Ladies & Gentleman,

Or should I say "Gentle Ladies" and "Hard Men" (tough guys)!

Here is my very latest (New Code) reg.php. I have modified it by:

• Removing outdated strip tags, mysqli_escape_string.
• Bound input parameters on the user reg form.
• Added htmlspecialcharacters code on output to prevent sql injection.

Look how cluttered my old code was before a lot of programmers here and other sources helped me out (thanks to all!).

Ok, my new code does not have the email confirmation code and a lot of others but I will add them soon. I took them out here to make the new code simple for you to easily understand the code. Kept just the fundamentals on the 1st impression. Will add the remaining necessities on the 2nd impression.
You are welcome to make any suggestions and critisize the coding (but do bother to show an example of an improvement to the area you critisize). Ok ?

Old Code:

connect_error) { die($conn->connect_error); } //Site details. $site_domain = "site-domain.com"; $site_name = "site-name"; $site_admin_email = "[email protected]"; //Perform following action when user registration "Submit button is clicked". if (isset($_POST["submit"])) { //Check if user filled-in "Username", "Password" and "Email" fields or not. If not, give alert to fill them in. if(!empty($_POST["member_registration_username"]) && !empty($_POST["member_registration_password"])&& !empty($_POST["member_registration_email"])) { $member_registration_username = trim(strip_tags(strtolower(mysqli_real_escape_string($conn,$_POST["member_registration_username"])))); $member_registration_password = trim(strip_tags(md5(mysqli_real_escape_string($conn,$_POST["member_registration_password"])))); //Check for Username match in users table. $sql = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE Usernames ="".$member_registration_username."""; $result = mysqli_query($conn,$sql); //If there is a Username match in the "Usernames" column then do the following ... if(mysqli_num_rows($result)!=0) { //Give alert "username" already taken. $_SESSION["message"]="That Username $member_registration_username is already registered!"; exit(); } //Check for Email match in users table. $sql = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE Emails ="".$member_registration_email."""; $result = mysqli_query($conn,$sql); //If there is a Username match in the "Usernames" column then do the following ... if(mysqli_num_rows($result)>0) { //Give alert "email" already taken. $_SESSION["message"]="That Email $member_registration_email is already registered!"; exit(); } //Dump new "Username", "Email" and "Password" into "users" table. $sql = "INSERT INTO users(Usernames,Passwords,Emails) VALUES("".$member_registration_username."","".$member_registration_password."","".$member_registration_email."")"; if($sql) { //Give alert dumping new user details into db a success. $_SESSION["message"]="Data insertion into table success!"; } else { //Give alert dumping new user details into db a failure. $_SESSION["message"]="Data insertion into table failure!"; } } else { //Give alert to fill-in all fields. $_SESSION["message"]="You must fill-in all input fields!"; } } ?>

New Code:

prepare("INSERT INTO tbl_users (name, password) VALUES (?, ?)")) { // Bind the variables to the parameter as strings. $stmt->bind_param("ss", $name, $password); // Execute the statement. $stmt->execute(); // Close the prepared statement. $stmt->close(); } } else { //Give alert to fill-in all fields. echo "You must fill-in all input fields!"; } } ?>

Fellow programmers, looking at my 2nd code, do you think:

• it is better;
• clutter free;
• more understandable;
• sql injection free.

And, on my 2nd code, any chance you can help me convert the INSERT sql command (line 45-55) to mysqli style from pdo ?
I got that pdo code from:
wikihow.com

How to Prevent SQL Injection in PHP

SQL injection is one of the most common vulnerabilities in applications on the web today. This article will show you how to 100% prevent SQL injection on your website using Prepared Statements in PHP. SQL Injection is a type of...

Since most of my code, in my many pages script, is in mysqli or procedural style, it will look odd if 10 lines are pdo or oop style.
Yes, I know I know, I should do it in pdo and oop style but I"m still a beginner and most tutorials on basic php are in mysqli and procedural style and so I cannot just switch to pdo and oop just yet. Let me learn to walk first and then I"ll hop like a Kangaroo. I"m still a toddler. have to take things one step at a time or I"ll get confused and put-off from php.

Question: On my 1st (old code), you will see I don"t use the "echo" but "Session Message" instead as 2 youtube tutorials showed to do it that way without giving any explanation why. Therefore, I ask:

1. What is the difference and benefits (pros) aswell as the cons between the echo and the session message ?
2. When should I use which one of them ?

session_register

(PHP 4, PHP 5)session_register -- Register one or more global variables with the current session

Description

register_globals: important note: Since PHP 4.2.0, the default value for the PHP directive register_globals is off , and it is completely removed as of PHP 6.0.0. The PHP community encourages all to not rely on this directive but instead use other means, such as the superglobals .

