[Creating a private site]

17 minutes ago, requinix said:

Given the lax security measures already being considered: no, not really. But personally I would probably still obfuscate it a little, like base 64-encoding.

 

Where are the "lax security measure"??  😕

[Creating a private site]

7 minutes ago, requinix said:

Nah. It's not like the world will end if someone were to leak the password to 4chan or something.

Was that sarcasm or are you serious?

If I am not using a database, then what is the safest way to program a log in screen?

For instance, is there any benefit to using a hash if it is hard-coded in your script?

I should say that this is on my VPS, so I could at least store the hashed password in a .php file *outside* the web-root.

Will probably only leave files up for a few weeks, but do want to protect people's pictures...

[Creating a private site]

3 minutes ago, requinix said:

1. Yes, if the fancy UI is important to you.

2. As with any other user authentication system, yes.

As a temporary place to store things like work holiday photos or maybe a test.php fle I share with you, is there anything super dangerous about hard-coding in a password in my splash login page?

(On my real site that is still under development, I store hashed passwords in MySQL, but don't want to go that far for this site.)

[Creating a private site]

49 minutes ago, requinix said:

Do you have the rest of it built out? Because if not then I would suggest using one of the millions of existing services to do this.

But an .htaccess with a username and password is a really quick way to do this. They go to the site, the browser pops up a little window asking for a username and password, they enter it, and they get in. And the browser can remember it like the login for any other website.

I don't have anything currently.  Just wanted to throw up an anonymous site where I can share things like work photos for a temporary period.  (This is since I have a webserver I pay for every month and never use for anything!)

Your suggestion is probably the easiest, but to be devils advocate...

1.) There is no reason I couldn't create a basic log in screen WITHOUT a database, right?  Just have my PHP check a hard-coded hash (or password) and if it's correct, the page loads.

2.) In that scenario, once logged in, I could use session variables to allow them access to other pages, like page 2 of the pictures, right?

 

[Creating a private site]

Hi everyone.  Getting my head back into PHP after a long time away, so pardon the newbie question!

I would like to create a simple website that is private to me and a few select people.  The intention is to be able to share pictures or files.  (Sort of my like my own personal dropbox.)

Looking to put up some Holiday photos, so this needs to be a quick endeavor.

I was thinking of creating a php page that is a log in page.  No database, but f the user enters the correct username and password then I could reveal photos or maybe links to other pages.

How does that sound?

I have done .htaccess files in the past, but they sorta look crude and might scare non-technical people away.

Thoughts?

 

[Product Catalog page]

3 minutes ago, Zane said:

Yes! Especially since you're not wanting to use JavaScript, it's as simple as putting links to the same php file but with a query parameter for the category.  If you'd use JavaScript, you could do some AJAX magic and just change a portion of the page to reflect the category clicked.  That's a bit more involved, though.

Okay, glad my thinking was correct!

Thanks for the feedback!

[Product Catalog page]

30 minutes ago, Zane said:

There's really no cut-and-dry answer here.  You simply grab the category id or name or whatever identifier you want to use and grab the products from your database based on that category id.

What I was uncomfortable with was how I went from loading up the product catalog page, then having the user click on different links, changing the URL, but basically staying on the same page, and then loading different items based on what was selected.

In explaining (and re-explaining) to all of you what I was doing I think I answered my own questions.

[Product Catalog page]

@Zane,

So it sounds like you think the use-case I described above is okay...

[Product Catalog page]

28 minutes ago, Zane said:

 

Not gonna answer my questions, huh?

 

[Product Catalog page]

2 minutes ago, Zane said:

Sounds like you need to layout your design first and come back with code that you've tried already.  You did mention that you have a history with PHP, so gives us a PHP problem to solve.  

I'm not sure what you're asking.  Are you asking if your thoughts sound good?  Or, are you asking us what kind of effort it sounds like it would take to do such a task?

I have been asking if the way I am going about this - from a use-case/process-flow standpoint makes sense.

Never have I asked about the effort involved.

 

2 minutes ago, Zane said:

Or, are you just asking how to do it all?

Never have i asked how to do it all.

I simply asked if the way I am going about this makes sense.  (Maybe there is a different way you would load up different products based on some discriminating factor like "Category"?

 

2 minutes ago, Zane said:

So far, all I understand is that you want to show a list of products and filter it by category.

When you go to any e-commerce site and start shopping, what do you call that area of the website?  I have been using the term "product catalog".  Agree?

I know how to query the database for every product i have and display them all on a single page.

What I have been asking about is how to make it so a user can click on different "categories" in a side menu and see the related products in that category/group/whatever.

I suppose you could call that "filtering".

 

2 minutes ago, Zane said:

You're also not using JavaScript, so you want these links to refresh the page when clicked and load a page with a pretty url like mysite.com/movies using mod_rewrite.

Right.  So I'm trying to put pieces of knowledge together, and seeing if I am doing this in a logical way.

