Question

Hello my scenario is that on a specific date my user would be able to update data but only limit their update to only 3 times. Here is my code so far.

if(date('m','d' == '04','01')){
     $sql="update tbl_enroll fields,fields,fields where student_id='".$_POST['student_id'] . "'";
     $pow = mysql_query($sql) or die (mysql_error());
}

Any idea on how to limit his update ? Is there something i need to change in my db structure? would appreciate any help.

Answer 1

Add ‘counter’ to tbl_enroll. Something like this:

ALTER tbl_enroll ADD COLUMN counter SMALLINT UNSIGNED NOT NULL;

Then, your code should be something like this:

// check how many times has this user edited:
$sql = 'SELECT counter FROM tbl_enroll WHERE student_id=123';
$pow = mysql_query($sql) or die (mysql_eror());
$pow = mysql_fetch_assoc($pow);

$allowed = true;
if ($pow['counter'] >= 3) $allowed = false;

if (date('m') == '04' && date('d') == '01' && $allowed) { // allow edit only on april 1
    $sql = "UPDATE tbl_enroll SET something='something',other_field='',counter=(counter+1) WHERE student_id=123"; // this is just an example, please focus on "counter=(counter+1)"
    $pow = mysql_query($sql) or die (mysql_error());
}