Logging a user out after 15 minutes of inactivity.

[Genesis]

What I want to do is send a query to a database that will cause a user to be logged out after 15 minutes of the script being executed.

 

When the user loads a page, it sets \"available\" to 1 in the database, for that user. Fifteen minutes later, that user\'s \"available\" field should be set to 0 AUTOMATICALLY. If the page is refreshed again before that time, the timer should be reset to 15 minutes.

 

How might I go about doing this? Or is there another way to get this effect without having to delay the execution of a query?

[effigy]

use javascript. make a coutdown type clock. in each body tag put an onload event that sets the clock back to 15. have an if statement setup within the clock that says when it hits 0 to go to index.php?logout=yes, for example, where the cookie/session is terminated.

[Genesis]

awesome. For some reason I never considered using JS.

 

Thanks a bunch

[Genesis]

Err, hmm. actually, would that work if they closed the browser or navigated away?

[effigy]

are you using sessions or cookies?

 

honesty, i don\'t think you need a database field to control this. when the counter hits 0 void the cookie or destory the session.

 

Err, hmm. actually, would that work if they closed the browser or navigated away?

 

if you are using cookies, yes, if it is set with no time limit (i.e., void when the brower is closed).

 

if you are using sessions, yes, in theory. the session still exists on the server until its life expires (this is set in the php.ini). however, when they close the browser they will terminate that link. navigating away--i\'m not sure.