PHP Message Board Pt 1

January 29, 2011 Derek Banas 14 Comments

I show you how to create a PHP / MySQL message board in this video tutorial. I start by showing you how to properly set up the database. this can be looked at as a review on how to write SQL as well.

I specifically will review how to:

Create Databases
Create Tables and the Data Contained in them
Use the Insert Command
Use the Alter Command

Continue reading PHP Message Board Pt 1 →

Learn HTML W3C, Web Design

Learn xHTML in 10 Minutes

January 28, 2011 Derek Banas 2 Comments

In the last article I covered how to Learn HTML in 15 minutes. In this video I’ll teach you how to write xHTML 1.0 Strict code in 1o minutes!

It is actually pretty easy. You just have to:

Change your DOCTYPE
Change Some Meta Tags
Close all your tags properly
Surround inline tags with block tags
Eliminate the use of a few tags
Leave the styling to Cascading Style Sheets

Continue reading Learn xHTML in 10 Minutes →

Learn HTML W3C, Web Design

Learn HTML Video Tutorial

January 27, 2011 Derek Banas 33 Comments

I was dared to create an HTML video tutorial that covers the top 50 tags, in under 15 minutes. Well I did it!

I show how to use 50 different tags in HTML. I then give an example of each. You’ll either love it or hate it. I hope you love it of course.

If you would prefer to see this done more slowly check out Learn HTML. I go through everything much slower and provide examples as well.

I plan on covering JavaScript next and then moving back into the wonderful world of PHP and then everything WordPress Themes & Plugins.

The code used in the video follows the video. Leave questions or comments below.

Code From the Video

MAIL2.PHP

<! DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN” “http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/loose.dtd”>

<html>

<head>

h1 {color:red}

</style>

<title>Welcome to Bob’s Hardware Store, we sell Flowers, Seeds, Rakes</title>

</head>

<body>

<h1>Text to Draw Attention to</h1>

<abbr title=”A much longer description”>Something Abbreviated</abbr>

<big>This is going to be Big</big>

<blockquote>Indent me and show I’m important</blockquote>

<center>Center Me Please</center>

<em>I like Being Italicized</em>

<i>I like being Italicized too</i>

<p>This is a big paragraph. Really, it is!</p>

<q>You can quote me on that</q>

<s>I’ve been struck</s>

<small>I feel so small</small>

<strong>I’m the strongest</strong>

<sub>I’m Subscript</sub>

<sup>I’m Superscript</sup>

<dl>

<dt>Bicycle</dt>

<dd>- Has two Wheels</dd>

<dd>- Has Four Wheels</dd>

</dl>

<ol>

<li>Truck</li>

<li>Bicycle</li>

</ol>

<ul>

<li>Truck</li>

<li>Bicycle</li>

</ul>

<a href=”http://www.newthinktank.com” target=”_blank”>The New Think Tank Website</a>

<a href=”http://www.newthinktank.com#Great Stuff”>Some Great Stuff</a>

Here are some things I did

</caption>

<tr>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Played Ball</td>

<td>Watched Football</td>

<td>Worked</td>

</tr>

</table>

<b>Send Message to this Email</b><br />
<input type=”text” name=”email” size=40><br />

<p><b>Subject</b><br />
<input type=”text” name=”subject” size=40></p><br />

<p><b>Text Area</b><br />
<textarea cols=40 rows=10 name=”message”>Default Text in Text Area Box</textarea></p><br />

<p><b>Text Input</b><br />
<input type=”text” name=”textinput” /></p><br />

<p><b>Password Input</b><br />
<input type=”password” name=”password” /></p><br />

<p><b>Radio Input</b><br />
<input type=”radio” name=”radioinput” value=”Love Radio Buttons” />Love Radio Buttons
<input type=”radio” name=”radioinput” value=”Hate Radio Buttons” />Hate Radio Buttons</p><br />

<p><b>Checkbox Input</b><br />
<input type=”checkbox” name=”checkboxinput” value=”Love Checkboxs” />Love Checkboxs
<input type=”checkbox” name=”checkboxinput” value=”Hate Checkboxs” />Hate Checkboxs</p><br />

