Alright, here is my problem.

I need to learn how to do such things as password protect areas of a website (connected to users in a database), create an easy method of submitting news (when a user submits information it says "posted by..."), and maybe a calender that users can submit information to.

This complicated stuff is created with a database and php?

It has become so overwhelming for me, I do not know where to start.

Could someone please help me or guide me in the right direction of the resources I will need to begin my learning process?

I learn best by example, it would be nice to see a full functioning website (but we can't have everything can we).

Thank you all in advance, I hope you can help me.

Hello,

If I understand correctly, you are looking for a way to password protect certain areas of your site (Directories pheraps?) The easiest way to do this is to use .htaccess, which protects directories which is only accessible to people who are allowed (Users can be added or deleted at will).

Secondly, a new system. Well, a good open source one would be cutenews. You could study the code in there, although it is alot more complicated than it needs to be, it may give you some ideas.

Finnally, a calendar system? I don't know of any, but I will gladly make you on and let you check the source code out . Email me at you.smell.bad69@googlemail.com and i'll see what I can do for you (Please don't add me on any IM software, I prefer to keep them to personal friends only).

~ Earpy ~

cutenews has a member system where you can allow registration, so eather you register them.. or they register them selves... so i guess you can do your 2 things at once

but i answered the same thing and i cant remember where someone posted something similar to cute news wich i cant remember the name... that does NOT have the footer suichs as Powered By...

What if I didn't want to use cute news?
What if I had to take the complicated route and make my own?
What would I do then?

well if you dont want to take the easy way out (fusion news i think is better than cutenews)

you can go with a CMS like Joomla or php-nuke...

cutenews does not use a database so its not what your looking for.

The best bet for you is to look at tutorials about databases and database use. I will find some tuts, i know of some....

Thank you Ruffino, that would help a lot.

- Here are a "few" i will post as i re-find them...

build your own cms:

http://www.jemjabella.co.uk/post/20060502_...ng_your_own_cms <basic guidelines>
http://www.xul.fr/cms/ <step by step for ajax based>
http://www.intranetjournal.com/php-cms/ <php based>
http://www.sitepoint.com/article/management-system-php <XML w/ PHP and MYSQL>