Re: PHP_SELF

You make some good points richard, I like the email as username, for just the reasons you mention :) On Fri, 3 Aug 2001 00:42:30 -0500, Richard Lynch wrote: >> if(!$Age) { echo "Please enter your age"; } >> elseif(!$Email){ echo "Please enter your email"; } >> else >> echo "Thanks for your submission"; >> // continue processing... >> } > >*ACTUALLY*, it's rather annoying to have a web-site tell you one field at a >time what you have filled in wrong as you click Submit over and over and >over... *ESPECIALLY* if they don't pre-inform you of what is/isn't valid >input! > >Sidebar: >If you're going to restrict what input is acceptable, inform the user in >fine print what's allowed! This includes claiming Zip+4 is invalid, you >goofs. > >Sidebar: >For a username, could you at *LEAST* let me use my email for a username so >(A) it will be not "already used" and (B) I have a *CHANCE* of remembering >it when I come back?! I have to run through 20 different possiblities for >some sites I use semi-regularly when I log in. Other sites I never use >simply because I know I can't remember my username for that site. > >Here's a slightly better design: > ><?php > $message = ''; > if (isset($submit)){ # The NAME= from your TYPE=SUBMIT button > if (!$Age){ > $message .= "You must enter a valid age in years<BR>\n"; > } > if (!$Email){ > $message .= "You must enter a valid email<BR>\n"; > } > } > if (!$message){ > # Process valid input > } > else{ >?> ><FORM ... > > <?php echo "<FONT COLOR=FF0000>$message</FONT>";?> > Age: <INPUT NAME=Age ...> >. >. >. ></FORM> > >Sidebar: >You could go a lot further in validating the $Email. You could even type in >a three (3) page Regular Expression from the back of the Camel book and be >completely RFC-compliant... If you didn't mind the fact that it will >probably be dog-slow and very RAM-intensive. There are a bazillion >email-checking Regexes posted to the 'Net. Many of them will reject >perfectly valid emails :-( You need one that will maybe let a bad email >slip by, but will *NOT* reject any valid addresses. Good luck finding one. >No, I don't know where one is. You could also use some PHP functions >(SNMP?) to look up the MX record for the domain name of the email, and ask >that MX server if it accepts that email as valid... Only some MX servers >will just say "Yeah, sure" for invalid emails, and some will refuse to >answer at all, and some will just plain out-and-out lie and say an email is >invalid when it's fine. So, bottom line, if you *really* care about having >a valid email, you have to send a secret randomly-generated unique >registration code required to complete the registration to the address to >force the user to provide a working email. Of course, there's nothing to >stop them from creating a Yahoo (et al) email and checking it only once to >get the registration code, and never, ever, ever using that email address >again for anything. So, in the end, there's really not a whole lot of point >to doing all that, is there?... It boils down to: "How important is it to >you that they give you an email that might only be valid for a few hours? >Maybe you shouldn't require it at all." YMMV. > >-- >WARNING richard@zend.com address is an endangered species -- Use >ceo@l-i-e.com >Wanna help me out? Like Music? Buy a CD: >http://l-i-e.com/artists.htm >Volunteer a little time: http://chatmusic.com/volunteer.htm > > > >-- >PHP General Mailing List (http://www.php.net/) >To unsubscribe, e-mail: php-general-unsubscribe@lists.php.net >For additional commands, e-mail: php-general-help@lists.php.net >To contact the list administrators, e-mail: php-list-admin@lists.php.net >