Hey Guys,
Due to your extraordinary support, i was able to build a login system with sessions.
Now i want to create a a user dashboard after the user has verified himself. I am good at HTMl, CSS and Javascript and wanted to know if I should go ahead and create the dashboard using them. Or should I use PHP (i am not too good at it).
Are there any security risks of creating it using HTML? Or is there a software which I can buy that would do the trick for me?
Thanks.
Sarthak
I think you should go and buy a book on PHP. You'll need it to develop a dashboard if you want it to do anything useful. It doesn't sound like you have any idea where to start at the moment, and there's only so far you can get by asking SO to write your site for you.
Usually, web software is built using php and HTML and CSS and JavaScript. In most cases, you will want to read information(like interesting posts, status of tasks, etc.) in php (usually from a database), mark it up with HTML and CSS, and then add additional features using JavaScript. If you only use HTML, you'll have to show every user the same dashboard, and that sort of defeats the purpose of a dashboard, doesn't it?
I'd suggest you either hire a programmer or look for a commercial/open-source solution for your whole problem. Oh, and don't worry about security too much. Not that you shouldn't worry about it, but understanding how stuff works and why a certain class of bad code opens a vulnerability should be your priority.
You're sort of saying this:
I was able to build a bicycle.
Now I want to build a motorcycle. I am good at wheels, speeders and brakes. Should I use bolts to tie them together or not? (I'm not very good with a screwdriver).
Jokes aside:
PHP: Server side language. Serves to control the logic of your aplication. Query the database and show the client what the client is suposed to see.
HTML: Client side. Is the markup that formats what the client sees. Generally PHP will know what the client want and show him the propper HTML.
CSS: Client side styling. Serves to give pretty styles to your HTML markup.
Go take a look at this thread. It is an extremely valuable resource.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/194812/list-of-freely-available-programming-books
Read a little, learn a little, try a few things out. If you get stuck with anything you don't understand, post it here.
Before going forward I suggest you to first study the difference between server side languages and client side languages.
After standing the difference look at this article: