Tutorial

Tutorial  --  A short guide to using Auth_PrefManager

Setting up the database

The first step is to setup a database to store the values in. For this tutorial it's assumed that you already know the basics of using the PEAR DB class.

To set up the default table layout run the following SQL statement:

Setting up your first PrefManager object

To use Auth_PrefManager we must first create an instance of the base object, as shown below.

Setting and displaying default preferences

Now that we have a PrefManager object, we can make use of it to set some preferences.

For this tutorial we're going to allow users to specify their country, and assume that any user who hasn't set their country is somewhere on Earth.

First we need to set the default value, using setDefaultPref.

Now that the default is set, we can create a (very) basic page, welcoming users with a customised message.

Currently this message will only ever display "Welcome to the people of Earth!", since no users have their country set.

Setting a user's preferences

Finally we need a way for people to choose which country they're in.

This is going to be done with a simple text box, and you should obviously be a little more careful in a real application about allowing users to set preferences for people!

The Reset Country button will delete the user's preference, and cause the default to be displayed again.

Now once a user has entered their username, and their country, whenever they login they'll get a personalized welcome.

Full sourcecode