I've got another question...again

Hi fourtone87,
It seems like the features you are requesting basically indicate that you'd like to use a message board. vbulletin (vbulletin.com) makes a very high quality board, but you do have to pay for a license. A good free board can be found at phpbb.com

Good luck!

Brian

do a search for YaBB, its a very easy board to set up and run.

but if ur weren't thinking of that , perhaps some sort of phpnuke site?

I will give a breif overview of the process.

First off that are MANY method and ways of doing it. I will be as general as I can about it.

A login is simply a normal web form that is submitted. Via a scripting language you process this form for comparision against a data file (could be and most times is a Data Base Table) and the user information in it compared to the subitted data. If you match a set series of data (usually the username and encrypted password) you would allow them to view, post, or modify something.

Now Im sure you wondering then why it is not required that every action needs this form. Had it not been for things like cookies and the newer Sessions it would be required that this login take place for ever user action. However not once you log in, a cookie or session can be set to store the user information and if they logged in temporaryly. Upon every action you can then have a function or method in a class that will check this data to be correct every time.

Thats the login part. A Profile is just taking this and adding to it, like email, home address etc.

In order to edit it, a person should login , and then be shown a form with the current data you have allowing them to change it and submit it for storage.