Note: It is currently impossible to register resource variables in a session. For example, you cannot create a connection to a database and store the connection id as a session variable and expect the connection to still be valid the next time the session is restored. PHP functions that return a resource are identified by having a return type of resource in their function definition. A list of functions that return resources are available in the

Over the past few years, web hosting has undergone a dramatic change. Web hosting services have changed the way websites perform. There are several kinds of services but today we will talk about the options that are available for reseller hosting providers. They are Linux Reseller Hosting and Windows Reseller Hosting. Before we understand the fundamental differences between the two, let’s find out what is reseller hosting.

Reseller Hosting

In simple terms, reseller hosting is a form of web hosting where an account owner can use his dedicated hard drive space and allotted bandwidth for the purpose of reselling to the websites of third parties. Sometimes, a reseller can take a dedicated server from a hosting company (Linux or Windows) on rent and further let it out to third parties.

Most website users either are with Linux or Windows. This has got to do with the uptime. Both platforms ensure that your website is up 99% of the time.

1. Customization

One of the main differences between a Linux Reseller Hostingplan and the one provided by Windows is about customization. While you can experiment with both the players in several ways, Linux is way more customizable than Windows. The latter has more features than its counterpart and that is why many developers and administrators find Linux very customer- friendly.

2. Applications

Different reseller hosting services have different applications. Linux and Windows both have their own array of applications but the latter has an edge when it comes to numbers and versatility. This has got to do with the open source nature of Linux. Any developer can upload his app on the Linux platform and this makes it an attractive hosting provider to millions of website owners.

However, please note that if you are using Linux for web hosting but at the same time use the Windows OS, then some applications may not simply work.

3. Stability

While both the platforms are stable, Linux Reseller Hosting is more stable of the two. It being an open source platform, can work in several environments.This platform can be modified and developed every now and then.

4. .NET compatibility

It isn’t that Linux is superior to Windows in every possible way. When it comes to .NET compatibility, Windows steals the limelight. Web applications can be easily developed on a Windows hosting platform.

5. Cost advantages

Both the hosting platforms are affordable. But if you are feeling a cash crunch, then you should opt for Linux. It is free and that is why it is opted by so many developers and system administrators all around the world.

6. Ease of setup

Windows is easier to set up than its counterpart. All things said and done, Windows still retains its user-friendliness all these years.

7. Security

Opt for Linux reseller hosting because it is more secure than Windows. This holds true especially for people running their E-commerce businesses.

Conclusion

Choosing between the two will depend on your requirement and the cost flexibility. Both the hosting services have unique advantages. While Windows is easy to set up, Linux is cost effective, secure and is more versatile.

In all honesty, I"ve had this blog for a long time and I have bounced around different ad networks in the past. After removing the ad units from that company who stiffed me, I was back to square one. I should also note that I never quite liked Googles AdSense product, only because it feels like the "bottom of the barrel" of display ads. Not from a quality perspective, but from a revenue one.

From what I understand, you want Google advertising on your site, but you also want other big companies and agencies doing it as well. That way you maximize the demand and revenue.

After my negative experience I got recommend a company called Newor Media . And if I"m honest I wasn"t sold at first mostly because I couldn"t find much information on them. I did find a couple decent reviews on other sites, and after talking to someone there, I decided to give it a try. I will say that they are SUPER helpful. Every network I have ever worked with has been pretty short with me in terms of answers and getting going. They answered every question and it was a really encouraging process.

I"ve been running the ads for a few months and the earnings are about in line with what I was making with the other company. So I can"t really say if they are that much better than others, but where they do stand out is a point that I really want to make. The communication with them is unlike any other network I"ve ever worked it. Here is a case where they really are different:

They pushed the first payment to me on time with Paypal. But because I"m not in the U.S (and this happens for everyone I think), I got a fee taken out from Paypal. I emailed my representative about it, asking if there was a way to avoid that in the future.

They said that they couldn"t avoid the fee, but that they would REIMBURSE ALL FEES.... INCLUDING THE MOST RECENT PAYMENT! Not only that, but the reimbursement payment was received within 10 MINUTES! When have you ever been able to make a request like that without having to be forwarded to the "finance department" to then never be responded to.

The bottom line is that I love this company. I might be able to make more somewhere else, I"m not really sure, but they have a publisher for life with me. I"m not a huge site and I don"t generate a ton of income, but I feel like a very important client when I talk to them. It"s genuinely a breathe of fresh air in an industry that is ripe with fraud and non-responsiveness.

