PHP User Login System?

[YonderKnight]

Hi,

I'm planning on starting up a website which I've had in my head for a long time. I think it's a great idea, but I really hate mySQL, and haven't messed with it much, and my project requires some sort of user login system.

Since this can get pretty complicated to code from scratch, I thought maybe it would be wiser to find some open source project online and just use that as part of my site.

What do you guys think? Any downsides to this versus coding it completely from scratch? I would think something developed by a community will be much more secure than something I've wrote up, and also probably cleaner and easily customizable.

Does anyone have any experience with a good one they've used for a semi-large project? Should I try to find one that's still alive and being developed? Or will it be pretty trivial to find/fix bugs myself?

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the subject, thanks!

[kds]

A user system, if that's all you're looking for, is actually pretty easy to whip up from scratch. It only requires a pretty minimal knowledge of php variables, MYSQL, and cookies. I would suggest one of those content management systems, but I'm not sure if that's what you're looking for, as you were pretty vague with the website idea besides a user management system. If that's all you're looking for, I could write one up for you no problem.

[Azu]

Originally Posted by YonderKnight

Hi,

I'm planning on starting up a website which I've had in my head for a long time. I think it's a great idea, but I really hate mySQL, and haven't messed with it much, and my project requires some sort of user login system.

Since this can get pretty complicated to code from scratch, I thought maybe it would be wiser to find some open source project online and just use that as part of my site.

What do you guys think? Any downsides to this versus coding it completely from scratch? I would think something developed by a community will be much more secure than something I've wrote up, and also probably cleaner and easily customizable.

Does anyone have any experience with a good one they've used for a semi-large project? Should I try to find one that's still alive and being developed? Or will it be pretty trivial to find/fix bugs myself?

I'd appreciate any thoughts on the subject, thanks!

If you don't want to do anything yourself, then just download one that's already made, like phpbb or vbulletin. That's what most people do nowadays lol.

[SubZero]

It depends on the scale of the website and your familiarity with the language and security involved.

Check out Joomla. There's a large pool of templates and plugins, plus the code is quite extensible.

I personally use WordPress to run the backends on a lot of my client's projects.

What I notice within my local industry, though, is that there's a lot of homebrew systems around. If you want the challenge, it's quite fun to experiment on your own. You're a pretty decent coder, you shouldn't have much trouble moving quickly through the paces.

[Polie13]

PHP is really easy to learn, I think a login system and a news script were the first things I ever did with PHP. Didn't take too long, but I had a lot of previous experience with SQL and C/C++ programming too.

[lpxxfaintxx]

There are simple User Login Systems already available, for lazy PHP coders.

Personally, I would recommend the following:

QXUsers (my favorite)

PHP/MySQL/Ajax user management system/file management system. With this script you can allow users to register accounts to access member only pages. As the admin you can create new files on-the-fly via the admin control panel, as well as modify, delete and password protect files.

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PHPDeadLock

Deadlock is an open source user authentication/password protection system written in PHP/MySQL and licensed under the GNU GPL.

---------------------------------

Quadodo Login Script

The Quadodo Login Script is a free open-source login script written in PHP and SQL. It is a stand-alone system and is one of a kind. This free login script is for anyone who wishes to allow users to sign up for their site.

-----------------------------


I named just a few, but there are a lot more (simple google search will bring up tons). I don't think you'll need a complex CMS, like Joomla or e107. Just look through a few and find one you like. From there, it'll be semi-easy to use the script to your likings.

[YonderKnight]

Thanks everyone.

I think lpx got the closest to what I want though. Basically I want users to be able to register, create, and manage content. Basically it's going to be like a polling system like in vB, where a user can create a poll, and other users can vote on it. It will have to be flexible because I want some more info associated with the user's account.

I guess this is easier than I thought then. I only tried messing with mySQL stuff a little bit a long time ago, and got kind of intimidated. I'll have to look a little deeper at this.

Thanks!

[kds]

I'd enjoy working on something like that, Yonder. talk to me on aim if you're interested

[StarCrap]

Yonder, if I were you I would look into some PHP frameworks. Most of these will give you the user management funcionality for free - meaning it just happens. They also provide very flexible templating systems, ORM, automation of sessions and cookies, among tons of other features. A few that come to mind for PHP are CakePHP and CodeIgniter. Personally, I've been using Python, so I can't comment on the quality of either of those frameworks, but they're both beyond version 1.0 I believe, and both have very active communities.

[Xeus]

Originally Posted by StarCrap

Yonder, if I were you I would look into some PHP frameworks. Most of these will give you the user management funcionality for free - meaning it just happens. They also provide very flexible templating systems, ORM, automation of sessions and cookies, among tons of other features. A few that come to mind for PHP are CakePHP and CodeIgniter. Personally, I've been using Python, so I can't comment on the quality of either of those frameworks, but they're both beyond version 1.0 I believe, and both have very active communities.

CakePHP is extremely good. :D

[YonderKnight]

Ah, thanks guys. I'll give these a try! I still haven't gotten very far with the project. KDS helped making a basic user system but I think it'll be safer to go with a prebuilt system.

Damn schoolwork is keeping me preoccupied =\.

[kds]

yeah yonder i've been so busy
i'm looking into cakephp though

[Xeus]

Originally Posted by kds

yeah yonder i've been so busy
i'm looking into cakephp though

I would highly recommend using IRC too, cakephp.freenode.net (There is infinite help in that channel, and usually ~80-100 people in there)