Showing user status is online or offline

[mlukac89]

Hi i wonder how i can check if user is online or not, when i login user i put time() in database.

 

This stores ip in other table, but what if user browser crash ? He will still be online. ( BTW i found this tutorial on some page its not mine code. )

 

So what i need to show me if user is online or not. So if user dont do nothing on any page on website or crash after lets say 5 min show him like offline.

 

Thanks in advance.

<?php
//server info here
$server = "localhost";
$db_user = "root";
$db_pass = "";
$database = "test";

$timeoutseconds = 300;

//this is where PHP gets the time
$timestamp = time();
$timeout = $timestamp - $timeoutseconds;

$mysqli = new mysqli($server, $db_user, $db_pass, $database);

//insert the values
$insert = "INSERT INTO useronline VALUES (?, ?, ?)";
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare( $insert );
$stmt->bind_param( 'iss', $timestamp, $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'],$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] );

if(!$stmt->execute()) {
    print "Useronline Insert Failed > ";
}

//delete values when they leave
$delete = "DELETE FROM useronline WHERE timestamp < ?";
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare( $delete );
$stmt->bind_param( 'i', $timeout );
 

if(!$stmt->execute()) {
    print "Useronline Delete Failed > ";
}

//grab the results
$result = "SELECT DISTINCT ip FROM useronline WHERE file = ?";
$stmt = $mysqli->prepare( $result );
$stmt->bind_param( 's', $_SERVER['PHP_SELF'] );


if(!$stmt->execute()) {
    print "Useronline Select Error > ";
}


//number of rows = the number of people online
$user = $stmt->num_rows;

//spit out the results
$mysqli->close();

if($user == 1) {
    print("$user user online\n");
} else {
    print("$user users online\n");
}
?>
 

[Psycho]

There is no definitive way to know that a user is "online". A server doesn't know what the user's state is between one page request and another. All you can do is store a timestamp for each page request and if a user has not requested a page in (some time that you define) assume they are no longer on your site. Now, you *could* implement some JavaScript to make an AJAX call every X minutes to better know when they are not on your site, but the overhead of doing that is not worth it.

 

EDIT: Also, do not DELETE records when you "think" they leave. Just use the last timestamp as the last time the user has made a request. Delete's are big performance hogs and there is no need for it in this context.

Edited October 27, 2015 by Psycho

[mlukac89]

No i dont want to delete last login time because i use that to see when user was last online, i update record on login only.

 

So lets say it like this, i have a file with main data ( connection to db, session, classes .. etc. ) now if i made here some function and call it, then every user that access any page and for example to see user profile page there will be like "last login from database < 5 min timeout" ( but here if its logged 7 hour ago will be offline so its not good pff ), so how i can know if any user browsing on page ? So if user was not doing anything on any page then will be shown as offline. But problem is that how to make function like that and implement in main file.