Microcomputers that have been created by the Raspberry Pi Foundation in 2012 have been hugely successful in sparking levels of creativity in young children and this UK based company began offering learn-to-code startup programs like pi-top an Kano. There is now a new startup that is making use of Pi electronics, and the device is known as Pip, a handheld console that offers a touchscreen, multiple ports, control buttons and speakers. The idea behind the device is to engage younger individuals with a game device that is retro but will also offer a code learning experience through a web based platform.

The amazing software platform being offered with Pip will offer the chance to begin coding in Python, HTML/CSS, JavaScript, Lua and PHP. The device offers step-by-step tutorials to get children started with coding and allows them to even make LEDs flash. While Pip is still a prototype, it will surely be a huge hit in the industry and will engage children who have an interest in coding and will provide them the education and resources needed to begin coding at a young age.

Future of Coding

How Pip Engages Children

Innovations to Come

Laravel requires Composer to manage the project dependencies. So before installing Laravel, make sure you have Composer installed on your system. In case you are hearing about Composer for the first time, it"s a dependency management tool for php similar to node"s npm.

To install Composer on your machine, check this post:

Installing Laravel on Windows:

Follow the below steps to install laravel on windows machine. No matter you have xampp/wamp stack, it works for both. On WAMP, make sure to install laravel on "www" folder and on XAMPP, obviously the "htdocs".

STEP-1) Open "htdocs" folder on XAMPP, hold SHIFT key and right click on the folder, and choose "open command window here". Alternatively, you can open command window and change directory to "xampp/htdocs".

STEP-2) Enter the following command.

Composer create-project laravel/laravel my_laravel_site --prefer-dist

Here "my_laravel_site" is the folder name where laravel files will be installed. Change this to your liking.

STEP-3) Now it"s time to be patient as laravel installation is going to take some time.

STEP-4) Once installed, change directory to "my_laravel_site" (cd "my_laravel_site") on the command prompt and enter the below command.

Php artisan serve

STEP-5) This will show a message something like, "Laravel development server started:" along with an url.

STEP-6) Copy and paste the url on the browser. If things go right, you"d see the laravel welcome screen.

STEP-7) Done! You have successfully installed laravel on windows machine and ready to go with.

Setting Application Key:

Laravel requires little configuration after installation. It requires you to set the application key. This is a random string of 32 characters long used for encrypting session and other sensitive data. Usually this will be set automatically when you install laravel via composer or laravel installer.

In case it"s not set, you have to do it manually. First make sure to rename the ".env.example" file to ".env" on your application root. Then open command prompt and change to the laravel project folder. Now run the below command to generate the key.

Php artisan key:generate

Copy this generated key to the APP_KEY variable on ".env" file. Save and you are done.

Installing Specific Laravel Version:

The above given method will make composer to download and install the latest version of laravel. If you want to install earlier versions of laravel on your machine, make sure to include the respective version number on create-project command.

Composer create-project laravel/laravel=5.4 your-project-name --prefer-dist Read Also:

Likewise you can easily install laravel using composer on windows . I hope you find this tutorial useful. Please share it on your social circle if you like it.

Creating a membership based site seems like a daunting task at first. If you ever wanted to do this by yourself, then just gave up when you started to think how you are going to put it together using your PHP skills, then this article is for you. We are going to walk you through every aspect of creating a membership based site, with a secure members area protected by password.

The whole process consists of two big parts: user registration and user authentication. In the first part, we are going to cover creation of the registration form and storing the data in a MySQL database. In the second part, we will create the login form and use it to allow users access in the secure area.

Download the code

You can download the whole source code for the registration/login system from the link below:

Configuration & Upload
The ReadMe file contains detailed instructions.

Open the source\include\membersite_config.php file in a text editor and update the configuration. (Database login, your website’s name, your email address etc).

Upload the whole directory contents. Test the register.php by submitting the form.

The registration form

In order to create a user account, we need to gather a minimal amount of information from the user. We need his name, his email address and his desired username and password. Of course, we can ask for more information at this point, but a long form is always a turn-off. So let’s limit ourselves to just those fields.

Here is the registration form:

So, we have text fields for name, email and the password. Note that we are using the for better usability.

Form validation

At this point it is a good idea to put some form validation code in place, so we make sure that we have all the data required to create the user account. We need to check if name and email, and password are filled in and that the email is in the proper format.

Handling the form submission

Now we have to handle the form data that is submitted.

