Public vs. Private Pages

Hey all, I'm extremely confused about something and I thought you guys could help me out. On my website (http://www.ventureteams.com), I have a navbar that is common to all pages. There are some links on the navbar, however, that I only put there to encourage users to register, while only logged in users can really USE. Like, "Meet Up" or "Create"....public users can click on those links and go to pages that show the FEATURES of each section [so it is essentially there to advertise whats inside]. Once a user actually signs up and logs in, these features will be in their log-in dashboard (a separate segment that they will be redirected to once they log in.). So essentially, the Meet Up and Create pages are like advertisement pages for public users. The problem arises, however, when a user visits the LEARN section because this is available to both free and registered users. If someone logs in, and then from their log-in dashboard deicdes to visit the learn section, they will re-enter the PUBLIC part of the site and the Meet Up and Create links will be the PUBLIC pages once again, even though they have logged in. Is there a way that a webpage can "check" the user and then display or enable content on the page based on that? I know I can do something with PHP, but I dont want to re-do all my pages! If i could just insert a snippet of code that could check the user's log-in status, then redirect them to an appropriate page. So if the REGISTERED user clicks on the learn link to re-enter the public part of the site, and then clicks on Meet up, it would take them back to their DASHBOARD and not the public page. I HOPE THAT MADE SENSE! ANY and all help/guidance would be appreciated.

There are a numerous amount of ways that you can do this. Being that I am lazy and at work I barely looked over your site/post so im not sure exactally what you are using to code your site. You said not php so thats good.

If you happen to be using asp.net this is very simple, is so just goto http://www.asp.net/learn/videos/default.aspx?tabid=63 and watch the videos (there are a few similiar ones) on customer login/portals and role management.

Basically you can put all the secure pages for logged in users into a folder and if a user is not logged in the site will not display any link to or info(pages) contained in that folder

Thanks for the response and the site keyboard cowboy! I just wanted to get this straight: so all my "secure" pages, go into a folder for logged in users only. Now what if that logged in user goes back to un-secured or public pages via a link on a secured page. (Such as a publicly accessible knowledge resource section). The NAVBAR that they will see in those public pages will contain links that all point to public pages...making them like a regular user again; whereas I want the navbar to detect that the user is registered and when they click on a link that would normally be public, it would redirect them to the REGISTERED version of that page. The ASP.net video just finished downloading, so I'll watch it and come back but if u have any thoughts on this, let me know. Thanks for your help.

2 words: php sessions.

Yeah the above guy is right although it is a bit more complicated then just PHP sessions...hehe.

In order to create a user registration system you will need to have a solid understanding of PHP & MySQL. Also it would need to be somewhat secure. Ummm, you use php sessions to develop...well sessions for the user. I would recommend starting by taking a look at w3schools.com.

Good Luck!