hmmm
it seems you're being gradually bitten by the php bug. the best thing about it is that it is an accessible language and that once you are over the initial conceptual hurdles the speed of acquisition accellerates.
so: by way of concept (i think this will help), php is a server-side language. although it started off just as a hypertext pre-processor it has become, for all purposes, a complete language. Its main use is still to render web-sites etc but there is no reason why it need do this. you could use it instead of vb or whatever for coding cross-platform local applications. Why is this an important conceptual step? becuase you should now see that rendering a page is just one of many possible outputs for your php program. by opening the receiving page you are instructing apache (or IIS etc) to run the php scripts in that page via the php interpreter. this php script could delete your entire hard drive with no difficulty. it could also open your front door for you (i have done this for a client of mine) or print Hello World to the screen or any combination of the above!
so: to your more general question: i think you need to start picking up database skills at the same time as php skills. most people start with mysql as it is (more or less) standards compliant and completely free for non-commercial use. You could use other databases like SQLITE etc with no problems either. I would recommend using the PEAR DB class as starting your database+php life by using abstraction layers is a good thing (abstraction layers means that your database code, in this instance, can be used on many different database types by changing only very minor things - often just one line).
construct-wise your problem is very easily solved with a database integration:
1. the user fills in his name and presses submit
2. the receiving script saves the user's name into a database along with some other relevant characteristics and a session id.
3. on each page you "include" a little script that looks up the user's name based on the session id and then use this to display relevant details.
however at this level of simplicity there are even easier ways to solve the problem using just sessions:
a very basic code snip :
Code:
insert this into the top of each page
<?
session_start();
$name = isset($_SESSION['name'])
? $_SESSION['name']
: "Anonymous";
?>
//insert this into your form receiving script below the session_start() function.
<?
$_SESSION['name'] = isset($_POST['name'])
? $_POST['name']
: "Anonymous";
?>
the "criteria ? if true : if false" construct is called the ternary operator and can be thought of as a quick if-then-else mechanism.
sessions don't really survive closing and reopening the browsers (although this can be worked around with cookies) and thus the concept of login scripts is born!
sorry this is a bit of a ramble...
