Generating pages by username

mcslug

Thanks for reading everyone. I'm new to PHP and MYSQL, I've gotten pretty good with it over the last month or so but I'm stuck on something. I've created my own content management type of a site, but I want to set it up so a user can view another users publicly viewable webpage.

Right now I'm doing authentication against a mysql database, I want a user to be able to type into a browser something like:
http://mysite.com/bob

and have that query the database for information about bob which will be posted to a default page.

I'm using IIS 6, php5 and mysql

I thought I could use URL parameter passing to do that, so I could set a variable equal to whatever was typed in at the end of the string, in this case bob, but I don't know enough about url parameters or understand them enough to even know if my thinking is correct there.

Any help is greatly appreciated, even if it's just telling me the topic that I'm looking for and I'll go look it up, I just don't even know what something like this would be titled.

rikmoncur

if you did it like that, someone could change 'bob' to 'jim' and get jim's page. (like a british bank did recently!)
do it with a session variable based on the client's login name.

bradgrafelman

What you're talking about doing is redirecting the URL to a PHP script, and passing the typed URL "/bob" to the PHP script as a parameter (i.e. going to /bob redirects to users.php?user=bob or something along those lines).

To do this, I would say use mod_rewrite in Apache (google RewriteEngine and RewriteRule).

I'd write up a pattern for you, but I don't have my main computer online at the moment, plus I figure letting you research this module will not only let you decide on whether or not you want to/can use it but also learn how to set it up yourself in the process! :p

mcslug

thanks for replying bradgrafelman. I read about mod_rewrite, the only problem is I'm using IIS and not apache, there is a download for a modded version of the rewrite for IIS but when I go through the install it blows up my browser and I can't view any of my pages.

I'm trying to avoid going to apache since I have little experience with it, but I'm thinking it's inevitable. But I'm glad that mod_rewrite seems to be the way to go, I'll research it and post an answer if I come up with one.

Thanks for pointing me in that direction!

mcslug

that's exactly what I want it to do rikmoncur

if someone types in www.whatever.com/name I want it to display information on whoever's name is.

So basically the name entry acts as a paramter that gets passed, I query the mysql database with something like

select info from info where username = name

this way it's a general page created by nothing more than query for information from the database based on the username typed in the url

MarkR

There are a couple of tricks you could do-

Use mod_rewrite (or an IIS equivalent) - dodgy on IIS as the IIS rewrite modules, although many, are variable in quality (i.e. they may crash IIS)
Make the 404 not found page, a PHP page which actually serves a 200 status (if the user DOES exist, a 404 otherwise) and handles it appropriately - you MAY be able to do this with IIS.

Generally I'd avoid IIS with PHP, as the IIS/PHP integration modules seem a bit lacking in reliability.

Apache on the other hand, runs perfectly fine on win32.

Mark

mcslug

MarkR - thanks for posting, I'm not sure I follow the 404not found page idea. How does the 404 page check if the user exists? If it can check using the name typed in, then it means that name is stored as a variable somewhere, if that's the case, all I need to know is how to access that variable and I can use it to query my database.

I've never worked with 404 pages before so bare with me as a newbie.

As for apache, I'm trying to install it now, the website said something about having to have vb 6 installed, I hope that's not the case, but I'm gonna give it a try.

etully

mcslug: The 404 is a good technique. You look at the environment variables and find the one that tells you the URL. Then you use a regexp to find the string that follows www.yourdomain.com. Once you have that string, you know the username and you can look that up in a database and display their page.

But I have another technique that I prefer. I set up a wildcard in my DNS so that *.mydomain.com all resolves to the same IP. Then I make my index.php page check the environment variables with the URL to find the domain name and see what preceeds mydomain.com. And that's their username. That way, When "bob" registers for an account, his URL is: http://bob.mydomain.com

This way, you're not piggy backing on the 404 error page function which you might really want to use for 404 error pages!

mcslug

etully - thanks for the suggestion!

that definitely sounds like what I would want to do, but I have no idea how to go about doing so 🙂 I'll try and look it up some more

I have a new problem though, installing php5 and apache 2.2 on windows srvr03. For whatever reason when I put the line in the httpd.conf file:
LoadModule php5_module "C:/php/php5apache.dll"
and then I restart apache it says, "could not find module"

I have looked it up and everyone says put that line in and it works, except it doesn't. Grrr

anyway, if I ever get apache up I'll look into the DNS usage, I just don't understand how it knows to use the * entry as a variable, or where it stores it, or how I reference it using php.

bradgrafelman

For installing PHP on an Apache 2 webserver, simply follow the instructions on this man page: [man]install.windows.apache2[/man] (NOTE: I'd recommend following the ISAPI module instructions, NOT the CGI binary, as it appears you're trying to do).

EDIT: Don't forget to read the entire manual page! It says to follow the "manual installation steps" after downloading PHP and BEFORE integrating with Apache. These instructions can be found on this man page: [man]install.windows.manual[/man] .

mcslug

bradgrafelman - thanks, it turns out the latest release of apache 2.2.2 is not working properly with php

Once I switched to 2.0.48 it works just fine. Thanks for the reference!
Now I'm going to try and tackle etully's idea, and look up more info, any other information is appreciated, thanks for all your help so far everyone!

etully

mcslug:
1. set up a DNS record for .yourdomain.com pointing to your IP address
2. set up Apache so that .yourdomain.com goes to your web directory

(That's not normal. Normally, you have WWW.yourdomain.com going to one directory and BOB.yourdomain.com going to another directory and TONY.yourdomain.com going to a thrid directory. In your case, you're going to point [everything].yourdomain.com to the same directory).

