About using password authentications and form submissions

[johnofthemount]

Hello All,

I am about to inherit a website that I must update, maintain, and revamp not necessarily in that order. We have several sections of this website that users submit forms, have the ability to change the data, and are able to search the archived data of previously submitted forms. One section only displays certain parts of the submitted forms and another, behind a password protected area, displays all information submitted on the form.

The current setup we have works, but only just. We are looking to find better ways to implement the results through simpler means than we have.

here are my issues that I would like help on:
1) Best way to store the data on the website (ex. database, etc.) so it can be searched, archived, and edited.
2) I need a way to, when editing the submitted data, edit only a portion of the form. (When editing in the current set-up, the user must submit all data again and cannot only edit a certain section of the form.
3) Any suggestions on ways to create password protected sections of a site to allow a person to login, but not have to do so every time they enter a different page in the protected part of the site?

Thanks in advance for any help!

[flabbyrabbit]

1) I would suggest looking into MySQL this will have everything you need.
2) MySQL allows you to set up tables, and in these tables you have different fields (e.g. name, address, age) so you will be able just edit a single field and update the table.
3) For MySQL to work you need to use PHP, PHP is a server-side script that will allow you to create login boxes etc. To enable a user to not have to login on every page I would say to look at "sessions" this allows you to save information on a persons computer for the length of time the browser is open. So if you save their details your script can check to see if they are logged in and not have enter their username and password again.

Hope this helps, anything other help you need just ask,
Flabby Rabbit