Creating a client area

Hey,

I've been pondering about the web the last few days and noticed quite a few web design sites that ghave a client area for there clients to track the progress of there projects and to liase with the designers.

I would very much like to know how this works and how i can achieve this on my own website. (http://www.tornadodesigns.co.uk/)

I've been trying a few different tutorials but just don;t seem to be getting it to work out with the features i think are necessary.

Any ideas would be greatfully appreciated

Regardsw,
Martin
http://www.tornadodesigns.co.uk

Could you give us some examples of where you've seen it used so that we know what features you're after?

Also - have you considered putting your site in the critique forum? I think it could benefit from some helpful input!

ok i haven't seen it working on sites because i havent; been a client of a web designer. But the features i would like are as follows:

- client can view outstanding balance and a list of things they are paying for.

- Client can see overall status of their project.

- Client can view mockup or prototypes of designs.

- Client can login and logout

- Client can use contact form to contact me.

... And to the second question no i haven't thought about it yet... i do realise my website isn't perfect no site is...

If you have ntoiced anythign please tell me and i will consider putting it in the criteque section once i get this cient area sorted out as i feel it is more important just now...

Regards,
Martin

Are you using any server side scripting and the moment, and if so, what flavour?

yep, i'm using php and mysql to display quotes ont he main page and to extract blog posts from my wordpress blog and fro the contact forms...

Regards,
Martin

- client can view outstanding balance and a list of things they are paying for.
Is this currently stored in the DB?

- Client can see overall status of their project.
- Client can view mockup or prototypes of designs.
Are you wanting this pulled out of somewhere automatically - or will you manually update for each project?

- Client can login and logout
- Client can use contact form to contact me.
You can find simple tutorials on the web for both of these things - I'm sure we can help you find some if you need?

ok basically i will update all the project information manuallyincluding the outstanding balance etc...

All i need is a way of getting the user logged in and automatically directed to there individual page which will be stored into a indivdual folder for each client.

So i will update the info they login get redireced to there page and they view the information.. but it needs to be password protected so ony the client can view it...

Hence the login...

Any Suggestions...

Regards,
Martin

Here's a simple site explaining it - you'll know best the option to fit your project:

http://www.php-mysql-tutorial.com/user-authentication/

ok i have already looked at that tutorial and i have two queries about it:

- there are three files it refers to :

include ('library/config.php');
include ('library/opendb.php');
include ('library/closedb.php');

- How would i get it to redirect the user to there individual page in there individual folder?

Regards,
Martin

aah, interesting...

I've never used PHP for this (sorry - PHP isn't my speciallity!) but I'd send that form data to a page that does a DB look-up and redirects according to the user. Does this sound feasible for you?

is it possible to store the user_dir info where it matches the same row as the password and username is and store is using a php variable such as $user_dir.

then use that in a redirect.??

if so how would i do it??

Regards,
Martin

why would you need to link to their directory - wouldn't you just link to their content page?

yea but ach client would have indicidual directorys to store all there files such as:

http://www.tornadodesigns.co.uk/clients/clientname/

I have a similar setup on my site for my clients/employees to login to. I use this system to task my employees, they then update it as they go and the client can login at any stage and check progress, check billing, log a support ticket and a few other things.

All of this is done with a system called dotproject – an open source project management tool (www.dotproject.net). It’s very good – highly recommend it. I’ve been using it for a couple of years now and have contributed to the code.

thanks, i have installed dorproject on my website before and found a little bit complicated to see how clients could login without having access to admin features and stuff, maybe you could direct me in the right way as to setting up client accounts and such like...

i will install dotproject straight away on to my server and get it setup and configured...

look forward to your reply

regards,
martin

ok i installed dotproject on my website started trying some of the features out and it won't work for me it has features i don't need and hasn't got features i do need...

all i need is a simple sytem were the client can login see any invoices they have outstandng, see the overall progress of there project and view mock designs and prototypes... and be able to either use support tickets or email contact forms to me the designer...

i don't have employees or anything like that so i don't need an elaborate project management system like dotproject...

regards,
martin

dotproject can do all the things you just mentioned. It has an invoice module (which I believe you install seperately), the project module (where clients can check status), you can create a simple module very easily to show mock designs or even use the forum module and support tickets in the tickets module.

All the features you don't want to use can be easily switched off in the admin panel and setting permissions correctly will allow your clients to only see/be able to use what you want them to.

Trust me - it's a very powerful tool and very useful.

ok i set up the dotproject system on website and it works fine your right it is a powerful tool and it does have all the options i need, but i need it to be simple and easy to use for both me and the clients who i would be working for...

Right now i have managed to set up a admin account for me..

and a guest account for a client i'm working for at the moment...

I have added the invoice addon to the system but it seems to come up with an error everytime i go to add the invoice to the project...??

Reagrds,
Martin