Write an index.php file in your web directory that determines which URL was used to arrive at that directory like this:

$domain = $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'];
ereg("(.+).yourdomain.com",$domain,$regs);
$username = $regs[1];

Now that you know $username, you can do whatever you want to include the content that belongs to that user.

I hope that helps.

mcslug

thanks again etully, I'm working on it so far. Here's what I'm assuming all of this means (I'm a noob with some of this so bare with my ignorance if you can)

I set up dns on my srvr03 box, and added a forward look up zone alias for *.mysite.com (not sure if this is what you mean by setting up a new dns record.) but when I ping blah.mysite.com it says unresolved. Is this something that can be done with windows? or do I HAVE to use linux/unix?

In my httpd config file for apache I'm putting under the alias section:
Alias *.mysite.com "C:/Program Files/ Apache Group/Apache2/htfiles"
I'm assuming this is what I do to allow apache to forward requests for blah.mysite.com to go to the index file I set up in the htfiles folder?

I guess my questions are, a, is this right, and b, can it be done with windows?

etully

mcslug:
I don't use Windows so I'm not going to be able to help you with syntax either for DNS configs or Apache configs.

For the DNS, you are trying to set up a wildcard "A" record in your zone - not a wildcard zone file (if there is such a thing). Your zone file is for "mysite.com". A normal "A" record (which is inside a zone file) converts a name like "www.mysite.com" to an IP like 1.2.3.4. In your case, you want the "A" record to convert *.mysite.com to your IP address.

For Apache, you have the general idea. Instead of making "www.mysite.com" point to "C:/Program Files/ Apache Group/Apache2/htfiles" You want *.mysite.com to point to that directory. This way, whatever subdomain is typed in brings you to that directory. You are on the right track. I just can't help you with Windows sysadmin.

mcslug

etully-

well windows is a bust, but then, so is apache. The .mysite.com redirection doesn't work either in windows dns or in apache because it views as a regular character and not a "wildcard" character. So now I'm wondering if linux is just going to do the exact same thing?

etully

I've been doing this on Linux for the last five years both in DNS and Apache. You should be able to do it on Windows - you might just need a good manual or a good sysadmin. Of course, that would be true of Linux too - a good manual or a good sysadmin.

I know that this is a frustration for you. All I can tell you is that this is pretty straight forward - there's no magic or anything. You're setting up an "A" record for and you're setting up a <virthost> in Apache for .mysite.com. It's a little out of the mainstream but it's not that far out of the mainstream. I suspect that a few Google searches might shed some light. Maybe there's a good forum for Windows sysadmin?

mcslug

etully -
what environment are you running it on, what version of linux/unix, what version of apache?

To give some back ground, I'm running apache 2.0.48 on srvr03. I setup the "A" record for dns as *.mysite.com and also set up the virtual host in apache

I know it's set up right, the problem is as I said before, if I ping mcslug.mysite.com I get no reply, but if I ping .mysite.com it comes back, so it's taking .mysite.com as literal characters and not a wildcard character. I've also tried this setup with the same version of apache and fedora core 5, but since apache ALSO takes * as a literal character, it still doesn't use it as a wild card. I'm thinking there's another way to do this that I just don't know of.

Thanks for the help, I'll keep plugging away!

bradgrafelman

I don't know if you have the ability to manually edit the DNS zone, but for njoe.com, I have two entries setup as follows:

@ IN A 62.214.98.14
* IN A 62.214.98.14

This allows for any subdomain, OR no subdomain, to properly point to the webserver.

If you can't edit the actual DNS zone file, you might need to contact your host, who knows.

etully

mcslug:

bradgrafelman is right, this has to do with configuring your DNS. I've used this technique for 5-6 years on lots of different versions of Linux and Apache. (You are having a DNS problem, not an Apache problem). This will work on all versions of Unix because you edit your zone file as a text file, not a GUI tool that edits your zone file (and appears to be getting it wrong). You could contact your host - or Google - for help and see if they can suggest a way to add a wildcard record to your zone file. (I just don't know how to do it in Windows.)

Alternately, you could host your DNS at a more friendly place. I use dnsmadeeasy.com even though I host my web sites at various hosting companies. Even though web hosting companies typically include DNS service with their web hosting packages, you don't need to use their services if you don't want to (for example, if you are having trouble adding a wildcard to your zone file).

I once had a web hosting company tell me that they wanted $10 per DNS change. I simply went to my registrar and changed the name servers to dnsmadeeasy.com ($20 per year) and the web hosting company doesn't know that I do my DNS service elsewhere.

mcslug

Ok, progress slowly but surely. It turned out I had a CNAME entry in my dns that was throwing off my A zone entries. Now if I ping anything.mysite.com I get a reply. So the DNS issue is now working.

Thanks for bareing with me everyone and for all your help. My new issue is as follows:

I have an alias set up in my apache config file that looks like this:
Alias *.mysite.com "C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs/hydra/index.php"

Now my assumption is that if I type in mcslug.mysite.com it will ACTUALLY be forwarded to the index file referenced above, I can then code php into that page that will handle the url variables and do the work I want.

My problem is it doesn't re-direct to that page, it goes directly to the default apache welcome page. I think it's just jumping right over that line, (or perhaps I just have it typed wrong) I've also been reading up on virtualhosts (since etully recommended it) but I don't understand how that would help me? I tried putting this in for my virtualhost:
<VirtualHost 127.0.0.1>
DocumentRoot "C:/Program Files/Apache Group/Apache2/htdocs/mysite"
ServerName *.mysite.com
</VirtualHost>

but my understanding is that virtual hosts are more for subdomains or running second domains on the same box.

As for the dns issues and changing companies, none of this is live right now, it's all being done in house in a development environment, so I can call it what I want where I want using a local ip and it works just fine.