NYCPHP Meetup

[David Mintz]

On Mon, 30 Aug 2004, Joseph Crawford Jr. wrote:

> this would be simple to create read up on the mail() function and also read
> up on the $_GET variables
>
> very very easy to make this script.

But for the benefit of the newbies it would be helpful to provide an
outline in pseudo-code and leave the rest as a proverbial exercise for the
reader. I've done similar stuff but never actually done this exact task.
Here's how I might go about it; feedback is welcome.

(1) create a MySQL table with fields id, email, is_confirmed etc. Make
email a unique index. Make a varchar(32) column called conf_code for
holding an md5 hash of the email.  make is_confirmed an unsigned tinyint
default 0.

(2) the signup script:

if it's the first pass, draw the form.

if the form is POSTed, validate.

If it's invalid, display error message, redraw.

otherwise: insert into your_table set email='$their_email',
conf_code=md5('$their_email');

send email to $their_email saying thank you, please go to
http://yoursite.com/confirm.php?conf_code= . md5($their_email) to confirm
your address;

redirect to success page that says, thanks, please go check your inbox.

(3) the confirmation script:

if there are no GET parameters, display a form prompting them for the
confirmation code. if there is a GET parameter conf_code,
select count(*) from your_table where conf_code ='$their_conf_code'

if count is 1, update your_table set is_confirmed = 1 where conf_code
= '$their_conf_code' and say thank you.

otherwise, say sorry...


---
David Mintz
http://davidmintz.org/

        "Anybody else got a problem with Webistics?" -- Sopranos 24:17