How to trigger login after user action?

SonicReducer

I'm building a real estate agent's site. The site will have MLS listings search in it. The agent wants someone to be able to search the listings twice then have to register to search more.

What's the best way to handle this?

Would I set a cookie for each section then have it count the number of searches and trigger the login? IF so do you have an example of how to do this? I haven't done much with cookies...

Thanks for your help. 🙂

anakadote

Cookies can be easily deleted so I would personally avoid that. I would instead track their IP address in a database and limit them that way. Using IPs isn't completely fool proof either but I think that method would work better overall.

SonicReducer

anakadote;10951354 wrote:
Cookies can be easily deleted so I would personally avoid that. I would instead track their IP address in a database and limit them that way. Using IPs isn't completely fool proof either but I think that method would work better overall.

How would you limit them? Could you give a code example?

anakadote

Well, anytime the search form is submitted check to see if their IP address has already been added to your database. If not, add it with a column that tracks how many times they have searched. If they have been added, increment the tracking number value by one (now it should be 2). Before a user can even view the search form, however, you should check to see if their IP is in your database. If it is and they have already searched >= 2 times, redirect to the registration page.

// Form Submission
$IP_address = mysql_real_escape_string($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
$result = mysql_query("SELECT `searches` FROM `search_log` WHERE `ip`='$IP_address' LIMIT 1");
if($result){
  if(mysql_num_rows($result) == 0){
    mysql_query("INSERT INTO `search_log` (`ip`, `searches`) VALUES ('$IP_address', 1)");
  } else {
    $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result);
    if($row['search'] >= 2){
      header("Location: registration.php");
      exit();
    } else {
      mysql_query("UPDATE `search_log` SET `searches`=`searches`+1 WHERE `ip`='$IP_address' LIMIT 1");
    }
  }
}

anakadote

Actually, it should be like this:

// First check if they've already searched two or more times before displaying the form  

$IP_address = mysql_real_escape_string($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']); 
$result = mysql_query("SELECT `searches` FROM `search_log` WHERE `ip`='$IP_address' LIMIT 1"); 
if($result){  

  $row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result); 
  if($row['search'] >= 2){ 
    header("Location: registration.php"); 
    exit(); 
  } 
}



// Then during form submission
$result = mysql_query("SELECT `searches` FROM `search_log` WHERE `ip`='$IP_address' LIMIT 1"); 
if($result){ 
  if(mysql_num_rows($result) == 0){ 
    mysql_query("INSERT INTO `search_log` (`ip`, `searches`) VALUES ('$IP_address', 1)"); 
  } else { 
    mysql_query("UPDATE `search_log` SET `searches`=`searches`+1 WHERE `ip`='$IP_address' LIMIT 1");  

  } 
}