Cookies! - Dev Articles

Dev Articles Community Forums Sponsor:

Free Web 2.0 Code Generator! Generate data entry and reporting .NET Web apps in minutes. Quickly create visually stunning, feature-rich apps that are easy to customize and ready to deploy. Download Now!

February 3rd, 2003, 02:29 PM

sara_lauren

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 32

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Cookies!

Hi all!

I've decided to use cookies for the personal pages of those who login.

I've tried this code from a book and guess what?....it's not working!

Please tell me what's wrong with it:

<?php

if ($_COOKIE[auth] == "ok") {

$msg = "Welcome to secret page A, authorized user!";

} else {

header( "Location: http://localhost/PatientsFront.html");
exit;
}

?>

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Secret Page A</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<? echo "$msg"; ?>

</BODY>
</HTML>

This is where I set the cookie values in the login page:

if ($num != 0) {
$cookie_name ="auth";
$cookie_value ="ok";
$cookie_expire ="0";
$cookie_domain ="localhost";

setcookie($cookie_name,$cookie_value,$cookie_expir
e,"/", $cookie_domain,0);

$display_block ="
Secret Menu:
<ul>
<li><a href=\"secretA.php\">secret page A</a>
<li><a href=\"secretB.php\">secret page B</a>
</ul>";
}.....

I don't know where the problem is...When I click the "secretA.php" link after being authorised it takes me back to the login page again. Are the cookie values not being recorded?

PLEASE help me out

PS. what is the correct notation:
if ($_COOKIE[auth] == "ok")

or is it:
if ($_COOKIE[auth] = "ok") ???

Thanks a lot

__________________

February 4th, 2003, 09:49 AM

ramz

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: Juiz de Fora - MG- Brazil

Posts: 93

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Hi Sara!
Hum... normally the cookie values can be only used on the next page. Are you setting the cookie values in the same page that you're trying to check them?!
If this doesn't solves the problem, try modidy this part of your code:

if ($_COOKIE["auth"] == "ok") {
$msg = "Welcome to secret page A, authorized user!";
} else {
header( "Location: http://localhost/PatientsFront.html");
exit;
}

__________________
Regards,
Ramiro Varandas Jr.

February 4th, 2003, 10:42 AM

crazytrain81

Contributing User

Join Date: Aug 2002

Posts: 232

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

"um... normally the cookie values can be only used on the next page"

not normally, always. you can't check a cookie on the same page you set it. that's why detecting whether or not cookies are enabled is a major pain in the ass.

PHP Code:


		
			
if ($_COOKIE['auth'] == 'ok') {

 $msg = '<P>Welcome to secret page A, authorized  user!</p>';

} else {

 setcookie('auth','ok',2500000);

 print '<meta http-equiv="refresh" content="1; URL="http://localhost/PatientsForm.html">';

 exit;

}

That would set the cookie and redirect them if it wasn't already set. the big number is setting the cookie duration to 1 month, you can set that however you want.

Additionally, I won't go into another lesson (as i've already done many times) about why you SHOULD NOT use double quotes. Just suffice to say, use single quotes as much as possible. It saves escaping double quotes and it saves parser time. $var = 'this'.$that; is much faster than $var = "this $that"; (something like 4x faster if I'm not mistaken).

February 4th, 2003, 06:55 PM

wAr-AnGeL

Forum Security

Join Date: Apr 2002

Location: Behind You

Posts: 479

Time spent in forums: 6 m
Reputation Power: 7

can you check if your cookie is actually being set? if it isn't it might be a error in your setcookie() syntax.

__________________

"Only Linux users see the end of crashes."
- Pl4t0

February 5th, 2003, 05:33 AM

Jeb.

"l33t? What's l33t?"

Join Date: Aug 2002

Posts: 51

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Quote:

Originally posted by crazytrain81
$var = 'this'.$that; is much faster than $var = "this $that"; (something like 4x faster if I'm not mistaken).

That's correct, I benchmarked the two a couple weeks ago, and it was around 3-4x faster.

__________________
Jeb.

AIM: JebediahMc - PM Me - E-Mail Me

February 5th, 2003, 03:36 PM

sara_lauren

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 32

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Hi all!

Ok I tried everything!Single,double quotes...spaces...can't think of anything wrong!!!

Here are the three main pages:

1)The login page:

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Patients Login Page</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
e-Clinic
Patients
Login
 
 
<FORM METHOD="POST" ACTION="do_patient.php">
Patient Username: 
<INPUT TYPE="text" NAME="username" SIZE=25 MAXLENGTH=25>
Password: 
<INPUT TYPE="password" NAME="password" SIZE=25 MAXLENGTH=25>
<INPUT TYPE="SUBMIT" NAME="submit" VALUE="Login">
</FORM>
</BODY>
</HTML>

2)The php file that does the processing and sets the cookie:

<?php
if ( (!$_POST[username]) || (!$_POST[password]) ) {
echo("You have not completed the form. 
<li><a href=\"PatientsFront.html\"> Please try again.</a>");
exit();
}

$db_name = "eclinic";
$table_name = "patient_users";

$connection = @mysql_connect("localhost", "root", "") or die(mysql_error());

$db = @mysql_select_db($db_name, $connection) or die(mysql_error());

$sql = "SELECT * FROM $table_name WHERE p_username = '$_POST[username]' AND password = password('$_POST[password]')";

$result = @mysql_query($sql,$connection) or die(mysql_error());

