How to Create a Login Form in PHP using Mysql

A PHP and MySQL login form is a typical component in many online projects. It enables users to log in by entering their username and password, which are then compared to a database of user credentials kept in a MySQL database. The process for building a simple login form with PHP and MySQL will be covered in this post.

Step 1: Creating the Database

Making a database to hold user credentials is the first step in establishing a login form in PHP and MySQL. You can use a tool like phpMyAdmin or the MySQL command line interface to create the database. A fundamental user table can be made with the SQL command:

This generates a table called "users" with three columns: an auto-incrementing "id" column, a "username" column for storing usernames, and a "password" column for storing hashed passwords.

Step 2: Making the login form

After the database is setup, we can create the login form. There are normally two input fields on the login form: one for the username and one for the password. Here is a sample HTML login form:

The form's "action" property is set to "login.php," the script that will handle the submission of the login form.

Step 3: completing the login form

A PHP script connects to the MySQL database and processes the user's login form submission by verifying their credentials. A sample login script is provided below:

Step 4: protecting passwords

We hashed passwords in the login script using the password hash() function before putting them in the database. It is difficult for an attacker to deduce the original password from the hash, making this a best practice for password security. We compare the hash of the entered password with the hash kept in the database when a user logs in using the password verify() method.

Step 5: Use of Sessions

We used PHP sessions to keep the ID of the logged-in user in the login script. Since the user cannot alter the server-stored data, this method of storing user data is secure. This ID can be used to access user-specific information from the database, including the user's name, email address, and other specifics.

Step 6: Protecting Against SQL Injection

Sanitizing user input before utilizing it in a database query is crucial to preventing SQL injection attacks. To make sure that user input is correctly sanitized, we utilized a prepared statement with a parameterized query in the login script.

Step 7: Addressing Mistakes

It's critical to gracefully manage mistakes in applications that are used in the real world. We examined the login script for database connection issues and, in the event that one occurred, presented a clear error message for the user. In the event that the login or password was incorrect, we also presented an error message.

Step 8: Logging out

It's crucial to give consumers a mechanism to log out of the application in addition to logging in. This may be accomplished in a PHP application by killing the session and sending the user to the login page. Here is an illustration of a logout script:

Step 9: Strengthen Security

There are other methods for making a login form in PHP and MySQL more secure in addition to the ones mentioned above. Here are a few of these:

Encrypting communication between the server and client using HTTPS

Preventing automated login attempts with CAPTCHAs

implementing two-factor authentication to demand a hardware token or text message as the second authentication method

limiting each user's login attempts to avoid brute force attacks

Finally, a login form written in PHP and MySQL is a key component of many web applications. We can design a secure login form that is resistant to SQL injection attacks by adhering to best practices for protecting passwords, using sessions to store user information, and doing so.