tracking a user

[Cabbit]

Rightie ho, i want to make a script with php that will tell me on one page who is accessing another page.

Variables are $username, and $page. Every page on my site is have a $page = "page" and every username is well $username as far as the page is concerned.

 

[angelwatt]

I would think that you could have a script that updates a table in a database as the user moves around. On each page access it updates the table saying where they are. Then on your page it simply reads that table and outputs it. I don't have any code, but doesn't sound horribly hard to do, but might be a pain to add code to each page to update the table.

 

[Cabbit]

I would think that you could have a script that updates a table in a database as the user moves around. On each page access it updates the table saying where they are. Then on your page it simply reads that table and outputs it. I don't have any code, but doesn't sound horribly hard to do, but might be a pain to add code to each page to update the table.

Im more looking to try to make a solution that doesn't involve the database, perhaps using session variables.

 

[Me1000]

Not to totally discurrage you from this, but I recall reading something a while back on a forum dedicated to PHP development where someone wanted to do this.

The end result was much more complicated than he originally thought.

When I saw this thread I tried to figure out how to do it in my mind, however the only easy way I could think of would be to handel it in a database. If you already had a user table setup it could be very very simple...

If you really want to do this your best bet would be to go to a forum dedicated to PHP or another server-side technology.

 

[Cabbit]

Not to totally discurrage you from this, but I recall reading something a while back on a forum dedicated to PHP development where someone wanted to do this.

The end result was much more complicated than he originally thought.

When I saw this thread I tried to figure out how to do it in my mind, however the only easy way I could think of would be to handel it in a database. If you already had a user table setup it could be very very simple...

If you really want to do this your best bet would be to go to a forum dedicated to PHP or another server-side technology.

Aye i am on phpbuilder just now, worked out that a database is the best way but i don't know how to set it up so that it can send a request to the database when the user navigates away from the page.

 

[Me1000]

Aye i am on phpbuilder just now, worked out that a database is the best way but i don't know how to set it up so that it can send a request to the database when the user navigates away from the page.

The easiest way would not be when they navigate away from a page, but when they navigate to a page. When they navigate to the page just query the DB

UPDATE $table (PAGE) VALUES ("$page") WHERE USER=$user

something along those lines,

 

[angelwatt]

Aye i am on phpbuilder just now, worked out that a database is the best way but i don't know how to set it up so that it can send a request to the database when the user navigates away from the page.

Well there's always JavaScript that can detect onunload, but not likely a great solution. I would say just set an expiration, say 20 minutes. Then when you update a user for a page you can also do a check for expired 'sessions.' I do something very similar for a feedback form validation when checking how old a session is.

If you didn't want to use a database you could use a flat file (plain text), with a user per line that is online,

user#timestamp#page

It would take a bit of parsing, but doable.

 

[Cabbit]

The problem comes were its only for when the user is in the chat room and change the status the second they leave the chat room page and go onto a different page.
This is kept in my whos online box that shows all online users and is updated every 5 seconds.
The plan is to have a little bubble next to the users name if there in the chat room.

 

[Malfoy]

The problem comes were its only for when the user is in the chat room and change the status the second they leave the chat room page and go onto a different page.
This is kept in my whos online box that shows all online users and is updated every 5 seconds.
The plan is to have a little bubble next to the users name if there in the chat room.

Still using a database it isnt a problem.

on the page that is listing peoples location.
put

if ($page =='chatroom') {
echo <img src='chatbubble.jpg'>; }
echo $User. '  ' . $page;

obviously it would give syntax errors but the idea is there. if the page is the chatroom, itll put a bubble by the name. otherwise itll just display the name. the page refreshing is handled near the heading.

 

[exabytes18]

I wrote a fairly simple forum from scratch with PHP. For "user's online," I just maintain a separate MySQL "MEMORY" table with all the sessions and their last activity (unix epoch is convenient). You could use some AJAX if you want to provide a more "real-time" chatroom, but that adds a bit more complexity.


I then do something along the lines of:

$tooOld = time() + 300;
$sessionID = session_id();
[DELETE FROM online_users WHERE last_activity<$tooOld AND session_id!=$sessionID]
[SELECT * FROM online_users]