What is the best practice for sending activation links via email and handling user activation in PHP?

When sending activation links via email and handling user activation in PHP, it is best practice to generate a unique activation token for each user, store it in the database along with the user's information, and include this token in the activation link sent to the user's email. Upon clicking the activation link, the token should be validated against the database to activate the user account. 

// Generate a unique activation token
$activation_token = md5(uniqid(rand(), true));

// Store the token in the database along with user information
// Assuming $user_email and $user_password are already set
$query = "INSERT INTO users (email, password, activation_token) VALUES ('$user_email', '$user_password', '$activation_token')";
// Execute the query

// Send activation email with activation link
$activation_link = "http://yourwebsite.com/activate.php?token=$activation_token";
$mail_body = "Click the following link to activate your account: $activation_link";
mail($user_email, "Account Activation", $mail_body);

// In activate.php, validate the token and activate the user account
$token = $_GET['token'];
$query = "SELECT * FROM users WHERE activation_token = '$token'";
// Execute the query and activate the user account

Keywords

email activation user activation PHP activation links handling

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