Validating Database Input and User Authentication

Abstract

Dreamweaver provides you with the basic functionality of inserting and updating records in a database, but it’s up to you to make sure that the data entered by a user meets the criteria you envisaged when designing the database structure. When designing database forms, you must remember the GIGO principle—garbage in, garbage out. Unless you control carefully what you allow to go into a database, a lot of your results will be useless garbage. Many developers rely on JavaScript validation to filter user input before it’s submitted to the database, but JavaScript is easily turned off in the browser leaving your site vulnerable. JavaScript validation, such as that provided by Spry validation widgets (see Chapter 9), should be regarded as a convenience offered to the user. The only way to make sure data is safe to insert into a database is to validate it with PHP.