<p><b>Select Input</b><br />
<select name=”selectinput”>
<option value=”loveselect”>I love select buttons</option>
<option value=”hateselect”>I hate select buttons</option>
</select></p><br />

<p><b>Option Input</b><br />
<select name=”optioninput”>
<option value=”loveselect”>I love option buttons</option>
<option value=”hateselect”>I hate option buttons</option>
</select></p><br />

</form>

</body>

</html>

How to Code PHP, Web Design

Web Design and Programming Pt 24

January 25, 2011 Derek Banas Leave a comment

In todays Programming tutorial I show you how to grab information from a website using Regular Expressions in PHP. The information was particularly hard to get for the following reasons:

It was plain text
There were no tags to search for
Data I wanted was laid out in an unorganized way
I had to search for odd unicode characters like ½

I did it though using Regular Expressions and I’ll show you how.

Continue reading Web Design and Programming Pt 24 →

How to Code PHP, Web Design

Web Design and Programming Pt 23

January 24, 2011 Derek Banas 11 Comments

In this web design and programming video tutorial I’ll show you how to make a secure forgotten password script. These scripts are attacked more than mosts and normally are full of security flaws.

I specifically cover how to:

Strip dangerous code from user input using Regular Expressions
Enforce secure security questions
Avoid brute force attacks with CAPTCHA systems
Create secure encrypted temporary passwords
Mail new passwords

All of the code used will follow the video. If you have any questions or comments leave them below.

If you have a recommendation for a future tutorial leave that below as well 🙂

Code From the Video

<?php

session_start();

require_once(“./includes/confighamdb.php”);

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN”

“http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd”>

<head>

<title>Forgot My Password</title>

</head>

<body>

<?php

if (isset($_POST[‘submitted’])) { // Handle the form.

// Check for a valid User ID

if (preg_match (‘%^[A-Za-z0-9]{8,20}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘userid’])))) {

$u = escape_data($_POST[‘userid’]);

} else {

$u = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>1Information Entered is Wrong</font></p>’;

}

// Check for valid Mother name

if (preg_match (‘%^[A-Za-z]{6,25}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘mothername’])))) {

$sq = escape_data($_POST[‘mothername’]);

} else {

$sq = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>2Information Entered is Wrong</font></p>’;

}

// PHP Code for the CAPTCHA System

$captchchk = 1;

require_once(‘./includes/recaptchalib.php’);

$privatekey = “privatekey”;

$resp = recaptcha_check_answer ($privatekey,

$_SERVER[“REMOTE_ADDR”],

$_POST[“recaptcha_challenge_field”],

$_POST[“recaptcha_response_field”]);

if (!$resp->is_valid) {

// What happens when the CAPTCHA was entered incorrectly

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>The CAPTCHA Code wasn\’t entered correctly!</font></p>’;

$captchchk = 0;

}

if ($u && $sq && $captchchk) {

// Check the account information

$query = “SELECT secques, email, userid FROM users WHERE userid=’$u'”;

$result = mysql_query ($query) or trigger_error(“Security Answer was Wrong”);

if (mysql_affected_rows() == 1) {

$row = mysql_fetch_array ($result, MYSQL_NUM);

mysql_free_result($result);

if($sq == $row[0])

{

$email = $row[1];

$p = substr ( md5(uniqid(rand(),1)), 3, 10);

$query2 = “UPDATE users SET pass=SHA(‘$p’) WHERE userid=’$u'”;

$result2 = mysql_query ($query2) or trigger_error(“Your Password Couldn’t be changed. Try later.”);

if (mysql_affected_rows() == 1) { // If it ran OK.

$body = “Your password has been temporarily changed to ‘$p’. Please log in using this password and your username. At that time you may change your password to something more familiar.”;

mail ($email, ‘Your temporary password.’, $body, ‘From: admin@sitename.com’);

echo ‘<h3>Your password has been changed. You will receive the new, temporary password at the email address with which you registered. Once you have logged in with this password, you may change it by clicking on the “Change Password” link.</h3>’;

mysql_close();

exit();

}

else {

echo “Security Answer was Wrong”;

mysql_close();

exit();

}

} else { // If it did not run OK.

