How can I control how many days a user uses my site?

[mysty]

I have a site that has a database for user’s information.  I would like to control how many days each user has access to the site.  That is, when a user registers, he has access to the site for 10 days.  Can I control that using MySQL or would I use PHP code or ??

[fenway]

Sure... add an expiry column to the users table, and check that on login.

[mysty]

So, are you saying I should make 2 new columns - a TimeStamp to put the registration date into the database and one for Datetime as the expiry field?  I would like to have the user register and fill in a field in the registration form that tells how many days he has on the site.  How would I then check the 2 new columns?

[artacus]

You don't NEED two columns. But using the two column approach allows you to extend a person's 10 day period easier. Say if you wanted to make an exception because a users' brother died 2 days after she registered.

 

But to do it with the one column approach, you would add something like this to the where clause:

AND NOW() BETWEEN registeredOn AND DATE_ADD(registeredOn, INTERVAL 10 DAY)

[fenway]

Always use two columns... registration_date and expriy_date, both datetime types.

[mysty]

When a person registers, I can fill the reg_date column, but how would I fill the expiry_date column?  That is, I would want the expiry_date to show registration date plus 10 days.  Not sure how to do that?

[fenway]

Use NOW() + INTERVAL 10 DAY.