Form with multiple logins scripts..

[buckethead]

I am new to PHP and having trouble finding any information on how to do this. I have a form that has a drop down with 3 option values. Depending on the option value chosen a different login script needs to be run (3 seperate programs with 3 different login scripts). I am wondering if someone can point me in the right direction to a tutorial/how-to or some documentation on calling up different PHP scripts depending on the option value chosen.

Thanks

[Houdini]

Show what you have currently for a form. Then maybe some advice or suggestions could be given to make what you have work. Also include what version of PHP your server is running on if you do not know then create this program and upload it to your server and run it. It will produce a table about your PHP installation on that server.

<?php
phpinfo();
?>

When posting code either enclose the code you post with [ php ] and [ /php ] (minus the spaces manually or highlight your entered code using your mouse or cursor keys and click the little ~ which is in side what looks like a sheet of paper with the right upper edge dogeared. It is right after the # and <> symbols on the bottom row of BB Code formatting.

[cgraz]

You could do this by just running an if statement. An if statement has two parts

if(this is true)
{
     do_this();
{
else
{
     do_something_different();
}

So a more basic example is the following.

$num = 8;

if($num < 5)
{
     echo "Number is less than five";
}
else
{
     echo "Number is greater than five";
}

When the if statement runs, it will run through the first part and return FALSE because $num is not less than five. Or 8 is not less than five. So because this is not true, it will automatically move to the else part of the statement, and will tell you that the number is greater than five.

So in your case, you could setup a form where each of your 3 option values is set to the name of the php script. For example (the male female or child is all I could think of. Put what you want there, the diff type of logins, etc):

<select name="login_type">
<option value="1.php">Male</option>
<option value="2.php">Female</option>
<option value="3.php">Child</option>
</select>

When your script posts, you'll have three values that would possibly be given to you. 1.php, 2.php, or 3.php. This value would be stored in $_POST["login_type"] because login_type is the name of your field, and your form is set to post (I'm assuming)

so you can just include those;

<?php

include("lib/".$_POST["login_type"]);

?>

ehh...i ran a bit ahead of myself in this post. The reason I explained the if statements early was because you could also do something like this:

<?php

if($_POST["login_type"] == "1.php")
{
     include("lib/1.php");
}
else
{
     if($_POST["login_type"] == "2.php")
     {
          include("lib/2.php");
     }
     else
     {
          include("lib/3.php");
     }
}

?>

In your form, the value for login_type can be set to anything. Let's say they were to set to a, b or c, you could do

<?php

if($_POST["login_type"] == "a")
{
     include("lib/1.php");
}
else
{
     if($_POST["login_type"] == "b")
     {
          include("lib/2.php");
     }
     else
     {
          // c is true
          include("lib/3.php");
     }
}

?>

Hope this helps.

[buckethead]

cgraz - that is what I was looking for. I had a big brain fart on how to use the if and else statements on this. Now just to make sure that the name/variable that is passed to each script is the same. If each script needs a different name for the username/password - i.e. script one calls it name and password, but script 2 calls it user and userpassword - is there a way to change the names that are passed between scripts?

Here is my form

<div id="clientlogin">
		<h5>Client Login</h5>
		<form name="login" action="login.php" method="post">
		Username:<input name="username" class="box"><br />
		Password:&nbsp;<input type="password" name="password" class="box"><br />
		<select name="svc" class="box">
			<option value="script 1" name="s1">script 1</option>
			<option value="script 2" name="s2">script 2</option>
			<option value="script 3" name="s3">script 3</option>
		</select>
		<input type="submit" value="Login">
		</form>	
</div>

[Houdini]

You could use sessions to pass variables while the user in on the site.

<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION['username'] = $_POST['username'];
// whatever else you want
?>

[buckethead]

Looks like one of the scripts uses different variables then I am using and waiting to hear what back from the script writer on what they are.

I have never used session_start (); before. Would I use that at the start of the form on the .php page that has the form:

<?php
session_start();
$_SESSION['username'] = $_POST['username'];
// whatever else you want
?> 

<div id="clientlogin">
        <h5>Client Login</h5>
        <form name="login" action="login.php" method="post">
        Username:<input name="username" class="box"><br />
        Password:&nbsp;<input type="password" name="password" class="box"><br />
        <select name="svc" class="box">
            <option value="script 1" name="s1">script 1</option>
            <option value="script 2" name="s2">script 2</option>
            <option value="script 3" name="s3">script 3</option>
        </select>
        <input type="submit" value="Login">
        </form>    

</div> 

Or would I use that in the actual .php file that handles the form?

Thanks again for the help here!

[Houdini]

The session must be started on any page that you wish to use or assign a value to a session array then you must call session_start() first.

[buckethead]

Thanks again for all your help. One other question and I am not sure if it can be done or not and if it can be done how it can be done.

Let's say all 3 programs use different variables for their login scripts. Is it possiable to use the session_start () to assign a variable based on what option value was chosen?

So the form plus php code on the main pgae would look like:

<?php

if ($_POST["svc"] == "script 1") {

   session_start ();
$_SESSION['username'] = $_POST['var1'];
}
else
{
	if ($_POST["svc"] == "script 2") {
		$_SESSION['username'] = $_POST['var2'];
		}
		else
		{
		$_SESSION['username'] = $_POST['var3'];
		}
}

?>

<div id="clientlogin">
        <h5>Client Login</h5>
        <form name="login" action="login.php" method="post">
        Username:<input name="username" class="box"><br />
        Password:&nbsp;<input type="password" name="password" class="box"><br />
        <select name="svc" class="box">
            <option value="script 1" name="s1">script 1</option>
            <option value="script 2" name="s2">script 2</option>
            <option value="script 3" name="s3">script 3</option>
        </select>
        <input type="submit" value="Login">
        </form>    

</div>

Thanks

[Houdini]

There could be a problem with assigning a session variable in this manner, suppose that some one else were using the site but has signed in as an admin or normal user or a moderator. If you set $SESSION['username'] to a value that was actually different in another script then it would overwrite that variable so you would need to be more selective when assigning a $SESSION variable to a particular user to prevent this from happening. so something like $SESSION['admin']['username'] = $POST['var1']; and so on, or does that make sense?

[buckethead]

Sorry - you lost me with:

$SESSION['admin']['username'] = $POST['var1'];

Not sure where ['admin'] is coming from.

With this particular login script I do not need to worry about someone logging in as anything besides a user - the 3 scripts that people will be logging into are IntelloDesk, ModernBill, and DirectAdmin. If I understand the variable overwrite part I just need to make sure that

 $_session['username'] = $_post ['veryuniquevarhere'];

Thanks