_confirmed int not null default 0
);

Which is what I want to do.

edit: Nevermind, I got it done. Another quick question. For the database, it says its domain_ca, would I use the same password and username that I use to login to phpMyAdmin, or the one for the site itself?

DaVuLf

thorpe

Issue 1:
This is going to be a website for a club im in at University. Now, I only want members of that club to be able to register. The problem is that they pay a member fee. I want to know a way that when they pay me the fee (in person) I can give them a unique confirmation number from which they can register properly (sorta like a CD-Key).

you'll need to create an admin area which only you can log into. you log in, assign a new user a unique username / password, then give them that. you could also build functionality for the user to (once logged in) change there password so its easier for them to remember.

Issue 2:
After these members register, they will be able to login to the site which I want to be able to give them access to restricted content. How do I do this?

to 'log in' a user, you check there username / password combonation against the database, if they exist and have the correct password, you set a session variable to 'logged'.

then all you do is simply check this variable on all pages you want locked. if it = 'logged' they can view the page, else boot them.

Issue 3:
When the members login to the main site, I want it to also log them in on a forum. I believe this is possible with passing variables, but just not how exactly to do it.

see issue #2

this whole setup is not overly complex to make, but if you think about it, all it really is is a login system. if your not willing to, or dont have the time to program this thing yourself (with our help of course), may i suggest you do a google for a php login script? im sure you will find many free scripts that will achieve your goals. some may have better setup/usage instructions than others. from there you should be able to look at the scripts yourself and get an idea of what is going on. most programming languages have a simular concept behind them. so im sure, if you know actionscript you will have some understanding of what is going on.

from there you should be able to come up with the right questions, for us to be able to provide you with the assistance your looking for.

DaVuLf

Thanks for the informative post Thorpe.

I totally understand what you're saying, and as far as I'm concerned, I've learned quite a bit about php since my first post.

The only things that get me are the 'create an admin area'. I will definately have to search that this weekend.

On that note, my prior plans have been cancelled, so I actually have some free time to get all this done. Expect some posts in the coming days.

Thanks everyone for their help.

LoganK

I agree with what Thorpe said about Issues 1-3. For #3, I was going to say to find out which sesison variables the forum looks for and just register those as well. Again, the same thing Thorpe said. All this is a big login system with passing variables back and forth.

With your question regarding the database, I assume you mean what user/pass combo you need to type into database.php. For that, it'd be the user/pass for phpMyAdmin, not the site itself.

If your pages are showing up blank, try making sure your server is set to process PHP. If you want a simple "test" PHP frontend, do something like this:

<?php

$user = "user";
$pass = "pass";
$host = "localhost";

echo "PHP is working if you see this.";

mysql_connect($user, $pass, $host) or die("Could not connect to DB!<br>" . mysql_error());

echo "PHP/MySQL is working if you see this.";

?>

LoganK

And for creating an "admin area", all it really is is another password-protected portion of the site; the only difference is that it can edit the MySQL tables (like it has functions for managing users, forum posts, etc.).

DaVuLf

Okay cool, thanks Logan. I will dissect the phpBB admin panel's and see if I can get a gist of it.

edit: One other thing, the tutorial told me to put everything in /include/, but say I'm looking for index.php. I have to type www.domain.com/include/index.php. You'd think I could just type www.domain.com/index.php. I suppose not though (Logan, that frontend you gave me, I called it index.php).

It gives me this error:

PHP is working if you see this.Could not connect to DB!
Unknown MySQL Server Host 'user' (2)

PHP is working if you see this.Could not connect to DB!
Unknown MySQL Server Host 'domain_ca' (2)

LoganK

Allright, but a forum admin panel might be quite different than one you want to make. I'm assuming that the forum you're using already has an admin, so you only want to build one for the "user" section of your site, right?

DaVuLf

That's right, although I suppose I don't really need an admin area...

You know what it reminds me of, if you've ever seen on most new pages, they have images that show up with confirmation letters (bot protection), is there any way to do that but to use manual codes (ie ones I create?). I mean, this site doesn't have to be super high tech and impermeable as it is mostly just for the fun of the club... If someone really wants to try hacking, then they can go ahead I suppose, it's no big deal to me. What it does have to be though, is functional, and that's what Im focusing on right now.

LoganK

There are many ways to make those CAPTCHAs that you talk about. You can do it simply with text, or go so far as to make random strings, print them on images, and store the value in session variables (the latter is my method on my sites 🙂).

But for your script, you don't really need a CAPTCHA, and generating it by hand is very inefficient. What I would do is set up a table in the database called "keys", with an ID column, a username column, and key column. Then, in the "register/signup" form, you can have a "Confirmation Code" text box, and verify it against the database. The username column is just so that each key is unique to only one individual.

Let me know if I answered your question right; I'm not posting anymore tonight but I will tomorrow morning.

DaVuLf

Logan, a small correction to your php frontend:

<?php

$user = "user";
$pass = "pass";
$host = "localhost";

echo "PHP is working if you see this.";

mysql_connect($host, $user, $pass) or die("Could not connect to DB!<br>" . mysql_error());

echo "PHP/MySQL is working if you see this.";

?>

Apparently it has to be in that order for it to work.

edit: In reply to your previous post, I think that is a good idea with the table. I will also forego posting tonight, but tommorow or Saturday I'm going to bother you again 😉.