JS & PHP - check value from db dynamically ?

elemelas

Hi guys,

I'm trying to minimize traffic on the server and put some javascript into my website. Now, I have a change password page, where user has to fill in three fields:

<input type=\"password\" class=\"text\" name=\"old_password\" />
<input type=\"password\" class=\"text\" name=\"password\" />
<input type=\"password\" class=\"text\" name=\"password2\" />

First one is the old password obviously, second - new one, third - confirmation.

And I have $old_pass variable selected from the database, which contains old pass.

Is there any way I can check if user has typed in his old password dynamically, without reloading the page ? I'm using this script for checking if new password and confirmation are the same:

function validatePwd() {
var pw1 = document.form.password.value;
var pw2 = document.form.password2.value;

// check for a value in both fields.
if (pw1 == '' || pw2 == '') {
alert('Please type in new password and confirmation.');
return false;
}
// check for minimum length
if (document.form.password.value.length < minLength) {
alert(Your password must be at least 6 characters long.');
return false;
}
// check for spaces
if (document.form.password.value.indexOf(invalid) > -1) {
alert("Password cannot contain spaces.");
return false;
}
else {
if (pw1 != pw2) {
alert ("Passwords aren't the same!");
return false;
}
else {

return true;
      }
   }
}

.... but that code is in head section anyway, so i wouldn't be able to get php variable so soon ..

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

dagon

if (document.form.password.value == document.form.old_password.value ) {
alert('THATS THE OLD ONE SILLY.');
return false;
}

elemelas

hehe, actually, by saying "if I can check if user has typed in his old password", I meant to check if the password that he just typed (as old one) in is the one from the database. This is for security reasons, so if the user would've left the page open, no one without knowing his password could change it. Hope that's clear now 😉

dagon

ahhh ok, well you would have to query the db then which requires either a page reload, or the use of ajax (not my area), i personally wouldn't be worried about having to reload the page.

oh you may want to keep my check, there's no point in letting a user change the password to the same password.

djjjozsi

search on the internet to find something similar to this.

username and password check from file

halojoy

djjjozsi;10941853 wrote:
search on the internet to find something similar to this.
username and password check from file

Is a nice solution, that could be used.

http://www.shawngo.com/gafyd/index.html
- A jQuery script senses when first input field is completed and user moves to next input field
- Then javascript calls check.php to validate first input field and give a message.
- The message: Unavailable / Available (if username is okay to register)
- The check.php in this case uses a CSV database. But may as well use MYSQL or whatever database for check.

The HTML form with the javascript:

<script type="text/javascript" src="jquery.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">

$(document).ready(function() {
	$('#usernameLoading').hide();
	$('#username').blur(function(){
	  $('#usernameLoading').show();
      $.post("check.php", {
        username: $('#username').val()
      }, function(response){
        $('#usernameResult').fadeOut();
        setTimeout("finishAjax('usernameResult', '"+escape(response)+"')", 400);
      });
    	return false;
	});
});

function finishAjax(id, response) {
  $('#usernameLoading').hide();
  $('#'+id).html(unescape(response));
  $('#'+id).fadeIn();
} //finishAjax
</script>
</head>

<body>
<fieldset><legend>Registration Form</legend>
<form action="index.html" method="post">
<p><label for="username">Username:</label> <input type="text" name="username" id="username" />
	<span id="usernameLoading"><img src="indicator.gif" alt="Ajax Indicator" /></span>
	<span id="usernameResult"></span></p>
<p><label for="password">Password:</label> <input type="password" name="password" id="password"/></p>
<p><input type="submit" name="submit" value="Sign Up!" /></p>
</form>
</fieldset>

check.php

<?php

$username = $_POST['username']; // get the username
$username = trim(htmlentities($username)); // strip some crap out of it
$file = '/home/js4hire/public_html/gafyd/data.csv'; // Here's the file. Notice the full path.

echo check_username($file,$username); // call the check_username function and echo the results.

function check_username($file_in,$username){
	$username=strtolower($username);
	$file = file($file_in);
	foreach ($file as $line_num => $line) {
		$line = explode(',',$line);
		$user = trim(str_replace('"','',$line[0]));
		if($username == strtolower($user)){
			return '<span style="color:#f00">Username Unavailable</span>';
		}
	}
	return '<span style="color:#0c0">Username Available</span>';
}
?>

CSV....... data.csv

"username","first_name","last_name","password"
"john","John","Doe","123456"
"martin","Martin","Petrov","111111"