Hey pSouper,
regarding to your first question I couldn't answer. I don't know what's the metter with the engine or why it didn't has been integrated yet. As you could read in my posting below the tecnical part has been done in December 2003. So maybe Oliver could help us by answering this question.
Now I'll answer your second question in a few words about the basics (SSL is a lot more complex topic so I would recomend that you're trying google for more tecnical details).
SSL (SecureSocketLayer) is very important for the privacy of data beeing sended over the web. SSL alows you and the user to encrypt and decrypt data by a certificate which has a public key and a private-key (similar to PGP). By each connection the user establish to your SSL-encrypted page, theres a new key gererated for the encryption (ref. technical descrpt. of Netscape
http://developer.netscape.com/tech/secu ... works.html).
Normaly you should (or better MUST) use SSL pages only by transactions over the internet or by filling out forms, which containing privacy data (ex. Loginforms).
I bulid the solutions for wcms as follows: Theres a line within the setup process of phpwcms where you could enter some data about the config of your SSL certificate running on the server (esp. Port (norm. 443)). In the admin --> site structure dialog you can edit at a checkbox in the properties dialog. When you're now accessing the page in the frontend the user gets a "port redirect" (he won't regonize because the port is changing from 80 (HTTP) to 443(SSL) by default only) and the user can see the small lock at the bottom of his browser. When he leaves the page to another page within your site which has not to be SSL encrypted the same procedur as discribed happends other way around. Thats all.
If you've got more questions, feel free to post here
Cheers,
Florian
