with a class. Following are the classes I have in the code (I THINK). * login_field = This is the class of all INPUT fields, and div's surrounding them * login_form = the class for all

$customFields = array( 'tables' => array( 'users' => array( 'fields' => array( 'email' => array( // == For Users class == // this will be the display label on the form 'label' => 'E-Mail', // the input type to use for data entry 'html type' => 'text', // you can only edit this if an admin and changing someone // else' record 'restrict' => false, // will be displayed on a hover in HTML5 (ie, title=) 'instructions' => 'Enter your e-mail address (WARNING, not verified)', // this is entered in an empty box, ie placeholder= 'hint' => 'E-Mail Address', // a regex to run it against to verify it is ok 'filter' => '/^[-_a-z0-9.]+@[_a-z0-9]+\.[a-z0-9]+$/i', // == for Data Source == 'dbColumn' => 'email', // actual mySQL column type 'type' => 'varchar(64)', // set it to not null if we build the table ourselves 'required' => false ) ) ) ) ); ?> Now, when we instantiate a new object of class Users AND class UsersDataSourceMySQLi, we simply pass this array in.


    $connection = new UsersDataSourceMySQLi( 
         null,
         $customFields, 
         array( 'username' => 'test', 'password' => 'test', 'database' => 'test' ) 
      );
   if ( ! isset( $_SESSION['user'] ) ) { 
      $_SESSION['user'] = new Users( $customFields );
   }

Note that since we replicated the basic structure of $dbDefinition in Users and usersDataSource, we can use the same hash to pass into both; they will store, but ignore values not relevant to them. When the usersDataSource and Users objects are created, $customFields will be merged, with duplicates overwritten by the $customFields value. This is not limited to adding new columns; you can modify the display definitions also, ie how the information is stored on the screen, to some extent. === New Column Definitions === Note: If a new column is defined with the name (see below) of 'last password change', anytime a password is changed, it will be updated to the current date/time in YYYYMMDDHHMMSS format, which can be directly plugged into MySQL. The code is in there, but to not overpopulate the tables with columns that may not be necessary, I did not include this column in the default table structure. The structure of a new column only requires a value for * type * html type * dbColumn Defaults (generally empty strings) will be used for anything else. == key name == The key is used throughout the program to identify what column we are working on. It can be any value that can be used as a PHP hash key. == html type (required) == This determines how the field is displayed and processed during editing. Accepted values are: * text - standard text input field, corresponds to SQL varchar or char field * textarea - multi-line strings of arbitrary lenght, corresponds to mysql text field * boolean - displayed as checkbox, corresponds to mysql bool and/or tinyint (ie, 0 and 1 only) * password - displayed as a type='password' field, not pre-populated or displayed when typing. Uses varchar(128) in mysql for the length of the hash created Any value not in the list above will probably result in weird errors. == dbColumn (required) == This is the column name in the database for this field, and all sql uses this value when accessing a column. == type (required for creating tables) == this is a valid MySQL database type used by the buildTable function to create the table, ie varchar, char, == label == If set, will be the label for the input screens. If not defined, the label defaults to the key. == instructions == Replaces the html TITLE attribute for an INPUT, which is displayed by default on a hover. If not set, defaults to an empty string. == hint == Placed in the PLACEHODER attribute for an INPUT. Displayed in an empty text field most of the time. If not set, defaults to an empty string. == restrict == If set to true, will not be displayed when a user is editing their own record (so, not updateable by a user). Examples would be admin and enabled, which would not be something a user should change themselves. If an admin is editing a different user, these fields are available. == filter == If set, this is assumed to be a regular express. The result of the input is checked against the regex. If it does not match the regex, the update is declined and an error message displayed. By default, the username can only be alpha-numeric and an underscore, so the regex '/^[a-zA-Z0-9_]+$/' is set as the filter. If a user puts a period in their password, it will be rejected. Validity of the regex is not checked. == size == For database creation, if set, will create a column (like varchar) with this size, ie size='128' in a varchar field will result in varchar(128) == required == For database creation, sets the NOT NULL attribute to the column == default == For database creation, sets the DEFAULT attribute for the column ==== usersDataSource ==== This is our data access class. As stated earlier, it is an abstract class, with UsersDataSourceMySQLi a class built on it. This code accesses the data (duh), and is consistently called $connection in the Users class. The only requirement is that it must be able to implement the following functions getPassword( $username ) returns encrypted password getRecord( $username ) returns array containing the values for a user getAllUsers() returns an array of all user id's and names getARecord( array of key value pairs to limit what is retrieved ) returns all values update( array of key value pairs ) returns true/false on success/failure It is also nice is it can A) handle new columns and B) create and initialize the necessary storage I separated this out from the Users class because not all programs need database access. For instance, the favorites_urls app uses file based storage, so by writing a new access class for it, we will hopefully be able to get the same functionality, but with a different storage back end.