User base

How would I start coding my user base for my site; I understand I’ll need a registration form but how do I start the process of building a system for users to join my site?

  1. Open text editor.
  2. Add “<?php”
  3. Profit?

In all seriousness, take a look at some of the tutorials on nettuts - http://net.tutsplus.com/tutorials/php/user-membership-with-php/

Step 3 is the killer lol, thanks for the help!

Well, you could write a whole book on this topic, but the basics would include stuff like this:

  • Have a database table which stores your user information.
    – Amongst other things, this user information would need to at least store a username and password.
  • Figure out how you are going to encrypt your passwords (cleartext passwords = bad). At minimum, you should use the SHA encryption. Most systems also use a hash salt for this as well to encrypt it further.
  • A login system.
    – When you log in you need to check if the username and password match what’s stored in the database.
    – If they do match, you want to set some session values so you know you’re logged in.
  • Something that uses it.
    – No point in logging in if there isn’t any reason.
    – You can check the session values to see if they’re logging in, and then proceed accordingly.