User Create Accounts - How to??

[nomad0231]

I am about to build my 4th website but this one is different. I want users to be able to create an account and submit information as well as pay for the services. How do I do this? I just need help with the account creation portion, not the commerce side. ANy help?? Thanks!

[1849]

I would do this using PHP and MySQL database on the back end. Create a customer table called Accounts in the DB and define your fields. For customers to login you will want a username field and a password field. If you are going to track if they are paid then you will want to also add an account status field with the following fixed values:

Trial
Paid
Suspended
Cancelled

If you want to offer a 14 day free trial then add an TrialEnd date field and have your code check it every time they login if their status does not equal 'Paid'.

So that's how you handle the account creation part of the website. Depending on what other data items you need to capture, you can add those as field items to your Accounts table.

On the commerce side make sure your website has a dedicated IP address because you will need that for your SSL Certificate if you're going to have an e-commerce site. The dedicated IP and the SSL Cert will be added costs for you.

RalphF
http://www.1849webhosting.com