making a login that will direct to a file/url based on unique id

[vwgn]

This may be the wrong forum, and I apologize if so.... I have a flash website for my photography business and I would like to make a link I have to "Client Photos" redirect to a specific clients files/folder with thier unique id and/or password. Currently I send them to another URL alltogether where I have my shopping cart set up and hosted, but they see a long list of folders/thumbnails and have to click on thiers then enter a password. This is set up thru zenfolio so I didnt have to do any coding for the password. I already have the link on my flash site, I am just wondering if someone can point me to a good tutorial on php/mysql (i assume this is the best method as a database will be required) that addresses this without having to spend 6 months becoming a php expert first. I am pretty familiar with dreamweaver CS3 and have built dozens of html/css static sites, some javascript stuff, but this level of interactivity is all new to me.

Basically this is the flow needed:

1. Client clicks link on flash site, and is taken to a login page (would like to use an xhtml/css page for this instead of flash because many clients use iphones, so i can give them all the same url to login page also, bypassing flash site they cant see if on a mobile device)

2.this page will be styled like my site so its seamless looking and will have two form fields so client can enter thier last name as a login and a password I assign

3. when this data is entered the database (i assume) will have a url stored that is a gallery of thier images and open this in a new browser tab/ window

I am a complete newb at this sort of thing and want to learn instead of just being handed code, so ANY help is greatly appreciated. Most photographers websites I see have a feature like this so I assume its not an uncommon thing, however when I ask other photographer friends how they did it, none of them have a clue because they paid someone else to build thier site or it was already included in a template...

[David_Powers]

You're in the right forum now. I have moved this thread to the Dreamweaver Application Development forum, which deals with PHP/MySQL and other server-side issues.

What you want to achieve is relatively simple with Dreamweaver's User Authentication server behaviors. The Dreamweaver help files have a section on Building a login page. There's also a tutorial in the Adobe Developer Connection on setting up a PHP testing environment.

Out of the box, the Dreamweaver login system sends everyone to the same page, but it's relatively easy to tweak the code to send people to individual pages. You can ask here for more help once you've got the basic system set up. You might also find my book "The Essential Guide to Dreamweaver CS4 with CSS, Ajax, and PHP" smooths out a lot of the process for you. It has a complete chapter on building a user login system, including the database end. It also shows how to redirect users to individual pages.

[Mylenium]

Why not simply install a multi-user enabled CMS like Joomla or even a blog software like Wordpress? It sure is possible to do that all manually, but honestly with "proper" software available for free, I wouldn't bother. Too many things that can go wrong with functionality and security. Installing and configuring takes 5 minutes... the biggest hurdle is configuring and sytyling it, but since you know HTML well enough, you should be able to deal with CSS formatting or at least pick a template/ skin that suits your needs and modify it...

Mylenium