Building a Client Area

[mordie]

I want to build a Client Area page on my site where clients will log in with unique usernames and passwords. Each client will then be taken to his or her own directory/page where they can see their projects in progress, download images, etc.

I am hosted by 1&1.com where I have a Linux BusinessPro package with a MySQL database (100 MB) and php, CGI, and Perl support.

Is there a prepackaged solution for me or at least very clear instructions on how to set up a script to build the Client Area page/capability that I'm looking for?

[kodaks]

Each client will then be taken to his or her own directory/page where they can see their projects in progress, download images, etc.

Could you please be a bit more specific? Do you want some program to act as a file host, or something else?

[mordie]

I'm actually not sure what you mean by file host. I simply want to create a page on my site called clients.html which will show a simply two-field form (for username and password).

Each client will go to that page, fill in his or her username and password, and be taken to his or her unique directory or page (better it should be a directory).

There, the client will be able to view my work in progress on their behalf, download images, and then be able to comment to me via e-mail.

So, technically speaking, I don't know how to do this but I want to learn. Is it via a php script, a Perl script, or something else?

[jatar_k]

you can use php or perl and then store the usernames and passwords in mysql

when they fill in the login form and hit submit, your script can then grab their client_id. The clients page can then use that id to gather all pertinent info for that client and display it for them.

I think if your options are p[erl and php you could go with php as the learning curve might be a little less steep.

there are lots of threads in the PHP Library [webmasterworld.com] about user authentication and retrieving data from mysql among other things.

Since you are going to use a single page it shouldn't be too bad.

[kodaks]

You may also want to look under Hotscripts for User Authentication. For PHP:
[hotscripts.com...]