Track user usage, session tracking or cookies?

[marslee]

I want to prevent non-registered users to view a page in my website,
For example, when a non-registered user clicks the history page, the
website site refuses to go there since he is not registered.

what is the best way to do it? And how to identify a user has already
logged in when he click the history page?

[mudge]

I use sessions to manage users once they log in. Here is an article
about managing users with mysql and sessions:
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/use...sessions-mysql

Once a user logs in, declare a session:

session_start();

Declare a session variable saying that the person is logged in:

$_SESSION['login'] = true;

When a user tries to get to a user-only page, check the session
variable to see if the person is a logged-in registered user:

if ($_SESSION['login'] == true)
{
Let user request the page;
}
else
{
Send user to the registration page;
}

Nick Mudge
www.democranet.com

[mudge]

Sessions use cookies anyways usually -- so use sessions.