I am creating an iPhone app which sends a username and password to a php script, the php script then looks in a mySQL database for the values and sets a boolean to either 0 or 1, depending on whether or not the user should be authenticated. I really have no idea where to start or even what I should Google to look into how to do this.
Is this feasible? Is this the proper way to authenticate a user in an iOS app?
Thanks!
There are various types to achieve this.
a) Generate an XML or JSON file in PHP, and read the content back in iOS. (this method gives you the benefit of fetching any extra data if you want).
b) Send back HTTP header() from PHP, and read the HTTP response code. you can do something like this.
function checkLogin()
{
//Check login
if($login == true) {
header('HTTP/1.1 200 OK');
} else {
header('HTTP/1.1 401 Unauthorized');
}
}
c) You can output anything in PHP(plain text, JSON, HTML etc.), as the output generated by PHP will be received as HTTP response.
Anything the PHP script outputs will be returned as the HTTP response. Simply output something meaningful, and read it in the client.
The simplest solution would be to use HTTP status codes. Then you don't even have to care about the response body.
If authenticated: "HTTP 200 OK"
If unauthorized: "HTTP 401 Unauthorized"
Resource: http://www.w3.org/Protocols/rfc2616/rfc2616-sec10.html
You can write a php script like this:
<?php
// the authentication procedures memorized in the $authentication variable the result of authentication process. Supposed to be 1 if successful
echo $authentication;
?>
Call this script from your iOS by using an NSURLRequest object for example.
P.S.: However, for data exchange between the client and the server you should use the JSON format.