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Your password could not be changed due to a system error. We apologize for any inconvenience.</font></p>’;

mysql_close();

exit();

}

} else { // Failed the validation test.

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please try again.</font></p>’;

mysql_close();

exit();

}

}} // End of the main Submit conditional.

<h1>Reset Your Password</h1>

<p>Enter the Following Information Below and your Password will be Reset.</p>

<p><b>Userid:</b> <input type=”text” name=”userid” size=”20″ maxlength=”20″/></p>

<p><b>Mothers or Grandmothers Maiden Name:</b> <input type=”text” name=”mothername” size=”25″ maxlength=”25″/></p>

<?php

require_once(‘./includes/recaptchalib.php’);

$publickey = “publickey”; // you got this from the signup page

echo recaptcha_get_html($publickey);

</fieldset>

</form>

</div>

</body>

</html>

How to Code PHP, Web Design

Web Design and Programming Pt 22

January 22, 2011 Derek Banas 18 Comments

In this part of my PHP video tutorial, I’ll walk you step-by-step through the process of:

Verifying your users identity from page to page
Dynamically updating links based on the login status of your user
Destroying Sessions and Cookies
Creating a logout page

Continue reading Web Design and Programming Pt 22 →

How to Code PHP, Web Design

Web Design and Programming Pt 21 Secure Login Script

January 21, 2011 Derek Banas 42 Comments

In this video tutorial I create an extremely secure PHP Login Script. If you didn’t watch part 20 of this tutorial, you should check it out to find out how to use PHP Sessions and Cookies.

To make this login secure I added all of the following security features:

Keep all user information stored on the server with Sessions
Run all input through very strict Regular Expressions
Use a CAPTCHA system to avoid brute force attacks (How to Setup Captcha)
Pass password information in encrypted form
Create a second token that changes on every page
Regenerate a new session token every time the user updates sensitive information

I add a few additional tricks along the way. All of the code follows the video. If you have any ideas on how I could improve this script pass them along.

Code From the Video

Goodlogin.php Script

<?php

// Initialize a session.

session_start();

require_once(“./includes/confighamdb.php”);

<?php

if (isset($_POST[‘submitted’])) { // Check if the form has been submitted.

if (preg_match (‘%^[A-Za-z0-9]\S{8,20}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘userid’])))) {

$u = escape_data($_POST[‘userid’]);

} else {

$u = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please enter a valid User ID!</font></p>’;

}

// FIX IT Check for a good password

if (preg_match (‘%^[A-Za-z0-9]\S{8,20}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘pass’])))) {

$p = escape_data($_POST[‘pass’]);

} else {

$p = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please enter a valid Password!</font></p>’;

}

// FIX IT PHP Code for the CAPTCHA System

$captchchk = 1;

require_once(‘./includes/recaptchalib.php’);

$privatekey = “privatekey”;

$resp = recaptcha_check_answer ($privatekey,

$_SERVER[“REMOTE_ADDR”],

$_POST[“recaptcha_challenge_field”],

$_POST[“recaptcha_response_field”]);

if (!$resp->is_valid) {

// What happens when the CAPTCHA was entered incorrectly

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>The CAPTCHA Code wasn\’t entered correctly!</font></p>’;

$captchchk = 0;

}

// Query the database.

if ($u && $p && $captchchk) {

$query = “SELECT user_id, first_name, last_name, email, userid, pass FROM users WHERE userid=’$u’ AND pass=SHA(‘$p’)”;

$result = mysql_query ($query) or trigger_error(“Either the Userid or Password are incorrect”);

if (mysql_affected_rows() == 1) { // A match was made.

