User Management code / library

Hi,

Do you guys write custom code for user management? Or use a specific 3rd party library for keeping track of things on the back end?

If so, what do you use? I'm just doing a bit of investigation for a future site of my own, and whilst I'm actually a web developer by trade during the day - I'd really rather not reinvent the wheel


Cheers

Chris

 

Oh yeah, do you prefer http auth realms or cookie based logins?

As a user, I know which I prefer, but I was wondering what was popular with developers...

 

I find that custom code works best as anything else contains too many features and is hard to integrate into your site.

The best thing is sometimes to follow a basic tutorial and build from there rather than taking a big script and stripping it down.

 

Like you I hate to reinvent the wheel. Lately I've been starting with very simple scripts that do the job instead of over-powerful BIG programs that don't do what I want.

I've found a very simple and FREE yet powerful little user management script which has proven very flexible and easy to work with from these guys: http://www.mpdolan.com/downloads.htm

It's cookie based and lets you set different levels of users.
It's main feature is that you can choose which page to redirect users to. Thanks to this feature, I was able to pass the referrer variable and when a user login it takes them back to the page they were originally on - a nice touch. It seems secure and has a little admin back end and everything. The site's not live yet but if you want to poke around I can PM you a link. Their forums also have instructions on how to sync the user table with forum software, I think they're using PunBB on their own site.

 

Thanks Roze. Silly question, but is it in php? Only that site goes on about being a microsoft certified engineer all over the place...

I'll check it out myself later on, thanks again.

 

Yes, PHP and it makes total sense too. Install it out of the package on your site and register and login a few times to learn which files do what, then chop away. It's MYSQL too I hope that works for you. Make sure you get their latest version, it's 1.3 I think.

 

Thanks a lot. I'll be looking into that one later!

(Mysql is perfect)