[RESOLVED] Validating New User

[saltious]

I have a form which takes the details of a new user and inserts them into the table.

this bit is working fine.

what i want to do now is check that the new user being created is not already in the table.

The field i intend to do this by is one which holds the active directory info. ie, "Domain\username". this will be unique for every user.

so i have a variable pulled from a form $ntuser which i need to compare against a select * statement from users table and say if $ntuser = the field in the table echo user already exists. else.... insert.... etc.

i know i need some kind of loop but cant quite figure it out.

anyone any ideas?

many thanks!!

[big_nerd]

There are a few different approaches you can take.

What I usually do is setup an AJAX function from the main page to check (onsubmit) if the username exists, and inform the user BEFORE posting the form.

In addition, if you do not need to save the data that the user had already input (as in, you do not wish to redirect them back to the form with all of the data filled out) you can display the error message and use the die() command to prevent any further script execution.

If you do need to save the information, you can use sessions to store the data, and kill the script with your error message and a link back to the initial form.

From the initial form you can pickup the session data to display the information so that the user doesn't have to re-write everything.

I hope this helps..

[saltious]

Thanks for this.

would anyone know a non java.... preferably php function to achive this?

many thanks.

[JVassie]

This is a function i use when people are registering, it is used to check if the username already exists, im guessing you could quite easily modify it to your needs?

function usernameTaken($username){
   global $conn;
   if(!get_magic_quotes_gpc()){
      $username = addslashes($username);
   }
   $q = "select username from users where username = '$username'";
   $result = mysql_query($q,$conn);
   return (mysql_numrows($result) > 0);
}

Note please, $conn is a vraible with my connection information, replace line with your connection details. The field 'username' is from my table 'users', change these two to your own field/table respectively.

You can then just use an if() function on that function, it will return true if the username already exists, or false if otherwise.

Hope that helps

[saltious]

hi, thanks for your help bud. i think im there now.

[JVassie]

Cool, glad it helped

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