$row = mysql_fetch_array ($result, MYSQL_NUM);

mysql_free_result($result);

$_SESSION[‘first_name’] = $row[1];

$_SESSION[‘userid’] = $row[4];

// Create Second Token

$tokenId = rand(10000, 9999999);

$query2 = “update users set tokenid = $tokenId where userid = ‘$_SESSION[userid]'”;

$result2 = mysql_query ($query2);

$_SESSION[‘token_id’] = $tokenId;

session_regenerate_id();

header(“Location: http://localhost/login/index.php”);

mysql_close(); // Close the database connection.

exit();

}

} else { // No match was made.

echo ‘<br><br><p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Either the Userid or Password are incorrect</font></p>’;

mysql_close(); // Close the database connection

exit();

}

echo ‘<br><br><p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Either the Userid or Password are incorrect</font></p>’;

mysql_close(); // Close the database connection

exit();

}

// End of SUBMIT conditional.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN”

“http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd”>

<head>

<title>Good Login</title>

</head>

<body>

<?php

echo ‘<h1>Welcome’;

if (isset($_SESSION[‘first_name’])) {

echo “, {$_SESSION[‘first_name’]}!”;

}

echo ‘</h1>’;

// Display links based upon the login status

if (isset($_SESSION[‘userid’]) AND (substr($_SERVER[‘PHP_SELF’], -10) != ‘logout.php’)) {

echo ‘<a href=”logout.php”>Logout</a><br />

<a href=”change_password.php”>Change Password</a><br />’;

} else { // Not logged in.

echo ‘ <a href=”register.php”>Register</a><br />

<a href=”goodlogin.php”>Login to your account</a><br />

<a href=”forgot_password.php”>Forgot Password</a><br />’;

}

<h1>Login</h1>

<p>Your browser must allow cookies in order to log in.</p>

<p><b>Userid:</b> <input type=”text” name=”userid” size=”20″ maxlength=”20″ /></p>

<p><b>Password:</b> <input type=”password” name=”pass” size=”20″ maxlength=”20″ /></p>

<?php

require_once(‘./includes/recaptchalib.php’);

$publickey = “publickey”; // you got this from the signup page

echo recaptcha_get_html($publickey);

</fieldset>

</form>

</div>

</body>

</html>

Confighamdb.php Script

<?php

// Define these as constants so that they can’t be changed

DEFINE (‘DBUSER’, ‘mysqladm’);

DEFINE (‘DBPW’, ‘password’);

DEFINE (‘DBHOST’, ‘localhost’);

DEFINE (‘DBNAME’, ‘hamdb’);

if ($dbc = mysql_connect (DBHOST, DBUSER, DBPW)) {

if (!mysql_select_db (DBNAME)) { // If it can’t select the database.

// Handle the error.

trigger_error(“Could not select the database!<br />MySQL Error: ” . mysql_error());

exit();

} // End of mysql_select_db IF.

} else {

// Print a message to the user, and kill the script.

trigger_error(“Could not connect to MySQL!<br />MySQL Error: ” . mysql_error());

exit();

}

// A function that strips harmful data.

function escape_data ($data) {

// Check for mysql_real_escape_string() support.

// This function escapes characters that could be used for sql injection

if (function_exists(‘mysql_real_escape_string’)) {

global $dbc; // Need the connection.

$data = mysql_real_escape_string (trim($data), $dbc);

$data = strip_tags($data);

} else {

$data = mysql_escape_string (trim($data));

$data = strip_tags($data);

}

// Return the escaped value.

return $data;

} // End of function.

How to Code PHP, Web Design

PHP Security Pt 6 Directory Traversal

January 18, 2011 Derek Banas 10 Comments

In part 6 of my PHP Security video tutorial I cover a ton of ways hackers attack and how to hold them off. If you missed previous tutorials please watch them first. Here is the first one PHP Security.

In this specific tutorial I will cover:

How Spammers take over Comment Boxes
The Dangers of Providing Access to your Insert, Delete and Update SQL Querys
How Hackers use include and require to attack your site
The Damage that can be Done by Directory Traversal
How to Stop Directory Traversal Attacks

Continue reading PHP Security Pt 6 Directory Traversal →

How to Code PHP, Web Design

PHP Security Pt 5 SQL Injection

January 16, 2011 Derek Banas 7 Comments

A few months ago a friend asked me to take a look at their website because they had been receiving an immense amount of spam. Worse yet they were also receiving threats from others to stop sending spam to them. I immediately knew they were being targeted by code injection, but as I dug around I found more danger than I was expecting.

