Thanks for your feedback Walter,
I should have said that I have not yet used Drupal, but I get the impression that it has many ways to display elements and it's a matter of learning the way it does things.
To anyone on the list:
To further clarify: I would need to code a system that: 1. Allows only logged-in users to access a custom 'content type'. i.e. prompt for login when not logged-in. 2. Have many 'pages' within that 'content type' that provide the back and forth flow of things like shopping systems.
On point 2, there are two approaches: a) Many PHP files, each doing a certain thing: login.php, showproducts.php, basket.php, errors.php, etc. Where each one would hook-into Drupal's way of showing forms and theming. b) One PHP file that handles all of that using a switch or if-then-else mechanism so that it shows various 'faces' according to the results of GET/POST/COOKIES and so forth.
What's the best approach?
I suppose I could create an iframe (ugh!) content-type the content of which is my own system served from some other directory entirely - That would mean minimal css to maintain the look, but leave the Drupal home website on all surrounding sides.
\d