CrankBerry Blog » PHP Script

Function to replace variable value in URL

Jerry Low — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 08:00:05 +0000

Passing variables through the URL is awesome but how do you update, say, the id or the page when there's twenty different variables (index.php?id=2325213&page=30&view=210&sort=213&user=231221). Here's a quick function to create a new URL string that will replace values of specific variables. You can also remove variables which are not necessary.

First of all though you'll need this function here. This function will spit out the page name for you. If you are using htaccess rewrite for .htm then replace index.php with index.htm:

function getPage($page_url, $ex_qs=0) {
//Filtering Page
$get_page = substr($page_url, strripos($page_url, '/')+1);

//Position of The ?
if (strpos('.' . $get_page, '?') == 1) {
$get_page = 'index.htm' . $get_page;
}

//Exempt Query String
if ($ex_qs==1) {
if (@strpos($get_page, '?')) $get_page = substr($get_page, 0, strpos($get_page, '?'));

//They Want Only Query String
} elseif ($ex_qs==2) {
//There is A Query String
if (@strpos($get_page, '?')) {
$currentQS = substr($get_page, strpos($get_page, '?')+1, strlen($get_page));
} else {
$currentQS = ";
}

$get_page = $currentQS;
}

return $get_page;
}

Now for the function to replace variables:

function varURL($variables, $subtract_variables = NULL) {
//Get Current Page
$gl_current_page = getPage($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
$gl_current_page_nqs = getPage($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 1);
$gl_current_ext = getPage($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], 2);

//If There's Extention in the Current Page
if ($gl_current_ext!=") {

//Return Extension
$returnExt = $gl_current_page;
$currentExt = '?' . $gl_current_ext;

//ADDING VAR *****************************************
if ($variables!=") {

//If There Are Multiple Variables
if (@strpos($variables, "&")) {
//Explode The String
$explodeVar = explode("&", $variables);
} else {
$explodeVar = array($variables);
}

//Check if Variables Changed
foreach ($explodeVar as $currentVar) {
//Not Empty
if ($currentVar!=") {

//Explode The Var
$currentExplode = explode("=", $currentVar);

//Find In Current String
if (preg_match('/[\?|\&]'.$currentExplode[0].'=/', $currentExt) > 0) {

//Replace
$currentExt = preg_replace('/'.$currentExplode[0].'=[^\&]*/', $currentVar, $currentExt);

//Not In String Add to it
} else {
$currentExt .= '&' . $currentVar;
}
}
}
}

//Subtracting Var *****************************************
if ($subtract_variables != NULL) {

//If There Are Multiple Variables
if (@strpos($subtract_variables, "&")) {

//Explode The String
$explodeVar = explode("&", $subtract_variables);
} else {
$explodeVar = array($subtract_variables);
}

//Subtracting Them
foreach ($explodeVar as $currentVar) {
//Explode The Var
$currentExplode = explode("=", $currentVar);

//Find In Current String
if (preg_match('/(&|\?)'.$currentExplode[0].'=/', $currentExt) > 0) $currentExt = preg_replace('/(&|\?)'.$currentExplode[0].'=([^&|$]+)/', "$1", $currentExt);
}

//Removing Duplicate
$currentExt = preg_replace('/\?&/', '?', preg_replace('/&&/', '&', $currentExt));
}

//Build Return Extention
$returnExt = $gl_current_page_nqs . $currentExt;

//No Extention
} else {
$returnExt = $gl_current_page_nqs . '?'. $variables;
}

//Returning
return $returnExt;

}

To use the function just use the following examples:

//Replace the id with 5 and name with Berry
"">Link

//Remove the id variables – just set the =1 the one will automatically be replaced anything
"">Link

//Replace the id with 5 and remove the name variable
"">Link

Random row from your MySQL table with PHP, alternative to ORDER BY rand()

Jerry Low — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 21:28:04 +0000

Working with MySQL and PHP is awesome. Its one of the best way to manage your data, but once in a while you may want to do some randomizing. One problem I came across recently was how to select a random row from your MySQL table with PHP. Using the ORDER BY rand() method in your query maybe a bit slow so here's what we've got.

The Premade Method

As I mentioned in the beginning. MySQL actually has a premade method that allows you to select a random row by querying for it.

mysql_query("SELECT * FROM table ORDER BY rand() LIMIT 0,1");

This method is great but if you are randomizing from a large table this method is not very efficient and with a high volume of queries it really puts a strain on your DB.

The New Method – Randomizing 1 Entry

Now here's the new solution by selecting a random row with the offset. This method will query exactly to the random entry; thus, making this process much faster.