It seems that their grandchild (No doubt a future Mark Zuckerberg) had created the shopping cart for them. The shopping cart application had little to know security. In seconds I was able to dump all of their customers credit card information on to the screen before their frightened eyes.

Continue reading PHP Security Pt 5 SQL Injection →

How to Code PHP, Web Design

PHP Security Pt 4 Set Up Captcha

January 14, 2011 Derek Banas 18 Comments

In this video / article on PHP Security I will show you how to create more secure new user registration scripts. I’ll show you how to:

Fight off SQL Injection by thinking about your queries
Set up a CAPTCHA system that will protect you from brute force attacks
Lock down authentication hacks by forcing proper user ids and passwords

Continue reading PHP Security Pt 4 Set Up Captcha →

How to Code PHP, Web Design

Web Design and Programming Pt 20

January 13, 2011 Derek Banas 3 Comments

In this part of the Web Design and Programming Tutorial I will review how to use 3 global storage arrays available in PHP. Specifically in this video I’ll show you how to use:

Cookies: A storage array that you save on the clients computer. You access it by referring to $_COOKIE
Sessions: A storage array that you save on the server. It is accessed by referring to $_SESSION
Server Global: An array that contains info on your server and the client machine. You access it by referring to $_SERVER

Continue reading Web Design and Programming Pt 20 →

How To

Strategy Fieldrunners Mud Slide Level

January 12, 2011 Derek Banas 3 Comments

I thought I’d have a bit of fun today and talk about a video game for once. Malcolm wrote in and asked me for a strategy to beat the Mud Slide level in Fieldrunners.

If you are unaware Fieldrunners is an iPhone / iPad game that many think to be the best game available. If you are one of my regular readers don’t worry. This website is not going to become a video game site anytime soon 🙂

While I’m not a great video game player I decided to give it a shot. It did take a few tries, but I finally beat the Mud Slide level. There is a screen shot that shows my layout at level 100. If you are having trouble seeing it, just click to enlarge it.

After I present the final screen shot, I’ll then go over how I laid this strategy out.

Continue reading Strategy Fieldrunners Mud Slide Level →

Pages: 1 2

iPhone Development, Web Design

PHP Security Pt 3

January 11, 2011 Derek Banas 4 Comments

In part 3 of my PHP Security video tutorial I go over the most vulnerable ways hackers attack websites. I focus a lot on authentication and client side attacks. Specifically I go over the tools and techniques used to:

Crack user ids and passwords
Catch and manipulate data sent from the browser to the server
Cheat encryption techniques
Down load and change how websites secure themselves
Cheat forgotten password scripts into giving up passwords

Continue reading PHP Security Pt 3 →

How to Code PHP, Web Design

PHP Security Pt 2

January 9, 2011 Derek Banas 33 Comments

In this PHP Security Video tutorial I continue to show you how hackers break into web applications and how to better secure your site. If you missed part 1 of this tutorial definitely watch it first here PHP Security.

Specifically in this tutorial I will show you how SQL Injection works. Don’t do this on any site that you don’t own! I then go over all of the following:

Limit What Hackers can Enter in your Input Fields
Create Encrypted Activation Codes
Validate Input Data
Verify Email Addresses
How to Act Abnormally and Confound Hackers

All of the code follows the video. If you have any other questions or comments leave them below. Feel free to use the code however you like, but I’m not stating that it is 100% secure. The fact is all code can eventually be cracked. The goal is to make the code so complicated that hackers just give up and move on to an easier target.

