Page 454 - Beginning PHP 5.3

Part III: Using PHP in Practice
Also, notice that the Member object ’ s joinDate field is set:

“joinDate” = > date( “Y-m-d” )

PHP ’ s date() function is used to generate a string representing the current date in the format YYYY - MM - DD .
This string is then stored in the joinDate field, reflecting the date that the member completed their
registration.

You can find out more about date() in Chapter 16.

Now that a Member object has been created and populated with the submitted form data, the script
performs various checks on the data. First, it runs through the list of required field names; if any
required field was not filled in, its field name is added to the $missingFields array:
foreach ( $requiredFields as $requiredField ) {
if ( !$member- > getValue( $requiredField ) ) {
$missingFields[] = $requiredField;
}

}
If any missing fields were encountered, an appropriate error message is added to the $errorMessages
array:

if ( $missingFields ) {
$errorMessages[] = ‘ < p class=”error” > There were some missing fields in the
form you submitted. Please complete the fields highlighted below and click
Send Details to resend the form. < /p > ’;
}

Error messages are also created if the entered passwords didn ’ t match, or if the entered username or
email address is already taken. For the username check, Member::getByUsername() is called with the
entered username; if it returns a Member object, the script knows that the username is taken and
generates an error message. Similarly, for the email address, Member:: getByEmailAddress() is called
to determine if a member with the entered email address already exists in the database.

Finally, if any error messages were raised, the script calls displayForm() to redisplay the form to the
user, passing in the list of error messages, the list of missing fields (if any), and the populated Member
object containing the data already entered by the user, for redisplaying in the form. On the other hand, if
the submitted data was correct, the member record is created in the members table by calling the Member
object ’ s insert() method:
if ( $errorMessages ) {
displayForm( $errorMessages, $missingFields, $member );
} else {
$member- > insert();
displayThanks();
}

The final function in the script, displayThanks() , simply displays a thank - you message to thank the
member for registering.

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