HTML codes - new website

[icefire_lioness]

Does anyone know the codes needed to have a "login"? What I mean is, if I have a website that is solely for the purpose of other people posting their own work, (pictures and stories), how do I do this? Im very confused with the whole thing, becuause I know pretty much how to get the rest of the site done with HTML, but trying to work out the login stuff is mind-boggling! also, no-one has ever said anything about it as far as I can see. It is probably too huge a thing to be doing for my first website, but well, this is what I want to do. So, hopefully, someone can help me? PLEASE!!!!

[vinyl-junkie]

For this, you will need to use a scripting language such as PHP, along with a database such a MySQL. You will also need to set a cookie on the user's website to keep track of whether or not they are logged in as they navigate from page to page in the secure area of your site.

Many free scripts like this are available at places like hotscripts and codewalkers. Use the term "authentication" (without the quotes) to search.

[jesse1]

php/sql is the easiest.

I built one for my own membership site using the php tools of Dreamweaver (and I don't even know how to handcode php!)

You may need some extra help for certain aspects like password retrieval via email, but if you can create a database with 3 or 4 fields like email, username, password then you can probably create the site you are looking for.

Outsourcing is always a great option too, but some prebuilt scripts I have found are more complicated than they need to be