Code From the Video

Register.PHP Code

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC “-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN”

“http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd”>

<head>

<title>Registration</title>

</head>

<body>

<?php
require_once(“./includes/confighamdb.php”);

if (isset($_POST[‘submitted’])) { // Handle the form.

if (preg_match (‘%^[A-Za-z\.\’ \-]{2,15}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘first_name’])))) {

$fn = escape_data($_POST[‘first_name’]);

} else {

$fn = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please enter your first name!</font></p>’;

}

// Check for a last name.

if (preg_match (‘%^[A-Za-z\.\’ \-]{2,30}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘last_name’])))) {

$ln = escape_data($_POST[‘last_name’]);

} else {

$ln = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please enter your last name!</font></p>’;

}

// Check for an email address.

if (preg_match (‘%^[A-Za-z0-9._\%-]+@[A-Za-z0-9.-]+\.[A-Za-z]{2,4}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[’email’])))) {

$e = escape_data($_POST[’email’]);

} else {

$e = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please enter a valid email address!</font></p>’;

}

// Check for a street.

if (preg_match (‘%^[A-Za-z0-9\.\’ \-]{5,30}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘street’])))) {

$s = escape_data($_POST[‘street’]);

} else {

$s = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please enter your street address!</font></p>’;

}

// Check for a city.

if (preg_match (‘%^[A-Za-z\.\’ \-]{2,25}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘city’])))) {

$c = escape_data($_POST[‘city’]);

} else {

$c = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please enter a valid city!</font></p>’;

}

// Check for a state.

if (preg_match (‘%^(A[KLRZ]|C[AOT]|D[CE]|FL|GA|HI|I[ADLN]|K[SY]|LA|M[ADEINOST]|N[CDEHJMVY]|O[HKR]|PA|RI|S[CD]|T[NX]|UT|V[AT]|W[AIVY])$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘state’])))) {

$st = escape_data($_POST[‘state’]);

} else {

$st = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please enter a valid state!</font></p>’;

}

// Check for a zip code.

if (preg_match (‘%^[0-9]{5}$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘zip’])))) {

$z = escape_data($_POST[‘zip’]);

} else {

$z = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please enter a valid 5 digit zip code!</font></p>’;

}

// Check for a phone number.

if (preg_match (‘%^([0-9]( |-)?)?($?[0-9]{3}$?|[0-9]{3})( |-)?([0-9]{3}( |-)?[0-9]{4}|[a-zA-Z0-9]{7})$%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘work_phone’])))) {

$ph = escape_data($_POST[‘work_phone’]);

} else {

$ph = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please enter a valid phone number!</font></p>’;

}

// Check for a password and match against the confirmed password.

if (preg_match (‘%\A(?=[-_a-zA-Z0-9]*?[A-Z])(?=[-_a-zA-Z0-9]*?[a-z])(?=[-_a-zA-Z0-9]*?[0-9])\S{6,}\z%’, stripslashes(trim($_POST[‘password1’])))) {
if ($_POST[‘password1’] == $_POST[‘password2’]) {

$p = escape_data($_POST[‘password1’]);

} else {

$p = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Your password did not match the confirmed password!</font></p>’;
}

} else {

$p = FALSE;

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>Please enter a valid password!</font></p>’;

}

if ($fn && $ln && $e && $p && $fn && $s && $c && $st && $z && $ph) {
$query = “SELECT user_id FROM users WHERE email=’$e'”;

$result = mysql_query($query) or trigger_error(“Sorry email is taken”);

if(mysql_num_rows($result) == 0) {
$a = md5(uniqid(rand(), true));

$query = “INSERT INTO users(email, pass, first_name, last_name, active, registration_date, street, city, state, zip, work_phone) VALUES (‘$e’, SHA(‘$p’), ‘$fn’, ‘$ln’, ‘$a’, NOW(), ‘$s’, ‘$c’, ‘$st’, ‘$z’, ‘$ph’)”;

$result = mysql_query($query) or trigger_error(“Sorry an error happened”);

if(mysql_affected_rows() == 1) {

$body = “Thanks for registering. Activate account by clicking this link: <br />”;

$body .= “http://localhost/activate.php?x=” . mysql_insert_id() . “&y=$a”;

mail($e, ‘Registration Confirmation’, ‘$body’, ‘From: derekbanas@verizon.net’);

echo ‘<br /><br /><h1>Thank you for registering! A confirmation email has been sent to your address. Please click on the link in that email in order to activate your account.</h1>’;

exit();

