Newbie Login script question.

mattyd831

I am new to php. I need a login script for my webpage and I was following a tutorial, but the section needed to connect to the database is missing. The site I used with all of the login and logout pages can be seen in the link.

http://evolt.org/node/60265?from=500&comments_per_page=50

What do I need to put into the database.php file?

Thanks for any help

Errant

<?

/**
 * Connect to the mysql database.
 */
$conn = mysql_connect("localhost", "your_username", "your_password") or die(mysql_error());
mysql_select_db('your_database', $conn) or die(mysql_error());

?>

If you follow the link he posted in the comments you'll find that is the correct bit!!

Or look here: http://evolt.org/node/60384
It is the updated tutorial he has written it might be more useful

mrbill501

Sometimes it makes sense to stick your localhost username and password in varriables and hide them away in at include file too.

Errant

well yes but not always - the databse.php is already 'squirreled' away and got via require in the tutorial mentioned. If someone can get at the database.php file they will be able to get to the passwords file too - it just adds a complexity layer to the code!!

Better advice would be to call the database file something obscure, like db_g597j3_con_site.inc
or something similarly random - that wauy a casualy 'hacker' probably won't be able to find it!

mrbill501

I thought I might get called up on that one. I'm new to this myself and have gotten a lot of help on here so I thought I could "give something back". I normally have all my details hidden in a randomly named .inc file. Its not perfect but seems to work.

Errant

heh, everyone does it a different way! I was just pointing out another way of safeguarding the data.

tbh there isn't much you can do (codewise) to stop determined people grabbing the info! But Ive never seen it happen so........

Houdini

Actually mrbill501 (must be a great great grandchild huh?) was correct in his thinking because the way you coded the reply did not indicate a variable ie. code=php// instead of
($localhost,$your_username,$your_password)[/code]

Errant

Yes but isn't that overkill? I mean you then have to have 3 lines to set up those variables? Wether you put them in a seperate script or not?

Surely just using ("localhost", "your_username","your_password") and then hiding the whole database file away is easier??

It's probably just a case of different perspectives / thought processes! It doesn't really matter too much!

mattyd831

I still get an error when trying to connect to the database.

Could someone code up an example for me? It says it cannot connect to the host and the hostname I used was correct.

I want a very simple login script for the site. Only with login, logout option I do not even want a register option. Possibly something to check if they are logged in I just want only users that I assign passwords to, to be able to view a particular page.

mrbill501

I use this in my files:
include("stuff.inc");
$connection = mysql_connect($host,$user,$password)
or die ("Could not connect to the database");
$db = mysql_select_db($database, $connection)
or die ("Could not select the database");

and the include looks like:
<?php
$host="host name";
$user="user name";
$password="password";
$database="database name";
?>

obviously I've changed the details but thats the gist of it.