Auto-login on forums

How does auto-login on web forum works? I have a forum of my own,
created from scratch, and now I want to implement option that alows
users to be logged in automaticly every time they open my forum, and
also option "messages created after your last visit". I have tryed with
sessions, but it doesn't working properly.

So, can anyone tell me how should i do that(or where can i read
something about that)?

Cookies!

mfmilan@gmail.com wrote:

> How does auto-login on web forum works? I have a forum of my own,
> created from scratch, and now I want to implement option that alows
> users to be logged in automaticly every time they open my forum, and
> also option "messages created after your last visit". I have tryed with
> sessions, but it doesn't working properly.
>
> So, can anyone tell me how should i do that(or where can i read
> something about that)?

Thank you for this big & full of explanations answer! :)

Really, i know that cookies is the solution, but how? (Session also
works with cookies, btw). But how to know when some user left the
forum? I need this, because i must know when he left, so i could tell
him what he missed while wasn't on the forum. And how to implement this
for every thread?

*<mfmilan@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thank you for this big & full of explanations answer! :)
>
> Really, i know that cookies is the solution, but how? (Session also
> works with cookies, btw). But how to know when some user left the
> forum? I need this, because i must know when he left, so i could tell
> him what he missed while wasn't on the forum. And how to implement this
> for every thread?


RTFM:

http://no2.php.net/manual/en/function.setcookie.php


--
Thomas

SELECT date FROM wife WHERE bitching = '0' AND sex = '1'

>Really, i know that cookies is the solution, but how? (Session also
>works with cookies, btw). But how to know when some user left the
>forum?

The time of the last page access BEFORE the user comes back to the
login page is your best guess as to when the user left. (Your
logins do time out and not last forever, right?)

>I need this, because i must know when he left, so i could tell
>him what he missed while wasn't on the forum. And how to implement this
>for every thread?

You can't store this information in a session, or a cookie. (The
user may have different computers at, say, home and work, and access
the forum from both.) You need a database with records for each
individual user.

Gordon L. Burditt