How to allow viewers to interact with my site?

Question

i have a website though i want users to have a logon and be able to buy art prints or post things in a forum.

How do I do this?

or in other words really, what form of web language would i use?

I know a good amount in php though even when searching for php in this category, there's nothing.

So yes, help please.

Answer 1

You can download open source PHP shopping carts from a number of site. You will need a MySQL database. However, you will also need a merchant account with a credit card provider, which is tricky. Better to piggy back on another service such as Amazon or eBay as a merchant.

Answer 2

Depends on your server.  If Windows, learn ASP, JSP and the database they provide and pay for it.

If Unix (LAMP), learn Php and MySQL (free).

Download a shopping cart (or write your own) and create an account with PayPal (easy!)

For Log-in, the routine is simple as well.

A form with username and pwd sends data to a php script that verify details form mysql.  If correct, validate the session.