Password protect sections of your website or create a members only area with the help of the Rad User Manager.
The User Manager is a complete authentication system that is secure and customizable. All user information is saved in a database and can be easily integrated with existing web applications that use the same technology.
Visitors to your site can sign up online or the administrator can add new members with the admin section. The admin section can be used to manage existing users. It's functionality includes editing user profiles and adding,disabling or removing accounts.
You can see the user manager in action right here on the Rad Inks website. We use a customized version of it in our own members area
The software is created using PHP and it's available for free download under the Mozilla Public License (MPL). Under the license terms you can easily and freely modify Rad User Manager to blend in with the rest of your website.
Benefits
Creating a members area has several immediate benefits to you.
Improves Stickiness
It is a well known fact that membership leads to return visitors and better conversion rates for product and service offering.
Manage newsletters
The Rad User Manager comes with a newsletter subscription feature, which lets your users opt into any newsletters that you may send out periodically. User's can choose not to be a part of mailing lists even though they can continue to be members of your site
Simplify the order process
Members can have certain fields in your order forms automatically filled in with the personal information from their profile.
Security Features
Rad User Manager has been designed with security in mind. We have done our best to close any gaps that intruders may use. We are confident enough to use it on our own site.
Session data
It does not store sensitive data such as user id, username or password in session data. Instead we use a separate table in our backend database to keep track of logged in users. This makes session high-jack by altering cookies nearly impossible.
SSL
The Rad User manager can be deployed on a Secure Web Sever that uses SSL to ensure the maximum security of the usernames and passwords
Password Storage
Passwords are stored in a database one way hashed with a call to the md5() function. When used with the mysql database, passwords can be optionaly encrypted with the built in password() function.
Time outs
Inactive sessions (users who login but forget to logout) are automatically timed our after a period of one hour.
Other Features
Data validation
To overcome the common problem of users creating accounts with bogus information, you have the option to send a confirmation email with a special validation link. The account is disabled until the user clicks on this validation link.
Password Reminder
Since passwords are NOT stored in a readable format, even the administrator cannot read them. Thus when a user forgets his password he can request that the password be reset and ask it to be emailed to the email address associated with her account.
Customizable
The license allows you to freely make modifications to the product and even integrate it into your own applications. Even if you are not a PHP expert we have made it possible for you to customize the look and feel by editing template files. You can also easily change the text of validation emails etc.
