Verification email doesn't work

stpra123

I am trying to create a login script but the email that gets sent to the user when they register doesn't send a valid link to click on. How do I get it to work?

Here's the code:

//sending sign-up e-mail (validation notice)
$val_key=$email.time();
$val_key=md5($val_key);
$sql_query="insert into validate (email,password,val_key) values ('$email','$password','$val_key')";
sql_execute($sql_query,'');
$data="<a href='$main_url/index.php?mode=join&act=val&val_key=$val_key&inv_id=$inv_id'>Verify Email</a>";
messages($email,'0',$data);
//showing a congratulation page
$sql_query="update stats set day_sgns=day_sgns+1,week_sgns=week_sgns+1,month_sgns=month_sgns+1";
sql_execute($sql_query,'');
if($package_amt=='0.00') complete_screen(0);
else {
global $main_url;
$link=$main_url."/index.php?mode=paypal&pack=$pack&mem_id=$mem->maxid";
show_screen($link);
}
}
}

My suspicion is that its somewhere in the bolded part of the code but I could be wrong. What is supposed to go in the validation address, or if someone can just explain to me what is going on when it validates an email.

thx!

SpecialFX

Well, what does the other side of your code look like? The side checking to verify your code. If you don't have any, then that's your problem. There should be some sort of if functions on your index.php seeing if those variables are trying to be passed, and if they are then try to pull them from database and if you do pull them from the same record that hasn't already been verified, then verify.

NogDog

If any of the variable values being used in the URL query string could possibly have any characters that must be escaped in a URL, then you should filter them through [man]urlencode/man before using them in the URL.

Horizon88

It's possible something's breaking your HTML for the link - use urlencode() like NogDog suggested. I'd also recommend against using single-quotes in HTML. I don't know offhand if single-quotes validate as XHTML or if that matters to you, but I've always found it easier to use single-quotes in my php stuff (function calls, variable assignments, etc) and double quotes my in html. That way I don't need to escape a billion quotes when I'm playing with php and html together, and it's much easier to debug that way, too.

NogDog

Horizon88 wrote:
It's possible something's breaking your HTML for the link - use urlencode() like NogDog suggested. I'd also recommend against using single-quotes in HTML. I don't know offhand if single-quotes validate as XHTML or if that matters to you, but I've always found it easier to use single-quotes in my php stuff (function calls, variable assignments, etc) and double quotes my in html. That way I don't need to escape a billion quotes when I'm playing with php and html together, and it's much easier to debug that way, too.

Single quotes for [X]HTML attribute values are perfectly valid. As far as [X]HTML is concerned, it does not care which you use as long as the closing quote is the same type as the opening quote.