oracular (3) User::Simple.3pm.gz

Provided by: libuser-simple-perl_1.45-3_all bug

NAME

       User::Simple - Simple user sessions management

SYNOPSIS

         $usr = User::Simple->new(db => $db,
                                  [tbl => $user_table],
                                  [durat => $duration],
                                  [debug => $debug]);

         $ok = $usr->ck_session($session);
         $ok = $usr->ck_login($login, $passwd, [$no_sess]);
         $ok = $usr->set_passwd($new_pass);
         $usr->end_session;

         $id = $usr->id;
         $session = $usr->session;

         $otherattrib = $user->otherattrib
         $ok = $user->set_otherattrib($value);

DESCRIPTION

       User::Simple provides a very simple framework for validating users, managing their sessions and storing a
       minimal set of information (this is, a meaningful user login/password pair, and privilege level) via a
       database, while providing a transparent way to access any other attributes you might define. The sessions
       can be used as identifiers for i.e. cookies on a Web system. The passwords are stored as MD5 hashes (this
       means, the password is never stored in clear text).

       User::Simple was originally developed with a PostgreSQL database in mind, but should work with any real
       DBMS. Sadly, this rules out DBD::CSV, DBD::XBase, DBD::Excel and many other implementations based on
       SQL::Statement - The user table requires the driver to implement primary keys and NOT NULL/UNIQUE
       constraints.

       The functionality is split into two modules, User::Simple and User::Simple::Admin. This module provides
       the functionality your system will need for any interaction started by the user - Authentication, session
       management, querying the user's data, changing the password and changing any attributes you define not
       beginning with "adm_". Note that you cannot directly modify a user's login, session or session expiry
       from within this module - Just as a general principle, avoid changing logins. If you absolutely must, use
       User::Simple::Admin instead ;-)

   CONSTRUCTOR
       In order to create a User::Simple object, call the new argument with an active DBI (database connection)
       object as its only argument:

         $usr = User::Simple->new(db => $db, [tbl => $table], [durat => $duration],
                                  [debug => $debug]);

       Of course, the database must have the right structure in it - please check User::Simple::Admin for more
       information.

       The "tbl" parameter is the name of the table where the user information is stored. If not specified, it
       defaults to 'user_simple'.

       "durat" is the number of minutes a user's session should last. Its default is of 30 minutes.

       "debug" is the verbosity level of the debugging messages - The default is 2, it accepts integers between
       0 and 5 (higher means more messages). Messages of high relevance (i.e. the database failing to reflect
       any changes we request it to make) are shown if debug is >= 1, regular failure messages are shown if
       debug >= 3, absolutely everything is shown if debug == 5. Be warned that when debug is set to 5,
       information such as cleartext passwords will be logged as well!

   SESSION CREATION/DELETION
       Once the object is created, we can ask it to verify that a given user is valid, either by checking
       against a session string or against a login/password pair:

         $ok = $usr->ck_session($session);
         $ok = $usr->ck_login($login, $passwd, [$no_sess]);

       The optional $no_sess argument should be used if we do not want to modify the current session (or to
       create a new session), we want only to verify the password matches (i.e. when asking for the current
       password as a confirmation in order to change a user's password). It will almost always be left false.

       To end a session:

         $ok = $usr->end_session;

       To verify whether we have successfully validated a user:

         $ok = $usr->is_valid;

   QUERYING THE CURRENT USER'S DATA
       To check the user's core attributes (login and ID):

         $login = $usr->login;
         $id = $usr->id;

       You might add extra columns to the User::Simple table in your database - You will still be able to query
       for them in the same way:

         $otherattrib = $user->otherattrib;

       i.e.:

         $name = $user->name
         $login = $usr->login;

       Note that 'name' and 'level' were core attributes until User::Simple version 1.0 - In order to keep
       User::Simple as simple and extensible as possible, they became extended attributes. You should not have
       to modify your code using "User::Simple" anyway, as changes are transparent. Some minor API changes do
       happen in "User::Simple::Admin", though.

       Extended attributes are not checked in any way by User::Simple, they are just stored in the database just
       as they are received - Some DBDs might not even verify they are of the correct data type. As always, if
       you want to ensure consistence, use a real RDBMS.

       Of course, beware: if the field does not exist, User::Simple will raise an error and die just as if an
       unknown method had been called.

       To change the user's password:

         $ok = $usr->set_passwd($new_pass);

       Note that an empty password will not be accepted.

       To change any attribute defined by you and not labeled as for administrative use (this is, its name does
       not start with "adm_"):

         $ok = $usr->set_otherattrib($new_value);

DEPENDS ON

       Date::Calc

       Digest::MD5

       DBI (and a suitable DBD backend)

SEE ALSO

       User::Simple::Admin for administrative routines

AUTHOR

       Gunnar Wolf <gwolf@gwolf.org>

       Copyright 2005-2009 Gunnar Wolf / Instituto de Investigaciones Economicas UNAM

       This module is Free Software; it can be redistributed under the same terms as Perl.