Pop up functionality upon login

[adamaas]

I have a problem to code a functionality in coldfusion.

When I have to log in, there is a pop up that will appear from the first connection. After I login another day or time, the pop up should not appear.

In the database, I store no data about session and log.

My question is what and how do I do to make the pop up appears on the first connection?

Thanks in advance for your answer.

[Owainnorth]

Have the site create a cookie on first visit, then wrap the popup JS in a cfif which tests for the cookie.

[adamaas]

Thanks for your quick reply.

Am newbie in coldfusion, could you give me an example how to do it ? I mean in terms of code.

What iff a person disable cookies on his browser ?

Is there any other solutions apart from using cookies ?

[parkerst]

Firstly, setting the cookie.

<cfcookie name="beenBefore" expires="never" value="true" />

http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=Tags_c_12.html

This documentation will help you configure your cookie to your liking.

getting the cookie

<cfif NOT isDefined('BeenBefore') OR NOT isBoolean(cookie.beenBefore) OR NOT cookie.beenBefore>

     <script> /* Put your popup code here */ </script>

</cfif>

Now as for other options, the only one I can think of off the top of my head is to log the IP address of all visitors into your database and show a popup if the IP is new.

[adamaas]

Thanks parkest for the tutorial and your answer.

Well if a person disable his cookies or each time he close his browser and clear its cookies, the pop up will appear again next time he logins.

Actually, a pop up will appear on his first login after 2 weeks. If he logins again in this 2 weeks, he should be able to have the pop up only once. So, I think cookies is not appropriate to be used here.

I am thinking of using a UUID and put conditions on it. The problem is that I don't know whether the UUID change each time a user login or not. Can anybody help me and advise me whether or not this is a good solution to my problem ?

Thanks in advance.

[parkerst]

If you're having the user authenticate before you are displaying the popup then there is a real nobrainer here, deposit the last popup date on the user table as a column then at login, check if that last popup date is x weeks old and display the popup if needed.

Do you need some assistance with the code on that too?

[adamaas]

Ok.

Well i have understood what u say but i would like to have some assistance of how to code it?

Thanks

[parkerst]

what sort of authentication are you using? cflogin or are you writing your own?

[adamaas]

No cflogin. Authentication was developed by my colleague and it's one of his own.

[parkerst · Accepted solution]

This code should get you going. It's not tested, i wrote i off the top of my head, so let me know if you have any issues which you are unable to resolve.

I would suggest, in order to maintain clean code, move a lot of this into some sort of user management cfc then just invoke User.popupStatus()..etc..

all a matter of taste really.

-------- Set the following application Variables in your application.cfc ------

<cfscript>

     //This will save you setting these variables over and over on every request (so long as your application.cfc is written correctly and this is inside onApplicationStart()

     application.loginPopup = structNew();

     //this means weeks, check here for more info on unit info: http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=functions_c-d_28.html

     application.loginPopup.repeatUnit = "ww";

     application.loginPopup.repeatFrequency = 2; //2 of Unit

</cfscript>

-------- Insert this where ever you want the popup in your post-login page -----

<!--- Replace with what ever your login detection code is etc --->

<cfif IsLoggedIn()>

     <!--- Consider moving this to User.cfc (or DAO of sorts) -> getLastPopupDate( Number userId ); --->

     <cfquery name="userCheck" datasource="dsn">

          SELECT lastPopupDate

          FROM tblUser

          WHERE userid = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#session.userId#" />

     </cfquery>

     <!--- DateDiff documentation here http://livedocs.adobe.com/coldfusion/8/htmldocs/help.html?content=functions_c-d_28.html --->

     <cfif DateDiff( application.loginPopup.repeatUnit, checkUser.lastPopupDate, Now() ) GTE application.loginPopup.repeatFrequency>

          <script type="text/javascript">

               //Your popup code here

          </script>

          <!--- Change getdate to what ever native date function your DBMS uses, or use a coldfusion param, doesn't really matter --->

          <!--- Consider moving this to User.cfc (or DAO of sorts) -> setLastPopupDate( Number userId, DateTime lastDisplayed = Now() ); --->

          <cfquery datasource="dsn">

               UPDATE tblUser

               SET lastPopupDate = getDate()

               WHERE userid = <cfqueryparam cfsqltype="cf_sql_integer" value="#session.userId#" />

          </cfquery>

     </cfif>

</cfif>

Message was edited by: parkerst Adjusted for lack of CfLogin

[adamaas]

Ok thanks.

I'll try it and let u know if it's good or not.

[adamaas]

It's good thank u....

Actually I had not taken all ur sample code but only part of it and apply some logic, then it works.

Thank you very much for ur help.