[thelist] setting up website page to accept payment

[Nan Harbison]

HI All,
 
I have created a form for users to fill out with information needed to
"join" the community. The form action is self, where all the data is cleaned
and entered into the database. I am using PHP. My client finally chose
authorize.net to collect payments through, which is fine. although I love
the ease of implementation of paypal! 
 
Anyway, I am having trouble getting started with setting up the "enter
payment info' page. Ecommerce website generally collect user information and
then take the user to a page to collect credit card information. So what is
the best practice here? Should I keep the form action as self and then
redirect to the payment collection page, or should the payment collection
page handle the data and then display the credit card info? Should I create
a payment "class" as well as the user info class or should the payment
information be part of the user class? Or no class needed?
 
I tried to google for this, but all I get is the websites of website payment
collection companies, like paypal. Maybe someone has a tutorial to point me
to? Please help!
 
TIA,
Nan