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klstephenson77
klstephenson77
Participant
June 25, 2017
Answered

How to build a members only website

  • June 25, 2017
  • 1 reply
  • 696 views

I was recently tasked with updating my groups website and adding a members only area. I have basic HTML knowledge but do not know how to build a database, or the log in page or the other pages to be in the protected area. I have spent all day reading articles and help sites on how to set this up, but they all start beyond my basic HTML knowledge, or the articles are so out of date that the newest version of Dreamweaver does not work in the same way as what the articles say to do. Can anyone help me bridge the gap from basic HTML to building and using a database site?

This topic has been closed for replies.
Correct answer Nancy OShea

We would have 45-50 members with a log in. I do not really know for sure what we have. I was just given the ftp log in info and asked to take a look at it and see if I could do what was wanted.Our site has not been updated in about 10 years!


klstephenson77  wrote

Our site has not been updated in about 10 years!

In that case, ditch the current site.

  1. Install WordPress on the server. 
  2. Choose a responsive Theme.
  3. Add a Member's Only Plugin.

Problems solved.

Nancy

1 reply

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 25, 2017

Building dynamic sites  goes beyond the scope of what a public user forum can teach you.  But do your really need a database site?  Password protected pages can be very basic or very complicated.  It all depends on what you want to do with them. 

If your hosting plan has a C-Panel, you can log-in to that and create a password protected folder on your server.  Then upload all the member's only pages to that folder.   It's nothing fancy.  A bare bones log-in with the same username and password for everyone.  But you could have it set-up in 5 minutes.

If you need more than that, you're going to have to learn server-side programming and SQL.  Ask your host which programming languages & dbs  your hosting plan supports.

Nancy

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
klstephenson77
klstephenson77Author
Participant
June 25, 2017

Thanks, and for what I was asked to do, each user would need a personalized log in so that when they left the group we could easily end their access. All the database would be for is log in information.

Nancy OShea
Community Expert
Nancy OSheaCommunity Expert
Community Expert
June 25, 2017

How many members?

If you have Linux hosting, you could use .htaccess and .htpasswd files.

When the member leaves, you can manually delete them from the htpasswd file.

Password Protection with htaccess - Htaccess Tools

Nancy

Nancy O'Shea— Product User & Community Expert
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