$num = mysql_num_rows($result);

if ($num != 0) {
$cookie_name ="auth";
$cookie_value ="ok";
$cookie_expire ="0";
$cookie_domain ="localhost";

setcookie($cookie_name, $cookie_value, $cookie_expire, "/", $cookie_domain, 0);

$display_block ="
Secret Menu:
<ul>
<li><a href=\"secretA.php\">secret page A</a>
<li><a href=\"secretB.php\">secret page B</a>
</ul>";
} else {

echo("You are NOT authorized. 
<li><a href=\"PatientsFront.html\">Please enter the correct username and password</a>");
exit();
}

?>

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Login Page Response</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<? echo "$display_block"; ?>
</BODY>
</HTML>

3)And finally the actual "secret A" page that I'm supposed to access if I've been authorized:

<?php
if ($_COOKIE["auth"] == "ok") {

$msg = "Welcome to secret page A, authorized user!";

} else {

header( "Location: http://localhost/PatientsFront.html");
exit;
}

?>

<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Secret Page A</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY>

<? echo "$msg"; ?>

</BODY>
</HTML>

Please help me out people ....I haven't got much time left..

Sara

February 5th, 2003, 07:44 PM

ramz

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: Juiz de Fora - MG- Brazil

Posts: 93

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Hi Sara!
I've made modifications in your files.
Download the zip file, test it and see if it fit your needs.

Attached Files

cookies.zip (1.6 KB, 394 views)

February 6th, 2003, 04:44 AM

sara_lauren

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 32

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Hi all!
Oh ramz thanks so much.It worked just as it should.

Now I just got to modify it to my needs. Might take a while though cuz I got courseworks and other stuff to do but if I getany problems I'll just post them here.

Thanx sooooo much.
Sara

February 9th, 2003, 05:08 PM

sara_lauren

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 32

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Hi all!

I can't figure out how to display the details of the people who login when they go to their pages. I want to show their details on their personal page.
But I don't know how to do that. I can only manage to show their login name.Their details are in another table in the same database.
How do I use the login name to extract their details from another table?

Thanx a lot!
Sara

#10

February 9th, 2003, 05:26 PM

ramz

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: Juiz de Fora - MG- Brazil

Posts: 93

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Hi Sara!

If you post the name of the tables and their fields, it would be easier to fix this problem, but here's a tip of what you might be looking for.

$sql = "SELECT table1.field1, table1.field2, table2.field1 FROM table1, table2 WHERE table1.field1 = table2.field1 AND table1.username = '$username'";

#11

February 10th, 2003, 07:17 AM

sara_lauren

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 32

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Hi all!

Ok, this is the basic structure.

Table 1:
Field 1: doctor_username
Field 2: doctor_password

Table 2:
Field 1: doctor_username
Field 2: doctor_firstName
Field 3: doctor_lastName
Field 4: doctor_email
Field 5: doctor_phone

I can display the ‘doctor_username’ after checking that they’re logged in from Table 1. How do I use the same ‘doctor_username’ to get their details from Table 2?

Thanks a lot!
Sara

#12

February 10th, 2003, 07:48 AM

ramz

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: Juiz de Fora - MG- Brazil

Posts: 93

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Hi Sara!
This is what you're looking for:

$sql = "SELECT Table2.doctor_firstName, Table2.doctor_lastName, Table2.doctor_email, Table2.doctor_phone FROM Table1, Table2 WHERE Table1.doctor_username = Table2.doctor_username ORDER BY Table2.doctor_firstName";

#13

February 11th, 2003, 02:51 PM

sara_lauren

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 32

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Hi all!

I'm having problems in displaying the patients details.

This is the part where I'm getting errors:

$login_name = "$_POST[p_username]";

$sql2 = "SELECT firstName FROM patient_details WHERE p_username = $login_name";

$firstName = mysql_query($sql2) or die(mysql_error());

$sql3 = "SELECT lastName FROM patient_details WHERE p_username = $login_name";

$lastName = mysql_query($sql3) or die(mysql_error());

$sql4 = "SELECT email FROM patient_details WHERE p_username = $login_name";

$email = mysql_query($sql4) or die(mysql_error());

$sql5 = "SELECT phone FROM patient_details WHERE p_username = $login_name";

$phone = mysql_query($sql5) or die(mysql_error());

$display_block = "Hello login_name";

$display_block .= "Hello $firstName $lastName";

$display_block .= "Your email is $email";

$display_block .= "Your phone number is $phone";

I can show the $login_name but I'm having trouble with the other details.Please tell me how to fix it.

Thanx a lot

Sara

#14

February 11th, 2003, 07:46 PM

ramz

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: Juiz de Fora - MG- Brazil

Posts: 93

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

$login_name = $_POST["p_username"];

$sql2 = "SELECT firstName, lastName, email, phone FROM patient_details WHERE p_username = '$login_name'";

$query = mysql_query($sql2) or die(mysql_error());
if(mysql_num_rows($query) > 0) {
while($result = mysql_fetch_array($query)) {
$display_block = "Hello $login_name";
$display_block .= "Hello " . $result['firstName'] . " " . $result['lastName'] . "";
$display_block .= "Your email is " . $result['email'] . "";
$display_block .= "Your phone number is " . $result['phone'] . "";
}
}

#15

February 12th, 2003, 10:49 AM

sara_lauren

Contributing User

Join Date: Jan 2003

Location: UK

Posts: 32

Time spent in forums: < 1 sec
Reputation Power: 6

Hi All!Hi Ramz!

U saved me again!

Hehe

It worked just right.....NOW I can start on the appointments.

Gonna work on that as soon as possible. Thanx a lot everyone, especially u Ramz.

Sara