password protected sub-directory help

[autumn]

I am needing to set up a password-entry side of a website i am designing for a non-profit association. We have about 200 members, and the "members only" side will have a mix of non-public articles (static pages), a member directory (presumably based on a database), a simple forum, and a simple buy/sell/trade feature. This group does not need to be highly interactive, and they should not need to access their data very often if at all.
We don't need a shopping cart, or a community-type thing.

The main purpose is to have a non-public place to access articles, newsletters, updates, calendar, share knowledge, post ads, and contact other members.

It is hosted on Bluehost, so my concerns are:
1) that it be compatible with Bluehost services
2) easy for me to learn how to use (I am experienced in web-design, but not databases - and I use Dreamweaver)
3) hopefully find a template that includes these things, that I can then change the looks of to match, or complement, the public site.

Any ideas???? I know something easy must exist out there, and I'd rather find it than try to build something with my limited knowledge.
thanks - autumn

[felgall]

The simplest option but possibly not the most convenient for you to maintain would be to just password protect a folder on your site and set up all the users and passwords that you need to provide access to that folder. You then put all the private info you want only members o be able to access in that folder.

It can be done with a PHP script (I know because I wrote one that I use on my own site as well as selling). There are security issues there that you need to worry about with the script to ensure that other people can't break into the "protected" pages.

[autumn]

Thanks-
That has been my starting point, but i am concerned that once I go to that trouble, and then try to add in the other features, I may have to change everything - maybe not, but that's where i have too little knowledge.

But - saying I do that - how easy/hard is it to maintain that database, and could it be used also as a directory for the members to access contact info for each other?
~autumn

[felgall]

Password protecting the folder and setting up everyone with their own password would be done through cPanel (in the Security section). That option updates control files on your site rather than using a database and so apart from password protecting the folder you don't get anything else with it.

If you need to do anything else that is member related including providing different access to different types of members then some sort of membership script would make it much easier to maintain.

[autumn]

cPanel - you mean the control panel on Bluehost?
So I could go ahead and set that up - does it allow a unique user Id & pw for each member?

thx, autumn

[autumn]

I just went to the cPanel to look - do you know if more than one of those listings does the same thing? I clicked on the first one, and it asks for a directory to open. Since i am not ready to do that, and it's on another site anyway, I didn't go further. Seems I probably need to add the folder first, eh?

~ thx

[autumn]

Must sign off till tomorrow. Thanks again for your help. We are quite rural here, so I get most of my advice online.
~autumn

[felgall]

You select the folder to be protected and then add the users and passwords that will be allowed to access it. I have http://www.felgall.com/testarea/ password protected that way if you want to see how it looks.

I have been working on a full featured membership site part time over the past three years and expect it will be another two before i have it to the point where I can offer it as a complete solution. Mostly because I have yet to build the add member function and rewrite it to be more generic rather than being specific to the club that I am using it for. The sign-in page for that (so you can see the difference in the way that using a script instead of password protecting a folder looks) can be found at http://www.amra.asn.au/members/

[autumn]

I like the script method, or a small login that stays on our home page, if possible. My hope is that they will be assigned a username/pw based on their own name, that won't need to change.

How complex is that kind of script, and how smart/savvy do i have to be to use it?

thx, autumn

[felgall]

It depends on whether you want to write it yourself (where you'd need a lot of knowledge of PHP and mySQL and security to make it work safely) or get one already written (in which case the amount you'd need to know would depend on how much you needed to alter it to do what you wanted).

[autumn]

Well, of course it would be best for me to have something already written that I could adjust to work with my site. ;)

I have some other lines cast about this, so maybe someone will be able to point me to some scripts or package-sites...
but I do appreciate any help you can be (and already have been).

thx- autumn