1. Web Programming Assignment #3: Admin, Moderator and User Functions Old Dominion University Department of Computer Science CS 418/518 Fall 2008 Michael L. Nelson

2. Requirements - Users “Registration” function for new users –use a 2 step procedure to reduce illegitimate registrations: 1. a person requests an account on your BBS 2. you send them an email with the necessary information to complete the registration (typically a confirmation link with a 1-time key used to verify that particular registration request) “Forgot password?” function to email password reminders (or password reset) to existing users At registration, users can specify if they want to recv: text/html email text/plain email both

3. Requirements - Users Users can edit their own posts –(leave some indicator that the post was edited) e.g. “this post edited on 2006-10-12T23:20:11 by mln” Users have a “remember me?” option when logging in –example: http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/ –server will send a session cookie to the client so the user will automatically be logged in if they return to the BBS in, say, 5 minutes (a real value would be longer) Explicit “log out” function that terminates the current session & the “remember me” cookie from the above requirement

4. Requirements - Users Keep track of user stats: –number of posts –date of last post –date joined –“ranking” e.g.: “newbie, user, veteran, no life” or “walk-on, travel squad, 2 deep, starter” or “pinto, mustang, fairlane, galaxie”… make up your own values & formula Users can upload avatars during registration –example: http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=6465 http://www.lateral-g.net/forums/showthread.php4?t=6465 some users have avatars, some don’t Avatars & “levels” are displayed when users read posts

5. Requirements - Admins & Moderators Administrator should have an “overview” of all registered users, summarizing their activities Administrators and Moderator functions: –“freeze” entire threads (no more replies, but not deleted) –edit & delete message (leave some indicator that the message was edited or deleted) check for race conditions: e.g. a mesg being deleted after a user has begun the reply process but before they hit “submit” –“suspend” & “unsuspend” suspend = no messages until suspension is lifted send email re: action to the user in all cases Administrator only functions (in addition to those introduced in A2): –delete users (also send email informing why)

6. baseURL for Submission http://mln-web.cs.odu.edu/~username/assignment3/ These URLs will be valid for all students –If you are in a group, only 1 URL will have the actual PHP –The “other” URL will auto-redirect to the “right” URL

7. Recommendations Debug within your group first, then ask for other groups to help debug your operations Your status report the week before is for the benefit of your peers more than for me… –status report is not optional

8. Grading There will be an in-class demo Vijetha will assign 20 points based on a detailed examination after the class –Do not edit the files after mid-night! Each student will grade the aesthetic appearance of the other groups’ BBSs by emailing Vijetha (and cc’ing me) a score of 0-3; each group will recv the average value (rounded up) –subject = “CS 418/518 A3 Appearance Grades” –If you do not send your grades in within 24 hours, you will lose 3 points from your assignment Grades should be available before the next class