brady.k — Fri, 03 May 2002 00:50:03 +0000

will be flat file...i havent yet because i dont know how to separate the data...i have made a form (but no form path), cuz i dont know what to use

Wil — Wed, 01 May 2002 08:35:03 +0000

Ok.

So, you have a database set up? What kind of database is it? What is the strucutre of the database? Where is the form that people send the information from?

brady.k — Wed, 01 May 2002 01:26:12 +0000

'this' is information the user submits through a sign-up form, sending data into a database...which i would like it to submit into THE database that we have been working on here...

also...i dont really like the .htaccess, i think it looks unprofessional

Wil — Tue, 30 Apr 2002 08:40:32 +0000

OK. You're asking a lot here!

1. The way I would do this would be to pass every page request through my perl script. This script would then parse every page and look for the tag , and if found ask for a login/password. If not, then let the user view the page as normal.

I have actually done something very similar before, but I wouldn't do it again; mainly because there are much better systems. If you stick to htaccess authentication you'll save yourself a) reinventing the wheel, b) a lot of bother and c) you will save a lot of server resources. Parsing every page through a perl script just to look for a tag can take up a lot of your memory - especially if the pages are long.

2. I don't know what you mean by 'automatically add to this database', sorry? What exactly is 'this' you want to add to a database?

brady.k — Mon, 29 Apr 2002 22:20:32 +0000

one more thing...how would i automatically add to this database (preferably using PERL)...through a form?

thanks for everyones help...thanks ALOT!

brady.k — Mon, 29 Apr 2002 20:52:43 +0000

so i can do it....does anyone know how? please help me!

lol

Suzanne — Mon, 29 Apr 2002 20:49:19 +0000

that's more complex than using .htaccess -- it would require hidden fields or cookies to track the referring page so you can push people back there once they've logged in.

You would have the test of logging in-ed-ness in the header. However, I've never done that, because I'm not a programmer. I've seen it done with Perl, Java and PHP, but I don't know exactly how it works.

There is no easy tag for it, though.

This sort of system is the essence of CGI.

brady.k — Mon, 29 Apr 2002 19:27:58 +0000

what if this page was for the users to access it...not just me...but i still want to use PERL...isnt there some simple tag like <password>' or something, that marks a page, telling the server it needs a password to be accessed, and it redirects them to a login page...like the skateboard.com website or almost any other website i can think of

Wil — Mon, 29 Apr 2002 09:24:49 +0000

I'll have to second Suzanne here

Suzanne — Mon, 29 Apr 2002 01:37:21 +0000

Usually (my favourite caveat) you would password protect a directory, not a file. So you would set up a directory and put all the files in that directory that you want to keep safe from prying eye.

Does that help?