Hi there. I am interested in creating a web page to display textual
and other information, but I don't want people to be able to simply
come on to my web site and print out all the info, I want them to keep
coming back. Any ideas about that? I also want the web site to be very
interactive and keep information on my server on each user. For
example, if there are 50 links on the site, every time a particular
user accesses one of them, or inputs some information, etc., I want to
remember for the future,
preferably in the simplest manner (I'm afraid many users may delete or
disable cookies and want the site to be as simple to start using as
possible). I also was thinking along the lines of what JavaScript
allows, loading the whole page so someone can click on the screen and
it appears instantneously and not loading something new. Any
suggestions for what language(s) technology/ies I'll need? I don't
want to start working and find out there is an ideal language or
script that could have been perfect for me to incorporate, even if
it's not so widespread now (although I want it to be accessible to
most users but at latest the near future). Most of my experience has
been with C/C++ Java and scripting languages, but I'll learn perl or
anything else which might be relevant. Thanks!

Hi, 

The "but I don't want people to be able to simply come on to my web
site and print out all the info" requirement tells me that you are not
going to be using javascript or Perl or anything else that produces
HTML on the page. Java is going to be a bit slow. Interactive and
keeping info on a user without relying on cookies is going to take a
login and a unique id that gets passed around to each page. Also you
will probably need a database (mysql is good) or an XML setup.

I personally don't have a "favorite" OS or Language or anything else.
I use what is going to get the job done as easily as possible. What I
suggest is that you use PHP, Mysql (or XML) and Flash.

Flash 5 and greater allows for XML reads and works really well with
PHP. You can pass to the Flash display the text you wish to show.
Flash can talk back out to PHP which can record changes in your
Database area of what the user is reading and when. A simple Text
viewer in Flash will load very quickly, you can probably get the whole
program done to a 5-10k size and it will only have to load once. It
will then call out to the PHP back engine to get new text to display.

On top of all this printing a Flash display of text is a pain, and
very few are going to go through the hassle of doing it. There are
ways of programming it  to print right, but you have to "make" Flash
do that, and you don't want it too. If all your users are using IE
then you can use Javascript to disable the Print and Right-Click, but
only IE does that and there are work-arounds, such as the user turns
off Javascript using one of the many tools available for that purpose.

Flash has little problem with any of the current browsers. 

Links you can look at which will get you on your way:

PHP
http://www.php.net

Flash + PHP + Mysql Chat System
http://www.kingfishergraphics.com/chat/

FlashGuru's MX 101
http://www.flashguru.co.uk/000002.php

Advanced form using Flash and PHP
http://www.flzone.net/ShowDetail.asp?NewsId=829

HotScripts.com PHP Flash
http://www.hotscripts.com/PHP/Scripts_and_Programs/Flash_and_PHP/

Sending E-mail viaPHP Flash Style
http://www.flashmove.com/tips/phpflashemail.htm


For many more examples search on Google

+PHP +Flash 
+PHP +Flash +Mysql



Thanks, 

webadept-ga

Thanks, this is what I was looking for!

Using Flash in this manner may mean the web page is inaccessible to
visually impaired users using screen capture and speech synthesis.
That could contravene disability discrimination legislation in many
countries.

Owain