Creating & Detecting Membership Accounts

[itledi]

I'm working on a website that will have user accounts. This is new territory for me.

I understand I need to create a account information database that holds account information like usernames and passwords. However, what I'm concerned about right now is how do something as simple as coding a page that detects when the user has signed in? For example, something as simple as the header bar will need to change from "sign in" to "sign out", depending on the user's status.

I'm coding in a Apache/PHP/MySQL environment if that's relevant. Also, does anybody know of any good sites that cover issues such as creating user accounts? I haven't been able to find one.

[Habtom]

"sign in" to "sign out"

Look into SESSIONS [php.net] or COOKIES [php.net]

This thread might be of a little help as well: How do I set up user accounts? [webmasterworld.com]