Here is the sequence (see the file fg_membersite.php in the downloaded source):

function RegisterUser() { if(!isset($_POST["submitted"])) { return false; } $formvars = array(); if(!$this->ValidateRegistrationSubmission()) { return false; } $this->CollectRegistrationSubmission($formvars); if(!$this->SaveToDatabase($formvars)) { return false; } if(!$this->SendUserConfirmationEmail($formvars)) { return false; } $this->SendAdminIntimationEmail($formvars); return true; }

First, we validate the form submission. Then we collect and ‘sanitize’ the form submission data (always do this before sending email, saving to database etc). The form submission is then saved to the database table. We send an email to the user requesting confirmation. Then we intimate the admin that a user has registered.

Saving the data in the database

Now that we gathered all the data, we need to store it into the database.
Here is how we save the form submission to the database.

function SaveToDatabase(&$formvars) { if(!$this->DBLogin()) { $this->HandleError("Database login failed!"); return false; } if(!$this->Ensuretable()) { return false; } if(!$this->IsFieldUnique($formvars,"email")) { $this->HandleError("This email is already registered"); return false; } if(!$this->IsFieldUnique($formvars,"username")) { $this->HandleError("This UserName is already used. Please try another username"); return false; } if(!$this->InsertIntoDB($formvars)) { $this->HandleError("Inserting to Database failed!"); return false; } return true; }

Note that you have configured the Database login details in the membersite_config.php file. Most of the cases, you can use “localhost” for database host.
After logging in, we make sure that the table is existing.(If not, the script will create the required table).
Then we make sure that the username and email are unique. If it is not unique, we return error back to the user.

The database table structure

This is the table structure. The CreateTable() function in the fg_membersite.php file creates the table. Here is the code:

function CreateTable() { $qry = "Create Table $this->tablename (". "id_user INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT ,". "name VARCHAR(128) NOT NULL ,". "email VARCHAR(64) NOT NULL ,". "phone_number VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL ,". "username VARCHAR(16) NOT NULL ,". "password VARCHAR(32) NOT NULL ,". "confirmcode VARCHAR(32) ,". "PRIMARY KEY (id_user)". ")"; if(!mysql_query($qry,$this->connection)) { $this->HandleDBError("Error creating the table \nquery was\n $qry"); return false; } return true; }

The id_user field will contain the unique id of the user, and is also the primary key of the table. Notice that we allow 32 characters for the password field. We do this because, as an added security measure, we will store the password in the database encrypted using MD5. Please note that because MD5 is an one-way encryption method, we won’t be able to recover the password in case the user forgets it.

Inserting the registration to the table

Here is the code that we use to insert data into the database. We will have all our data available in the $formvars array.

function InsertIntoDB(&$formvars) { $confirmcode = $this->MakeConfirmationMd5($formvars["email"]); $insert_query = "insert into ".$this->tablename."(name, email, username, password, confirmcode) values ("" . $this->SanitizeForSQL($formvars["name"]) . "", "" . $this->SanitizeForSQL($formvars["email"]) . "", "" . $this->SanitizeForSQL($formvars["username"]) . "", "" . md5($formvars["password"]) . "", "" . $confirmcode . "")"; if(!mysql_query($insert_query ,$this->connection)) { $this->HandleDBError("Error inserting data to the table\nquery:$insert_query"); return false; } return true; }

Notice that we use PHP function md5() to encrypt the password before inserting it into the database.
Also, we make the unique confirmation code from the user’s email address.

Sending emails

Now that we have the registration in our database, we will send a confirmation email to the user. The user has to click a link in the confirmation email to complete the registration process.

function SendUserConfirmationEmail(&$formvars) { $mailer = new PHPMailer(); $mailer->CharSet = "utf-8"; $mailer->AddAddress($formvars["email"],$formvars["name"]); $mailer->Subject = "Your registration with ".$this->sitename; $mailer->From = $this->GetFromAddress(); $confirmcode = urlencode($this->MakeConfirmationMd5($formvars["email"])); $confirm_url = $this->GetAbsoluteURLFolder()."/confirmreg.php?code=".$confirmcode; $mailer->Body ="Hello ".$formvars["name"]."\r\n\r\n". "Thanks for your registration with ".$this->sitename."\r\n". "Please click the link below to confirm your registration.\r\n". "$confirm_url\r\n". "\r\n". "Regards,\r\n". "Webmaster\r\n". $this->sitename; if(!$mailer->Send()) { $this->HandleError("Failed sending registration confirmation email."); return false; } return true; }

Updates

9th Jan 2012
Reset Password/Change Password features are added
The code is now shared at GitHub .

Welcome back UserFullName(); ?>!

License

The code is shared under LGPL license. You can freely use it on commercial or non-commercial websites.

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