Databases
StackOverflow2013
Postsdbo
POBest practices for email confirmation codes
 

Note that there are some explanatory texts on larger screens.

plurals
  1. POBest practices for email confirmation codes
    primarykey
    data
    text
    <p>I'm creating a PHP website which involves users signing up, and I'm wondering about best practices for "email confirmation" codes.</p> <p>New users must confirm their email addresses - I do this by generating a code and sending it to the user in an email, which he can then use to activate his account. Rather than storing this key in a database, I'm using a handy little workaround: the code is the result of:</p> <pre><code>md5("xxxxxxxxx".$username."xxxxxxxxxxx".$timestamp."xxxxxxxxx"); </code></pre> <p>Where $timestamp refers to the user-creation time. On the whole I was quite pleased with this, but then I got to thinking, is this secure enough? And what about the possibility of collisions? And I also need to generate codes for password reset, etc. If I used a similar methodology, a collision could result in one user inadvertently resetting another user's password. And that's no good.</p> <p>So how do you do these things? My thoughts was a table of the following format:</p> <pre><code>codePK (int, a-I), userID (int), type (int), code (varchar 32), date (timestamp) </code></pre> <p>Where 'type' would be 1, 2 or 3 meaning "activation", "email change" or "password reset". Is this a good way of doing it? Do you have a better way?</p> <p>Using a method similar to the above, could I automatically delete anything over two days old without using cron-jobs? My host (nearlyfreespeech.net) does not support them. If at all possible I'd like to avoid having a cron-job on an external host which wget's a script which deletes things, as that's just messy =P.</p> <p>Thanks!<br> Mala</p> <p><b>Update:</b><br> To clarify: I've realized the only way to securely and safely go about this task is by using a database, which is what the original function was trying to avoid. My question is on how the table (or tables?) should be structured. Somebody suggested I do away with codePK and just make the code a PK. So in short, my question is: is this what you do?</p>
    singulars
    1. PO
      singulars
      1. PTAnswer
    1. This table or related slice is empty.
    1. PTQuestion
    1. USphidah
    1. USMala
    plurals
    1. This table or related slice is empty.
    1. PL
      singulars
      1. LTLinked
    2. PL
      singulars
      1. LTLinked
    1. This table or related slice is empty.
    1. PO
      singulars
      1. PTAnswer
    2. PO
      singulars
      1. PTAnswer
    3. PO
      singulars
      1. PTAnswer
    1. VO
      singulars
      1. POBest practices for email confirmation codes
      1. USlemon
      1. VTFavorite
    2. VO
      singulars
      1. POBest practices for email confirmation codes
      1. This table or related slice is empty.
      1. VTUpMod
    3. VO
      singulars
      1. POBest practices for email confirmation codes
      1. This table or related slice is empty.
      1. VTUpMod
    1. COBest practice for e-mail confirmation codes? Leave them out...
      singulars
      1. POBest practices for email confirmation codes
      1. USLeo
    2. COIt's important that users have a valid email address on file, if only for password resets. While one could claim "well that's the user's responsibility" this is the real world we're dealing with... As soon as the first guy who "will NEVER forget his password" forgets his password, probably a week or two in, my system will be "the dumbest ever".
      singulars
      1. POBest practices for email confirmation codes
      1. USMala
 

Querying!

 
Guidance
A row detail

Detail views are divided into sections. All the information in the data section comes from columns in the selected row. The other sections display data from other, related rows.

Related data can be related in a to-one or a to-many fashion. Captions of data related in a to-many fashion link to a list view showing a filtered view of the table.

Try moving around until you find a non-empty to-many entry and click on the label to get to one. You can move back to the root by clicking on the database name in the header.

SQuiL has stopped working due to an internal error.

If you are curious you may find further information in the browser console, which is accessible through the devtools (F12).

Reload