I am clueless when it comes to coding. However, I have a site that is designed in Photoshop. I want to add a site search to my site, and a members area feature, where a user registers, makes a payment, is redirected back to the sign up page, and then can create a member name, email, etc and gain access to a members only area. I noticed most site logins are done through a .aspx thing? - no idea what that is. How do I create this for my site, can it be done through photoshop, is there any program I can use that will make this script installation easy? All I know is that I have linux hosting if that helps. Please help with my search feature and members only area! Also another quick question. My site is not a blog, but I write articles often. Would Joomla be useful for me since it automatically archives these articles on the site, or am I better off managing this info myself?
Well if you have linux(apache server) you will need .php,not .aspx-that is for IIS servers(which are running on Windows) Well Joomla is a very powerful content management system and will help you a lot.I prefer Joomla instated of others CMS because once you have learn to deal with it,you can make whatever site you want.
thanks. are there any php programs out there that I can upload to my site then just install the script? What do you mean you can build whatever site you want once you learn Joomla? What other features can it provide, and is it hard to learn?
My experience has been that Joomla's a pain in the neck to use, with a high learning curve to boot. I'd recommend WordPress (it's really a content management system, but it's geared towards bloggers; thankfully with a little work it can shine as a real CMS), but you said you don't have any coding experience (most of what you'll need is HTML/CSS), and as much as I hate to say it, most of the WordPress themes are steaming piles of junk code-wise (I'm working on a free WordPress "master theme" that will help solve that problem). As for search engines and other features, you're going to need a server-side programming language and a relational database management system for that (or an off-the-shelf CMS). Do you have any HTML/CSS knowledge, or if not, are you willing to learn (it's pretty easy) by any chance?
i would use Joomla , it might seem a little complicated at first but after playing around with it you'll learn it all. and you can upload Joomla to your stie and install it!joomla doesn't have all you wanted in just 1 package you'll have to search for extensions on joomla site(joomla.org) and find you want. and install those to your site! if your host has Cpanel there is a section called fantastico you can install joomla from there with just a few clicks!
i thoguht joomla was just a script that can give me features i want like polls, site seach, etc. But i already have my new design for the site so I don't want to use joomla. What I need is a php script that lets me customize my registration field, redirects to paypal, upon payment, redirects back to my site where they can confirm there registration, then start accessing member features. I also need a site search script
If you can't build it yourself and don't want to use a CMS, I'm sure you'll find what you want here: http://www.hotscripts.com/