So am I?  🙂

 

Step 1: Use lands on www.mystore.com

Step 2. User navigates to the e-commerce store

Step 3: User clicks on a "category" link in the left margin (e.g. <a href="www.mystore.com/music/">Music</a>)

Step 4: Apache mod_rewrite translates that request to: www.mystore.com?category=music and reloads the web page - still showing the pretty: www.mystore.com/music/

Step 5: My script grabs the (syntax?) _GET['category'] = music or whatever

Step 6: My script queries the database for all records where category = "music"

Step 7: My script displays those products in the right pane

Step 8: The user navigates that result set and hopefully clicks on some music to buy

Step 9: A product details page loads with more details for the chosen item.

 

Does that sound like a logical approach???

 

2 minutes ago, Zane said:

It all sounds ... like the fundamentals of an ecommerce website really.  List of products, add to cart, checkout, purchase, etc...  Yet, you're only focused on the product listing part at this point and are simply asking how a list of products sounds.

Like ten times so far...  😉

 

[Product Catalog page]

11 minutes ago, Zane said:

Are you talking about filters?  Drilling down the list of products depending on things like Color, Brand, whatever..

Never having rolled my e-commerce site before, and having been away from PHP for several years, sometimes I'm not sure what I'm talking about?!  😐

Right now, I am trying to lay out (and ultimately code) a web page that looks like the link I pasted above - well not that fancy!

To your question...

Because this is a startup business and thus small, I just need a way to be able to sell a handful of items in a handful of categories.  Like maybe 4-5 categories each containing a dozen or so products.

Down the road, my website will need to grow and provide shopper a more sophisticated way to search for items, but for now I just need something simple like this...

Category1:

- Product1

- Product2

:

-Product12

 

Category2:

more products

 

Category3:

more products

 

Category4:

and so on...

 

So I was thinking if I added a left column to my earlier gallery, and added say 4-5 hyperlinks wit category names, and when you click on a category link, it would reload the page and the url would change like this...

originally:  www.mystore.com

user clicks on "Music" category in left margin:  www.mystore.com/music/

then the user decides to check out movies and clicks on "Movies" and the page reloads with the updated url:  www.mystore.com/movies/

How does that part sound?

 

Then assuming that is okay, I guess in the right pane, I would have my PHP code query products based on what in in the url, so in the last example above it would go to my database and retrieve products that have a category of "Movie".

 

How does that sound?

 

And to your question, for now, I do *NOT* need any fancy filtering beyond category, so no: Music + Vinyl Records + Classic Rock + 1970s + Live Albums

 

 

[Product Catalog page]

8 minutes ago, Barand said:

Isn't that just another category (I.E. Free)?

Well, with my free gallery I am just hardcoding the query, so not really.

Now I need to set up a normal product catalog where you can choose between different categories or I suppose even just see the entire product selection.

Something like this...  https://www.amazon.com/s?i=popular&k=&ref=nb_sb_noss&url=search-alias%3Dpopular

[Product Catalog page]

3 hours ago, Barand said:

Other than filtering by category, how is this different from your last topic?

As I said, it builds off the earlier example.

Before I was creating a gallery of thumbnails for a set number of products that I am giving away free with a subscription.

Here I am trying to build the actual product catalog for my e-commerce site, i.e. *all* products.

So I'm not entirely certain how an e-commerce product catalog should work.

 

[Product Catalog page]

Hi.  This question is building off of things you all helped me with earlier in my other two threads.  (I go no sleep last night, so sorry if my thinking is a bit off!)

Now that I know how to create a gallery page - as far as HTML goes - to display a listing of free add-on items you get when you subscribe, I need to extend those concepts to my next project.

I need to create a product catalog page for my e-commerce site.  (Not sure if there is a better name?)

This is the page you would see if you went to an e-commerce site and started shopping.

At the top of the page would be my company mast.  And beneath that, on the left side of the screen would be a menu listing different areas of my online store.  And to the right, would be the area where you see the actual products.  (And I would be using the same techniques to display items on the right hand side as I did in my earlier gallery.

So here is where I could use some hep with the logic of this page...

Let's say my website is located at www.mystore.com

And in the left menu bar, I have these categories:  Music, TV Shows, Movies, Gear

And in the right pane I want to display items for the chosen section.

So if you chose "Music", I am thinking the hyperlink behind it might read; www.mystore.com/music/   with a mod_rewrite to www.mystore.com?category=music

And then I would have PHP code that would fire when the page is reloaded to www.mystore.com?category=music and it would query MySL and display all music related products in the right pane.

(Note: It is understood I am only using HTML and PHP with no Javascript.)

How does the above approach sound?

 

[Product Details page]

6 hours ago, dalecosp said:

It would also be possible to post-process all the URLs on the page with JavaScript, but who wants to take time to do THAT?

I am not using JavaScript on my site.

