Completing the Login Script for a PEAR CMS
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Welcome to the sixth part of a twelve-part series on building a content management system with PEAR. In this article we will continue to look at the code that makes up the login script as well as the HTML form that is used to collect the login information. We will also discuss the code that makes up the logout script.
The login form
The login form is very simple in its design and purpose. Its purpose is to collect the required information from the user. It will take the user's password and username.
The form has three main fields: Username, which of course takes the user's username; Password, which takes the user's password; and Key. Key is a hidden field that is used to test whether the form has been submitted. It is used because sometimes users press the return key instead of pressing the submit button on the form. If you then use the submit button to test whether the form is submitted, it will not work, especially if the user presses the return key. This way both scenarios are considered.
Let’s look at the HTML code that makes up the HTML form. The first part of the form sets up the page with the template and also includes some JavaScript code, which we will discuss shortly. We look at the body section that actually contains the form and its elements:
<body>
<table width="100%" border="0" class="bord">
<tr class="header1">
<td colspan="2"><div align="center">Content Management System </div></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="5%" valign="top"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="EditRegion4" --><!-- InstanceEndEditable --></td>
<td width="95%" valign="top"><!-- InstanceBeginEditable name="EditRegion3" -->
The section builds a table that hosts the form. Notice in the code below that the form tag includes an onSubmit() tag. This tag links the form to the JavaScript code that is located in the header section of the HTML document.
<form action="login.php" method="post" onSubmit="return checkform(this)">>
<table width="100%" border="0">
<tr>
<td colspan="2"><?php if($error){
echo $error;
}?></td>
</tr>
Please examine the code above the PHP section. This is where the error message will be displayed when an error is detected while the form data is been filtered. The code below shows the username form element that is responsible for collecting the username of the person that wants to use the CMS.
<tr>
<td width="15%"><strong>Username</strong></td>
<td width="85%"><label>
<input name="uname" type="text" size="40" value="david"/>
</label></td>
</tr>
The next two elements are the password and key fields, responsible for taking the user's password and test key, respectively:
<tr>
<td><strong>Password</strong></td>
<td><label>
<input name="upass" type="password" value="pass" size="40" />
<input type="hidden" name="key" />
</label></td>
</tr>
Next: JavaScript >>
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