Sams Teach Yourself PHP in 10 Minutes

Chapter 15. User Authentication

In this lesson you will build a user authentication process that can be used to protect certain pages of your website by using a password.

Types of Authentication

Chances are you have needed to log in to a website in the past, so you should be aware of how the process of authentication works from a user's point of view. Generally speaking, you are asked to enter a username—sometimes your email address—and a password.

There are actually two ways that a website can authenticate a user, though: using basic HTTP authentication and using session-based authentication. The following sections clarify the differences between these two methods.

Basic HTTP Authentication

Basic HTTP authentication can be performed by web server, ...