# Solved: Advice Required For Best Method To Achieve This...



## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

I have been asked to develop a new website that will do the following:


Provide a simple membership system for users to register their details and log-in.
When logged-in, display a list of detailed educational quiz-style questions that each offer four multiple choice responses.
Each quiz-style question will offer one or more hints as to help the user solve the question and come up with the correct solution. The hint needs to be accessed seperately, and will obviously not display with the question. (Perhaps a dynamic pop-up box or layer would be most suited?) Some of the hints will have their own hints - hints within hints. Also, these hints will feature images.
When the user selects their choice from the available multiple choice responses, the choice needs to be calculated along with the answers to the other quiz-style questions as to provide a score when the user completes the educational quiz.
Enable the user to log-out.
Specifically, the difficulty I am having is coming up with the ideal solution for:


Setting up or using a very simple membership script to allow users to register, log-in and log-out.
The dynamic pop-up box or layer - can anyone recommend a simple but appropriate script?
Setting up a script to calculate the correct and incorrect questions to be displayed at the end of the educational quiz.
Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!


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## pooladdict2 (Jun 21, 2006)

Regarding the logout and login system..i would recommend using drupal. As for the educational script, i have not heard or seen any script of that sort. I think you will need to write your own scripts. Just a suggestion!

hope this helps.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

I would recommend any CMS, from Drupal to Mambo to PostNuke. Everything you want is prebuilt or can be found as a plug in


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

pooladdict2 said:


> Regarding the logout and login system..i would recommend using drupal. As for the educational script, i have not heard or seen any script of that sort. I think you will need to write your own scripts. Just a suggestion!
> 
> hope this helps.


Is Drupal a content management system, or a membership system? I'm not sure that I need something as powerful as Drupal.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

It is a CMS, but all CMS's have built-in login systems.


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

covert215 said:


> I would recommend any CMS, from Drupal to Mambo to PostNuke. Everything you want is prebuilt or can be found as a plug in


Can you give me some more information here?

Is there a particular content management system that is better suited to what I want, and do you know of any of the plug-in's that would help me?


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

covert215 said:


> It is a CMS, but all CMS's have built-in login systems.


I'm not entirely sure that I need something as powerful as a content management system, as this website will only be used for the tasks I outlined in my initial post.

I was thinking the solution might be in the way of a simple registration, log-in and log-out script, some variation of a form validation and calculation script for the educational quiz, and a script for the dynamic hints.


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

IMO Mambo has more of a "site" feel while Drupal can sort of feel like a blog on steroids at sometimes, put they are both powerful, I've found Drupal's admin system easier to use.


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

I'm still unsure as to whether a Content Management System is really what I need here...it seems a little too much. If you guys are positive that it is the best option, though, then I will go with it.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

Are you familiar with any php or databases? it is pretty simple to set up a plain ol login script


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## Eriksrocks (Aug 7, 2005)

If you don't want a CMS, which is completely, fine, than I would look on www.hotscripts.com for the individual scripts that you will need. 

I remember some free software called WebQuestions2, which could probably help you a bit with the quiz part, but you'll still need to customize it.  After doing a little searching, I think it may now be renamed Hot Potatoes, but I'm not 100% sure...

http://hotpot.uvic.ca/

EDIT: The company that made WebQuestions2 went out of business, but apparently you can still download it here:
http://www.softlookup.com/display.asp?ID=3229&DID=4J58YURT


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

covert215 said:


> Are you familiar with any php or databases? it is pretty simple to set up a plain ol login script


I am relatively familiar with those things, but I would not no where to start with setting up my own script. If you can provide any advice, this is the route that I would prefer to go down.

Essentially, I don't want excess files, or excess features on the website. I want to achieve the result in the simplest form possible, and I believe that would be setting up a very basic script as you have suggested.

If you, or anyone else, can provide some information on how I can do so, I would greatly appreciate it.



> If you don't want a CMS, which is completely, fine, than I would look on www.hotscripts.com for the individual scripts that you will need.
> 
> I remember some free software called WebQuestions2, which could probably help you a bit with the quiz part, but you'll still need to customize it. After doing a little searching, I think it may now be renamed Hot Potatoes, but I'm not 100% sure...
> 
> ...


It seems that that software is unavailable through the link that you gave me...but thank you anyway! I'll have a look around to see if I can find it elsewhere.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

I would create a table of users and a table of questions

user columns - username, pw, score on each test
questions columns - question, right answer, wrong answer, wrong answer, wrong answer

To create an account, write username and pw to the db...to log in, check to see that the combination exists.

To take a test, display the question and scramble the answers. Store the results in the user table


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

Are you able to provide some more detail regarding setting-up a script and a database that restricts particular pages being able to be viewed without being logged-in? I would prefer to manually add users to the database rather than have them register themselves.

Essentially, all I am searching for is some detailed instruction on how to set-up the relevant database and how to write the script to call on the database to match a username and password, and then allow access to the restricted pages.

Any further assistance would be appreciated.


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

Are you on a Linux server w/ cPanel? If so, I can provide a very easy solution.


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## haswalt (Nov 22, 2004)

i would suggest a php mysql driven membership system, this is very simple to do and takes a few minutes.

For the quiz again use php for each page and just store the results in hidden form fields throughout.

As for th hints use div layers thaty are hidden then show them with javascript. these layers can contain anything including images and other hint divs.

A good way of doing this woud be ajax, because you could process the answer at each question and then load the next set of hints and answers neatly and keep it hidden in the background.

If you would like some example code on any of these items please ask for it and i will post it here.

Thanks,

Harry


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## covert215 (Apr 22, 2006)

if you do not want to allow registration, you should just use .htaccess.

cPanel will code the file for you or you can find many tutorials to password protect with it. However, this only works w/ Apache. I don't know if there is an IIS alternative.


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

Thank you everyone for your detailed help! Due to a reduced time-frame, I was forced to contract-out the work to a website development agency, so the problem is solved.

Thank you again!


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## deepdiver01 (Dec 23, 2004)

Hi Tanna.

Did a quick google for quiz software and came up with a few options from the download centre.

Might help in the future.

http://www.freedownloadscenter.com/Best/easy-free-quiz.html


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

deepdiver01 said:


> Hi Tanna.
> 
> Did a quick google for quiz software and came up with a few options from the download centre.
> 
> ...


Thank you for that...I'll definitely check it out!


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## namenotfound (Apr 30, 2005)

Eriksrocks said:


> IMO Mambo has more of a "site" feel while Drupal can sort of feel like a blog on steroids at sometimes, put they are both powerful, I've found Drupal's admin system easier to use.


LOL at "blog on steroids" 

I use Drupal because it's the easiest of all the CMS's I've tried


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## TW.87 (Dec 30, 2005)

In the end, I had to get a far more talented individual than I to do the code behing a custom script.

Thanks again for the help, everyone.


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