$query = "SELECT * FROM table"
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows( mysql_query( $query ) );

//Random Number
$rand_row = rand(0, $num_rows – 1);

//Selecting the Random Row
$rand_row = $query .= " LIMIT $rand_row, 1";

Now you can modify the $query line to include your filters and sorting stuff, whatever you need.

The New Method – Randomizing More than 1 Entry

The above method right now can only select a single row. What if you want to randomized more than one item. Here's a method to select multiple items without overlap.

//Set the Amount of Random Rows you want
$rand_amount = 5;

$query = "SELECT * FROM table"
$num_rows = mysql_num_rows( mysql_query( $query ) );

//Make sure you have more than the amount of random count you want
if ($num_rows <= $rand_amount) {

//An Array of Numbers Choosen
$rand_array = array();

//Do IT!!
for ($i = 1; $i >= $rand_amount; $i++ ) {
do {
$rand_added = FALSE;
$rand_num = rand(0, $num_rows – 1);

//Should We Add to Array
if (!in_array($rand_num, $rand_array)) {

$rand_array[] = $rand_num;
$rand_added = TRUE;
}

} while (!$rand_added);
}

//You now have a set of random row numbers to choose from
//Display The Result of What you have
foreach ($rand_array as $rand_num) {
$new_query = $query . " LIMIT $rand_num, 1";

//Displaying What you have
$current_row = mysql_fetch_array( mysql_query( $new_query ) );
}
}

To be honest you can use the multiple randomizer and just set the random amount to 1 but the other method saves you like 20 lines of code. Imagine how much faster that could be!

Automated MySQL database backup with PHP and cronjob

Jerry Low — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 17:04:36 +0000

At some point of working on your website you'll want to back up you MySQL database. This is they key for all of you building dynamic sites. If one day your server goes down or something you may have the files backed up but without the database you'll have to start from scratch again. If you operate a very slow-paced site then manual back up is fine but if you want to backup your database daily then it becomes tedious. I, myself is lazy so I came up with a PHP and Cronjob solution to automatically backup MySQL database.

Automating It

What you need? The first thing you need to know how to do it set cronjobs. If you don't know how to do that you can learn how to set cronjobs here. The cronjob is what will automate your server to run the script and how often to run it.

The Files

All you'll need is two files to make this work. The first file, mysqldump.php can be grabbed from CreativeFactory.it. The next thing you need is my backup.php file. Just create a file called backup.php and dump the following script inside.

//The File Name You Want To Use
$fileName = 'Filename';

//Global
$sqlhost = 'localhost';
$sqluser = 'db_user';
$sqlpass = 'db_password';
$sqldb = 'db_name';

//**********************************
//You Don't Need to Edit This
//**********************************

//Today's Timestamp
$today_ts = strtotime("now");

$backupDate = date('y.m.d.h.i', $today_ts);
$backupFile = $backupDate.'- '.$fileName.'.txt';

//Connect to mysql server
$connessione = @mysql_connect($sqlhost,$sqluser,$sqlpass);

//Include class
require_once('mysqldump.php');

//Create new instance of MySQLDump
$dumper = new MySQLDump($sqldb);

//If you want to write the MySQL dump to file
$dumper->writeDump($backupFile);

The Setup

Configure the first file variables of the script and then just leave the rest. Put the backup.php and mysqldump.php in the same folder where you want the back up files to be dumped. Set the cronjob to run backup.php you don't need to worry about mysqldump.php. That's it, it'll automatically backup.

Possible Problems

The problems that you may experience is the MySQL privileges. If your account doesn't have enough privilege then you may not be able to properly query the database. Another problem maybe the CHMOD of the folder you're backing up to. You need to have write access into that folder.

Recovering from Backup

To recover you database just log into your phpMyAdmin, open the database you want to recover. Select the import tab and just browse for the file. If I recall the file itself should overwrite tables that are already in place if not then you may have to drop all the tables first.

PHP password strength detector script

Jerry Low — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:23:34 +0000

If you operate a user registration script on your website you may want to ensure users are protected. There are certain aspects of this you cannot control such as the user's self selected password. Here I have a script that will detect the user's password strength and base on that you could reject the password or just make notice to the user their password's strength.

