PHP Email Confirmation Function MySQL Database error - php

Question

There are many questions about email confirmation, databases, and permissions on Stackoverflow, but nothing I could find that would help me with this.
This specific question is directed to an email confirmation function built with PHP. The tutorial I am using can be found here: http://www.phpeasystep.com/phptu/24.html. Everything is working, however when the user clicks the email confirmation link (which would move their information from the temp_table to the confirmed_table), I receive this error:
Error updating database: No database selected
From what I have gathered from different sites/research/Stackoverflow questions is that this is due to the permissions of the database(s) I am working with (please correct me if it is another problem). I have read that I need to change all the users to be able to READ, but am unsure whether I should do this to both the databases as a whole (I couldn't find whether you can set the privileges for all the users in a database to automatically have the READ privileged), or the PHP when I add them to the temp_table. The tutorial I showed above doesn't say anything about it, so I am confused.
Registration form code:
<?php
session_start();
if(isset($_SESSION['aI']) || isset($_SESSION['pss'])) {
header("Location: pa.php");
}
include 'db.php';
if(isset($_POST['rSub'])) {
// connects to database using PHP Data Objects, throws exception if error in connection
try {
$conn = new PDO("mysql:host=$svrHost;db=$svrDb", $sUme, $sp);
$conn->setAttribute(PDO::ATTR_ERRMODE, PDO::ERRMODE_EXCEPTION);
} catch(PDOException $e) {
echo "ERROR: " . $e->getMessage();
}
$error = '';
if($_POST['fN'] == '' || $_POST['lN'] == '' || $_POST['aI'] == '' || $_POST['eml'] == '' || $_POST['pss'] == ''
|| $_POST['pss2'] == '') {
$error = "<li style=\"color:#C70000; font-weight:bold;\"><center>- All fields are required. Try again.</font><center></li>";
}
if($error == '') {
$fN = ucfirst($_POST['fN']);
$lN = ucfirst($_POST['lN']);
$aI = $_POST['aI'];
$eml = $_POST['eml'];
$pss = $_POST['pss'];
$pss2 = $_POST['pss2'];
$admin = 0;
if($error != '') {
$error = "<ul>".$error."</ul>";
$_SESSION['error'] = $error;
}
else {
$hF = "$2y$10$"; // 2y = blowfish and 10 = num of hashes
$sa = "testsaltforwebsite1219"; //"random" 22-character sa
$fAS = $hF.$sa;
$sha = crypt($pss, $fAS);
// Random confirmation code
$c_cd=md5(uniqid(rand()));
$insert = $conn->prepare("INSERT INTO t_awhole (c_cd, fN, lN, aI, eml, pss)
VALUES (:c_cd, :fN, :lN, :aI, :eml, :pss)");
$insert->bindParam(':c_cd', $c_cd);
$insert->bindParam(':fN', $fN);
$insert->bindParam(':lN', $lN);
$insert->bindParam(':aI', $aI);
$insert->bindParam(':eml', $eml);
$insert->bindParam(':pss', $sha);
$result=$insert->execute();
// ---------------- Confirmation email ---------------- \\
// table name
$t_apart=t_awhole;
if($result){
// send e-mail to ...
$to=$eml;
// Your subject
$subject="Registration Confirmation";
// From
$header="from: no-reply#example.com"; //Need the address to send the eml to.
// Your message
$message="Copy and paste this link in your browser to activate your account: \r\n";
$message.="\n";
$message.="(serverAddress)/confirmation.php?passkey=$c_cd \r\n";
$message.="\n";
$message.="Thank you";
// send eml
$sml = mail($to,$subject,$message,$header);
}
// if not found
else {
echo "Your email Is Not Registered. Please Register.";
}
// if your email succesfully sent
if($sml){
echo '<script> window.location.href="emlC.php"</script>';
}
else {
echo "Cannot Send Confirmation Link To Your email Address.";
}
// ---------------- Confirmation email ---------------- \\
$_SESSION['aI'] = $aI;
$_SESSION['pss'] = $pss;
$_SESSION['admin'] = 0;
$stmt = $conn->prepare("SELECT DISTINCT dN, dU, ex FROM doc WHERE aI != '0'");
$stmt->execute();
$result = $stmt->fetchAll();
foreach ($result as $row)
{
$ex = $row['ex'];
$dU = $row['dU'];
$dN = $row['dN'];
$insert = $conn->prepare("INSERT INTO doc (dN, dU, aI, ex)
VALUES (:dN, :dU, :aI, :ex)");
$insert->bindParam(':aI', $aI);
$insert->bindParam(':ex', $ex);
$insert->bindParam(':dU', $dU);
$insert->bindParam(':dN', $dN);
$insert->execute();
}
}
}
?>
Confirmation page code:
<?php
include('db.php');
// passkey that got from link
$pk=$_GET['pk'];
$t_awhole_conf="t_awhole";
// Retrieve data from table where row that match this passkey
$sql_conf1="SELECT * FROM $t_awhole_conf WHERE confirm_code ='$pk'";
$result_conf=mysql_query($sql_conf1) or die ('Error updating database: '.mysql_error());
// If successfully queried
if($result_conf){
// Count how many row has this passkey
$count=mysql_num_rows($result_conf);
// if found this passkey in our database, retrieve data from table "t_awhole"
if($count==1){
$rows=mysql_fetch_array($result_conf);
$fN = $rows['fN']; // capitalizes the first letter (6-26-14)
$lN = $rows['lN']; // capitalizes the first letter (6-26-14)
$aI = $rows['aI'];
$eml = $rows['eml'];
$pss = $rows['pss'];
$pss2 = $rows['pss2'];
$a_whole_conf="a_whole";
// Insert data that retrieves from "t_awhole" into table "a_whole"
$sql_conf2="INSERT INTO $a_whole_conf(fN, lN, aI, eml, pss, admin)
VALUES ($fN, $lN, $aI, $eml, $pss, $admin)";
$result_conf2=mysql_query($sql_conf2);
}
// if not found passkey, display message "Wrong Confirmation code"
else {
echo "Wrong Confirmation code";
}
// if successfully moved data from table"t_awhole" to table "a_whole" displays message "Your account has been activated" and don't forget to delete confirmation code from table "t_awhole"
if($result_conf2){
echo "Your account has been activated";
// Delete information of this user from table "t_awholeb" that has this passkey
$sql_conf3="DELETE FROM $t_awhole_conf WHERE confirm_code = '$pk'";
$result_conf3=mysql_query($sql_conf3);
}
}
?>

Answer 1

In your Registration form code, you have two lines that create the connection to the database (new PDO ...). You can further use $conn to execute statements.
In your Confirmation code, you don't create any connection before calling mysql_query (why the switch from PDO to mysql functions ?).
See the mysql_query documentation here.