Authorization Question

[eluser]Pascal Kriete[/eluser]
Hey Jesse,

Most of the time you need a those register functions to create users (even if it's just one or two). Passwords shouldn't be stored in plain text, but rather hashed (CI Blog on hashing). The register functions usually handle that for you - you don't need to write an actual frontend to register though.

Essentially how this works:
First add users to the database. All you really need is a username and a hashed version of the password.

Then when they try to log in:
1. Get the database row based on the username.
2. Hash the input password and compare it to that in the row you just grabbed.

If either of those fails - they cannot log in. If it matches - celebrate.

Hope that helps.