check database before sending form

jimlongo

Hi, before I spend too much time on this I want to make sure it's possible.

I have a database that contains member information. name, year of membership, etc.,

I have a html page that uses a perl form to submit information to join a particular event. reduced to its simplest form

<form method="post" action="/cgi-bin/SOMESCRIPT.pl">
<input type="text" name="name"> 
<input type="submit"> 
</form>

Is it possible to insert some php into this to check the database for whether or not the person is a member? If they are the form gets submitted as usual. If they are not, the form wouldn't be submitted and they'd get an error page instructing them that they need to register.

Thanks for any help,
jim

spighita

maybe change the action to a php file that decides what to do with the information posted.

jimlongo

You mean

<form method="post" action="/cgi-bin/checkmembership.php">

where checkmembership.php checks the database and depending on the results either passes through the action as /cgi-bin/SOMESCRIPT.pl or sends another html page with an error?

spighita

jimlongo;10975831 wrote:
You mean
<form method="post" action="/cgi-bin/checkmembership.php">
where checkmembership.php checks the database and depending on the results either passes through the action as /cgi-bin/SOMESCRIPT.pl or sends another html page with an error?

Yes, but I don't know if you can run pl action. Can you pass the variables to pl after the query is set to true?

jimlongo

I don't know.

I suppose what I could do is first have them go to checkmembership.php do the check and then depending on the result send them to the form, or send them an error.

Doesn't seem quite as neat.

spighita

Most of the website I've seen have something along the lines of:

Already a member click here

Or Join today by clicking here

jimlongo

Yes, but the database has members who have paid for a tennis club membership.

The form is a free entry into houseleague that is only available to members.

So i would like to make sure that only paid members can register for this free event.

JVassie

Simple answer; only allow those who are logged in to view the form full stop.

I presume you are using sessions (and/or cookies) for login related stuff anyway, should be a simple extension of your login script to be able to call a function loggedIn(), if not logged in, redirect to the login page (possibly with an element in the url to redirect back to the form after logging in [www.bleh.com/login.php?url=form.php]. If they are logged in, then display the form.

jimlongo

Like most ecommerce sites, you can have an account without having bought anything.

I really would prefer to do this outside of the ecommerce section of the website, just use the ecommerce database information to check current membership before submitting the form.

JVassie

How were you proposing to check them off against the database? Surely they'd need either a name and email, or username and password for example?

Otherwise you have no way of knowing whether or not they are in the database.

jimlongo

There's a table "family_members" that contains "first_name" and "last_name" and "current_membership_year" in the database.

I have firstname and lastname in the form. I figured I take that input and check in the database if that person has current_membership_year=2011 then submit the form.

JVassie

Ok, but how do you know the person who is trying to use the form is in the database? Do they login? Do they type in their first and last name?

jimlongo

Filling in the form requires them to type in their first and last name.

JVassie

Ok then, a couple of points.

Not sure of the size/scale of your club, but using First/Last name as a way of keeping track of a person is potentially hazerdous, only takes two John Smith's to come along and become a member in the same year, and the system gets itself lost.

Is there some form of membership number each person has? This has the advantage of being unique, even if their names are identical. You can then ask them to type their membership number into the form, and as part of processing the form, check if firstly; their membership number exists, and secondly; if the number matches the first and last name supplied.

In terms of actually doing the checking, if you want to do it dynamically (ie at the point the user finishes typing their first/last name (or membership number ideally) in the form, you want to use AJAX to access your database 'on-the-fly' to check they are 'legit'.

Alternatively, if it doesn;t need to be so dynamic, you can use simple PHP as part of your processing/error trapping to do the checks.

James

jimlongo

Yes I understand the point about duplicate names. There is an ID number but I'm loathe to ask people to remember yet another piece of information (they already require a couple of ID/passwords - one for the store, as well as a separate online booking system). Well I can leave that decision for another day.

I thought of an AJAX approach to dynamically checking input, or conversely as I stated at the beginning, just either process the perl script OR display an error page.

The basic "newbie" question was where/how to insert the php part of the equation in a form that relies on a perl script.

Thanks,
jim