} else {

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>You could not be registered due to a system error. We apologize for any inconvenience.</font></p>’;

}

} else {

echo ‘<p><font color=”red” size=”+1″>That email address has already been registered. If you have forgotten your password, use the link to have your password sent to you.</font></p>’;

}

mysql_close();
}

<h1>Register</h1>

<p><b>First Name:</b> <input type=”text” name=”first_name” size=”15″ maxlength=”15″ value=”<?php if (isset($_POST[‘first_name’])) echo $_POST[‘first_name’]; ?>” /></p>

<p><b>Email Address:</b> <input type=”text” name=”email” size=”40″ maxlength=”40″ value=”<?php if (isset($_POST[’email’])) echo $_POST[’email’]; ?>” /> </p>

<p><b>Street:</b> <input type=”text” name=”street” size=”40″ maxlength=”40″ value=”<?php if (isset($_POST[‘street’])) echo $_POST[‘street’]; ?>” /> </p>

<p><b>State:</b> <input type=”text” name=”state” size=”2″ maxlength=”2″ value=”<?php if (isset($_POST[‘state’])) echo $_POST[‘state’]; ?>” /> <small>Use only the two letter initials</small></p>

<p><b>Phone:</b> <input type=”text” name=”work_phone” size=”20″ maxlength=”20″ value=”<?php if (isset($_POST[‘work_phone’])) echo $_POST[‘work_phone’]; ?>” /> </p>

<p><b>Password:</b> <input type=”password” name=”password1″ size=”20″ maxlength=”20″ /> <small>Use only letters and numbers. Must be between 4 and 20 characters long.</small></p>

<p><b>Confirm Password:</b> <input type=”password” name=”password2″ size=”20″ maxlength=”20″ /></p>

</fieldset>

</form>

MySQL Connect Code

<?php
// Define these as constants so that they can’t be changed
DEFINE (‘DBUSER’, ‘mysqladm’);
DEFINE (‘DBPW’, ‘password’);
DEFINE (‘DBHOST’, ‘localhost’);
DEFINE (‘DBNAME’, ‘hamdb’);

if ($dbc = mysql_connect (DBHOST, DBUSER, DBPW)) {

if (!mysql_select_db (DBNAME)) { // If it can’t select the database.

// Handle the error.

trigger_error(“Could not select the database!<br />MySQL Error: ” . mysql_error());

exit();

} // End of mysql_select_db IF.

} else {

// Print a message to the user, and kill the script.

trigger_error(“Could not connect to MySQL!<br />MySQL Error: ” . mysql_error());

exit();

}

// A function that strips harmful data.
function escape_data ($data) {

// Check for mysql_real_escape_string() support.
// This function escapes characters that could be used for sql injection
if (function_exists(‘mysql_real_escape_string’)) {
global $dbc; // Need the connection.
$data = mysql_real_escape_string (trim($data), $dbc);
$data = strip_tags($data);
} else {
$data = mysql_escape_string (trim($data));
$data = strip_tags($data);
}

// Return the escaped value.
return $data;

} // End of function.

How to Code PHP, Web Design

PHP Security

January 7, 2011 Derek Banas 41 Comments

This tutorial is a continuation of my Web Design and Programming Tutorial, but if you’re are well versed in PHP you should understand everything I present here.

I specifically will show you how to:

Hide your database access files
How to eliminate code injection with regular expressions
Introduce a bunch of PHP functions that will delete harmful code

Continue reading PHP Security →

Diet Nutritional

A Healthy Sandwich

January 5, 2011 Derek Banas Leave a comment

In this article I’ll show you a healthy sandwich that will help you in your weight loss goals. Meals like this have helped me lose a dramatic amount of weight. I went from 248 lbs to 167lbs in 5 months and I did that by eating more. If you want to see more about my diet check out this You on a Diet.

Now on with the sandwich. It is full of foods that are both low in calories and foods that make you feel full. Here are the ingredients in my healthy sandwich.