Basically we're checking against a few things here and we give a rating to each criteria and then add up the final score to see where they rank. Here is what we'll be checking against:

Length – 10 Points
Lower Case Characters – 20 Points
Upper Case Characters – 20 Points
Numbers – 20 Points
Special Characters – 30 Points

The points are given based on how much value they may add to the password. Enough talking I present you the function:

function password_strength($password, $display = TRUE) {
//Strength Scoring
$pass_score = 0;

$pass_len = FALSE;
$pass_lc = FALSE;
$pass_uc = FALSE;
$pass_num = FALSE;
$pass_weird = FALSE;

//Pad
$password = 0 . $password;

//Check Length
if (strlen($password)>6) $pass_len = TRUE;

//Check Lowercase Characters
for ($i = 97; $i <=122; $i++) {
if (@strpos($password, chr($i))) $pass_lc = TRUE;
}

//Check Uppercase Characters
for ($i = 65; $i <=90; $i++) {
if (@strpos($password, chr($i))) $pass_uc = TRUE;
}

//Check Numbers
for ($i = 48; $i <=57; $i++) {
if (@strpos($password, chr($i))) $pass_num = TRUE;
}

//Check Weird Characters
for ($i = 33; $i <=126; $i++) {
//Excempt
if (($i>47 && $i<58) || ($i>64 && $i<91) || ($i>96 && $i<123)) {
//Null
} else {
if (@strpos($password, chr($i))) $pass_weird = TRUE;
}
}

//Points
if ($pass_len) $pass_score = $pass_score + 10;
if ($pass_lc) $pass_score = $pass_score + 20;
if ($pass_uc) $pass_score = $pass_score + 20;
if ($pass_num) $pass_score = $pass_score + 20;
if ($pass_weird) $pass_score = $pass_score + 30;

//Displaying
if ($display) {
echo '

';

if ($pass_score <= 40) echo '

WEAK

';
if ($pass_score > 40 && $pass_score < 70) echo '

AVERAGE

';
if ($pass_score >= 71) echo '

STRONG

';

echo '

';
}

return $pass_score;
}

The script itself has a built in display bar which will visuallize how strong or weak the password maybe which could turn off. Here's an example of calling the script:

$password = "GoodBoy";

//Showing the Password Strength with Visual Bar
password_strength($password);

//Not Showing anything at all but storing strength as a variable
$strength = password_strength($password, FALSE);

Secure PHP login without database

Jerry Low — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 22:55:09 +0000

Although not recommended but maybe for some reason you need to create a PHP login without the use of any database (SQL). For some reason you maybe scared to approach, but here I made a script that is fairly secure without utilizing any database at all. It allows users to login and stay logged in. If you are one of those people then here's the script for you.

Now this script does not use any external files to store user names and password as it opens up more security flaws for hackers, so everything is managed in an array within the PHP. If somebody was able to get a hold of your PHP file this will compromise things but the chances of that happening is fairly close to utilizing a database.

Features

Utilizes cookies to give users ability to stay logged in across multiple pages
Secure login algorithm mitigates hacking attempts

Drawbacks

Now by not utilizing a database there are some drawbacks and they are:

Users cannot change password and user names manually
Users can attempt login as many times as they want

With that said, it means that usernames and passwords must be managed by an admin. If this is still something for you. If this is not for you wait around because I will convert this script into a database version in the future.

Less Talk More Script

Installation:

Just download all the necessary files which includes:

_login.php
_login_page.php
_login_class.php
_login_users.php
login.php
logout.php

Once you put these in your root folder you need to edit the users and settings. Open up _login_users.php and you'll see:

//My Login Script
//Attach this to any page that requires Login

//Users and Settings
$domain_code = 'website'; //Alpha Numeric and no space
$random_num_1 = 20; //Pick a random number between 1 to 500
$random_num_2 = 565; //Pick a random number between 500 to 1000
$random_num_3 = 3; //Pick a random number between 1 to 3

//Usernames can contain alphabets, numbers, hyphens and underscore only
//Set users below – Just add " => " with the first " being
//the username and the second " after the => being the password.
//Its an array so add an , after every password except for the
//last one in the list. As shown below
//Eg. $users = array(
// 'user1' => 'password',
// 'user2' => 'password'
// );

$users = array(
'user1' => 'password',
'user2' => 'password'
);

Modify the domain code and three random numbers. The three random numbers is the key that makes login secure and unique to your website only. Then at the bottom you can create all of your users.

Now in every page that you require the user to login just add the following code to the very top of the page, exactly on line 1.

require('_login.php'); ?>

That's pretty much all you need to do to install the secure login script. The only other thing if you want is you can edit _login_page.php. That's the page people see when they need to login.

Login and Logout

You can lead users to login and logout with links to login.php and logout.php as such.

Displaying Macors

In this case the only macro you can call up is the username after they have logged in. You can call it in a welcome back message like this (placed in your HTML).

Welcome back echo $login->username; ?>

Download the files:
PHP Login Without Database.zip