Question

I am posting this as I am unsure the exact technology and approach to investigates further.

I wish to build a simple website:

1) User logs in with username and password.

2) User saves simple page that contains inputs taken from a form they have filled in.

3) User logs out, but all data is kept on server.

4) User logs in again and can see everything stored against their account.

This must be really simple but without much development knowledge I am a little stuck on where to go next.

I know a little bit of the following – HTML/CSS/Javascript/PHP/MySQL

Therefore I was thinking of this approach:

1) User account based off php/mysql script.

2) User inputs into simple page via html/php forms. Added javascript for effect.

3) All form inputs recorded in mysql database.

On the mysql database – how should this be structured?

1) User Account Table:
Username | Email | Last_Login

2) Simple Form Table:
Username | Form_Field1 | Form_Field2 | Form….

Is there a better way to store individual user information – all in one table or an individual table per user?

As coding is not my strength, are there prepacked scripts etc that I can leverage. I was looking at combining an available back end with a Twitter Boostrap front end.

Answer 1

Yes, there is a more efficient way of storing that data;

Your users have to have the following columns:

• id – an integer with an AUTO_INCREMENT option checked, PRIMARY_KEY – unique id of the user
• username
• email
• password
• last_login

Your forms table should be structured like this:

• id – an integer with an AUTO_INCREMENT option checked, PRIMARY_KEY – unique id of the recored
• user_id – Id of the user who filled/posted the form
• field1
• field2