Continue reading A Healthy Sandwich →

How To

Find a Domain Name

January 4, 2011 Derek Banas 3 Comments

Mtsurov wrote in and asked How to Find a Domain Name, meaning a good one! In this article and video I’ll show you the exact steps to follow to find a great domain name no matter what your site is about.

Specifically I’ll show you how to find the best available name based on celebrity gossip, because that seems to be a favorite topic on the web. To find this wonderful domain name you just need a few free tools:

You can either watch the video, or read everything in detail after the video. You could also do both 🙂

First Steps to Find a Domain Name

The first thing I do when I want to start a new site is analyze which websites currently are getting the traffic I want. So since I’m looking to create a celebrity gossip site, I type celebrity gossip into Google. Here are the top sites for celebrity gossip:

celebrity-gossip.net : This is ranked first because of the great domain name
perezhilton.com
thehollywoodgossip.com
tmz.com
imnotobsessed.com
x17online.com
thesuperficial.com
hotmommagossip.com
eonline.com

Now that I have a list of my competitors, it is now time to find out what keywords they used to get to the top. This is where the Google Adwords Keyword Tool comes in. Just go to that site and enter the websites above one at a time. Here are the results if you entered perezhilton.com

This is an abbreviation of the results but I’ll explain what your looking at. This tool will analyze either keywords or websites. I always scan websites for their best keyword phrases and then dump all those into the keyword box to find the best.

Then you see all of the information found separated into columns. The first column is the keyword phrase itself. The competition column gives you an idea of how hard it would be for you to capture that keyword phrase for your site. You always want to go after phrases that have little to no competition. So in this example go after “latest gossip in hollywood” instead of “selena gomez stuff to buy”.

The other columns show you approximately how many times the phrase is searched for per month. Don’t look at these numbers as a fact, but instead just rate them based off of size comparison.

If you click on the competition title the list will display the phrases with the most competition and vice versa. What you need to do now is search for the phrases with the least competition and the most searches for every website. After I did that I came up with this list:

Phrase	Matches	Exact Matches
gossip in hollywood	37,200,000	11,400
gossip from hollywood	38,800,000	97,700
hollywood and gossip	41,400,000	91,800
celebrities and gossip	19,900,000	312,000
rumors celebrity	8,990,000	11,400
hot celebrity gossip	7,310,000	113,000
famous people	32,300,000	5,420,000
star news	112,000,000	2,300,000
celebrity gossip	61,700,000	15,800,000
gossip news	25,900,000	2,010,000
celebrity blog	86,600,000	711,000

Above you can see the best phrases I was able to find from all of those websites. I then go and double check that they are accurate by typing the phrase into Google to see how many matches I get. I then search for the exact phrase by searching for the phrase surrounded by quotes.

Is the Domain Name Taken?

Now that I have my list I jump over to Go Daddy to see if the names are taken. Sadly my best domain name is taken being gossipinhollywood.com 🙁 But, guess what? Four of the best domain names are not taken being:

Special Note: When you click on any of these names you’ll get a 37% discount off your next domain name purchase at Go Daddy.

So there you have it. Get a great domain name on any subject. I wrote a few more articles that will help you find even better domain names:

You will also be interested in this article on how to make money blogging How to Make Money Blogging

If you have any questions or comments leave them below.

Till Next Time

Think Tank

Web Design, You Tube

Get More Views YouTube

January 2, 2011 Derek Banas Leave a comment

A while back I analyzed what all the superstars do to consistently get more views on YouTube. Here is that original article, along with a mashup of the greatest vlogger of all time ZeFrank How to Video Blog.

In this video tutorial I go over all that I learned about vlogging back then through today. I personally follow only a few of these tips for success and if you want to see more on what I do check out Become a YouTube Partner.

Whatever you do in your videos just understand that you will only be successful if you post a large number of videos. By doing so you will improve your ability to make good videos, but also you will increase the odds that you hit on a subject that nobody else does as well as you.

If you have any other questions or comments on YouTube or anything else leave them below.