Web counter question

[Salonica]

Hi all,

Wonder if anyone could help with the following problem i'm having.

Ok I have a script and am trying to modify the bit that updates the database
with the number of times the page has been viewed.

In the script at present every time the page is reloaded then the count increments
by one. Obviously that brings up the problem of the page just getting reloaded to
increase the number of hits so I want it to check the session so that it would update
only once even if the same person refreshed the page several times.

At the top of the script it calls in a function to start a session as this is required for
other aspects of the site then towards the end it has the following that updates
the database:

$UP = "UPDATE $ads_tbl SET sitehits = sitehits + 1 where siteid = '{$_GET['sid']}'";
mysql_query ($UP) or die(mysql_error());
} else {
    echo "<td>$error</td></tr></table></td></tr></table>";
}


How would i change the above to prevent reloads adding to the count??


Any help appreciated  ???

Cheers

Steve

[onlyican]

I would do something like

if(!$_SESSION["onsite"]){
//run your code to add to the site stats
$_SESSION["onsite"] = true;
}

[Salonica]

Hi,

Many thanks for the prompt reply - that does work but when you visit a
different page then it won't update the count on that page because the
session is in place still. Any ideas how would I get round this ?

Cheers

Steve

[JasonLewis]

you could do something like this, it involves arrays as well.

[code=php:0]
session_start();
if(!isset($_SESSION['page'])){ $_SESSION['page'][] = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']; }

if(!in_array($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], $_SESSION['page'])){
//UPDATE THE HITS
$_SESSION['page'][] = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
}
[/code]

[corbin]

If you wanted to recount the same user after x minutes you could do something like the following:
(at the top of the page)
[code=php:0]
$minvar = 5; //how many minutes you wish to elapse before a user is recounted.
$UP = "UPDATE $ads_tbl SET sitehits = sitehits + 1 where siteid = '{$_GET['sid']}'"; // your update query
if(!$_SESSION['lutime']) {  //sets the var if its not set.
$_SESSION['lutime'] = time();
mysql_query ($UP) or die(mysql_error()); // if the variable isnt set that means the user is new, so update
}
elseif(($_SESSION['lutime'] + ($minvar*60)) < time()) { //if the last updated time + seconds * minvar > the current time, update
mysql_query ($UP) or die(mysql_error()); // its been x minutes since the user was counter, so count them
$_SESSION['lutime'] = time();
}
[/code]

Hmm that should work (if you wish to use it).  It might not work though (writtin in the little quick reply box at 1 AM)...

(edited to reflect the following post.)

[JasonLewis]

correct me if i'm wrong but shouldn't this:
[code=php:0]($_SESSION['lutime'] + ($minvar*60)) > time()[/code]
be this:
[code=php:0]($_SESSION['lutime'] + ($minvar*60)) < time()[/code]

because its always going to be greater then time() if you add it. so when time() catches up to it and becomes greater then it we can run the code and update it again.

[corbin]

Hehe youre right... For some reason I use time comparisons like that a lot and I always manage to get 'em backwards...

[JasonLewis]

yeh it can be a bit confusing, i used to screw it up a lot to.

[corbin]

Mainly just that time situation always gets me >.<

Been coding PHP for almost 2 years now...

[Salonica]

Wow - many thanks everyone for your replies  ;D

I went with the ProjectFear version and it works great but
appreciate the other options offered too!

This will stop 'em refreshing the pages to show more hits  ;)

Thanks again everyone!

Cheers

Steve