Be gentle - PHP virgin

[whatsthis]

My first post.

I am putting together a website with DW8 where visitors enter information first name, second name, address etc. I've set up the database with input, search and results pages. But I want to change to check if the visitor is a returner or a new visitor. So I need to write some code.

What I want is the first page to have the visitor enter first name & second name.

Then the php will search the database and if the names are there already there the input page displays the record for the visitor to edit. If there not in the database then the input page displays just the first and second name and a blank address field for the visitor to fill in.

Does anyone know of a sample already written to do this as I'm sure it's a common function.

MAMP on OSX

[Blulagoon]

Its really the same as any simple authentication system.

Create an html form where they enter their names, lets say the first name input box is named first and second name input box is named second. You then set the form to action=myfile.php and method=Post

Then for myfile.php

include ("connection_details.php");   // username, pwd etc etc
mysql_connect($host,$user,$password);
mysql_select_db($database);

$first=$_POST['first'];
$second=$_POST['second'];

$query="SELECT first,second FROM mytable where first=".$first." and second="
.$second;     // all on one line

$result=mysql_query($query);
$numrows=mysql_num_rows($result);

if ($numrows == 1)  {

echo "This guy is registered do what we want here";
}

elseif ($numrows > 1) {

echo "Help how did this first and second name get on twice";
}
else {

echo "This guy isn't registered so lets put him in the db";
}

HTH - Blu