I am trying to build a website that has an area set aside for members only. I envision a form to fill out requesting access with email address, user name and password for entry if accepted. Much like a forum (phpBB). I do need it to be secure as some information in it would be member info and somewhat personal, email addresses and phone numbers. The site is intended as a means of sharing this info with the other members only. I am guessing I would want 2 separate websites, with the protected one in a sub directory to the open one with its own index.html, but how would I work out log-in with some sort of validation? I worry about this info being accessed by someone other than members, I am not really sure how to go about this. Is there an Action for this sort of thing? As you can probably tell by my rant I am pretty new to this and I have thought myself into an infinite loop from which I may never know ground again. Please help.
Thank you so much, I will check out these scripts and post when I have chosen one or more to try. My provider does support PHP My Sql. I am presently running phpBB on their servers so I am a little knowledgeable in that regard. Was my idea of a sub directory to the open site well thought out?
Unlikely - what I meant was that a site structure like that shouldn’t be compulsory.
Your idea has merit in that server side protection of a folder and its contents is relatively easy using a feature called Password Protect Directories. Access to all the contents of a particular folder/directory can be controlled using this feature in your hosting Cpanel.
What this doesn’t give you is a sign up feature. You would have to create user/password combinations for your Members either on an individual or group basis.
If that sort of protection is sufficient it is easy to set up without any scripts at all.