A form timer in php

Question

I want a form to be submitted atleast 15 seconds after the page has loaded (because thats how long it takes on average for the form to be filled in).

I know I can do something like $time_page_loaded = time() at the top;

if (time() < $time_page_loaded + 15)
{
  // show reCaptcha
}
else
{
  // submit to database
}

Is this correct? Also when you re-factor this into a function how would you make it?

Answer 1

you would be able to use cookies for this bit as this is a security measure i would advise you use sessions.

sessions is a way to store small amounts of content within a file on your server that is only valid with a cookie hash.

at the very beginning of your script you need to put the following command:

<?php
session_start();

When the page loads you can assign a timestamps to the session, and upon submission you can calculate the time taken with the above:

if (time() < $_SESSION["time_page_loaded"] + 15)
{
    // Captcha
}