login methods

[catfish]

I have a client who wants to have a members only section on the website which contains letter/policy templates for their use but only after they pay for their membership. He wants to use paypal to receive the payments. I'm wondering what the best (and easiest ) way is to do this. ie; he'll obviously need to get notification that someone has paid and then he will need to give them access with a username and password. Thanks. I am limited with my PHP still but have started learning it. (slow going)

[falkencreative]

I'd probably start by doing the PayPal Shopping Cart tutorial (http://killerphp.com/tutorials/shopping-cart-tutorial/ -- or at least the PayPal section of it, though if you don't know much PHP doing the whole thing would be helpful) That should teach you how to work with PayPal and accept payments.

 

You will obviously need to build at least a basic login/authentication system that allows users to log in. I cover the basics of that in a couple part series I did on creating a PHP login system (http://www.killersites.com/university/ -- under PHP > Misc PHP Videos). I'm not sure if Stefan has plans to release that series as a video series independent from a University subscription, but you can always email him directly and ask about it if you don't have a University subscription.

 

You could use PHP to automatically create a username/password combination for the user after they pay (or request that info from them after they pay) and then redirect them to the login or even automatically log them into the password protected area.

[catfish]

Thanks for your reply, it's been awhile but I am still working on this. I was very happy with how I made out after doing some tutorials etc. What I have now is that after the person pays for the membership with Paypal they are directed to the registration page. They fill out the fields which enter them into the database and then allows them to login to the members only section. I was happy with this but now my client wants to add more fields to the registration form. This isn't really a big deal besides more work for me but I'm not sure how to go about making it so that the form not only submits to the database but at the same time sends the form as an email with the information to my client to let him know that there is a new registrant in the database.(remember I am a php newbie!)

[krillz]

wouldn't using clickbank be the best option for you in this case, have links to the templates and after payment they are unlocked.

You get the dynamical built download links as well, which will spare you the hassle of coding this yourself which is necessary to prevent the event of one pays and spreads you download location to everyone.

[catfish]

I don't know what clickbank is...