[Product Details page]

6 hours ago, dalecosp said:

Pretty URLs are fairly simple.  Either use mod_rewrite (for Apache servers) or its equivalent on your system to do the complete work, or use it to redirect to a centralized script that reads the URL parameters and shows content based on that parameter.
 

I understand how to do mod_rewrites.

I was simply trying to understand why ginerjm was saying one of my steps was unnecessary.

[Product Details page]

6 hours ago, Zane said:

Seems like you're only real question is whether or not you're going about this the right way.  While there isn't a "right" way, per se, to do something, this is probably the most popular way.  You didn't provide code, so I assume you've already set things up this way, no?

I didn't write any code yet as to avoid hanging myself if I was going about this totally wrong!  🙂

Does the use-case i outline above sound like a reasonable approach?

 

[Product Details page]

8 minutes ago, ginerjm said:

Yes - you have the right idea.  I was only pointing out that if you built your page with the complete link embedded in it you wouldn't need the extra step in the middle.  

For me - being pretty is not important since the user is only going to see it for about 2 seconds on screen depending upon his/her connection speed.  After that the page that is returned will have its own url.

Sorry, but I still don't think I am understanding you...

My user starts off on this page...  www.mysite.com/store/product-gallery.php

(Technically, I could chop off the ".php" to make it totally "pretty", but I'm not so concerned about that.)

A gallery of thumbnails appears.

The user clicks on one of those thumbnails - which represents a product - to learn more about the product.

Here is where I'm not sure if we are following each other...

I don't care about the format of the URL behind that thumbnail that the user clicked, HOWEVER, when the product details page laods for sku 4571, I want the user to see the following URL...  www.mysite.com/store/products/4571

Clear?

It's a one-way street in that you can't have an "ugly" URL and then load a page displaying a "pretty" URL.  If you want a "pretty" URL to appear when the page loads, you need to have a "pretty" URL in the hyperlink behind the image.

Right?

So I'm not following you when you say I am taking an extra unnecessary step....

If I am wrong about something or am misunderstanding you, please correct me.  But it seems like your suggestion wouldn't work like I need it to work.

🙂

 

 

[Product Details page]

24 minutes ago, ginerjm said:

You didn't show ANYTHING like that in your previous example.

Didn't need to.  My point is that there *IS* value in "pretty URLs" although a lot of techies disagree.

Back back on track....  So does it sound like I am approaching things the correct way in my OP - besides differeing opinions on what URLs should look like?

 

[Product Details page]

5 minutes ago, ginerjm said:

IMHO - showing the exact url that you are really using right up front is more intuitive rather than going thru a re-format of it for no real reason.

Most people would not find this URL to be intuitive...

www.mystore.com/store/products.php?category=clothing&gender=mens&type=outerwear&season=winter-coats

 

This, by contrast is more intuitive...

www.mystore.com/store/products/clothing/mens/outerwear/winter-coats/

[Product Details page]

1 hour ago, ginerjm said:

I'm asking why you don't simply produce the same url from the LINK instead of passing a shortened version to your script that then produces that same url.

I prefer pretty URLs and the hope is - for people who still look at the Address Bar - that it will be more intuitive to them.

[Product Details page]

6 minutes ago, ginerjm said:

I dont' see why you have step 3.  You're open about the name of your starting gallery script in the url.  But why not with the url that your link is sending?  Why have to reformat it as step 4?

Not sure that I follow you...

I have Step 3 because you start off in a gallery of thumbnails with no product details and after you choose a given thumbnail, then you go to a product details page which has all of the item's details.

 

[Product Details page]

Hello.  I just created a product gallery containing thumbnails of items that I will be selling.

When a user click on on of the thumbnails, I want a product details page to appear with more details about the chosen product

Could use some feedback if I am going about things the right way...

Step 1: User goes to my gallery located here:  www.mysite.com/store/product-gallery.php

Step 2: System displays a page of thumbnails representing items that I am selling.

Step 3: User click on a given thumbnail which is a hyperlink to:  www.mysite.com/store/products/4571

Step 4: System rewrites the URL as such:  www.mysite.com/store/products.php?sku=4571

Step 5: System queries MySQL and retrieves record for sku 4571

Step 6: System displays product details for the chosen item in Step 3 which is sku 4571

 

How does that sound?

 

[Trying to remember name of old framework]

43 minutes ago, Barand said:

https://www.smarty.net/docs/en/what.is.smarty.tpl

Smarty and Twig are both template engines.

Unfortunately I couldn't find what I was looking...  😞

I remember installing Smarty when it first came out (maybe early 2000s?) onto my then Windows tower.

I also recall looking at the code and it was the most god-awful example of coding I have every seen?!  (To call it spaghetti code would be an insult to people writing spaghetti code?!)

Was hoping to get a copy of that crap for some good laughs - oh well?!  😎

[Trying to remember name of old framework]

5 minutes ago, Barand said:

Smarty?

Twig?

Hey, I think you may have it!

What was the gist of Smarty?  What "problem" did it claim to solve?