Update DB when user leaves?

Anon

Hey

Can anyone tell me if this is possible?

I want to update a MySQL table record when a user leaves my site (or a certain area of it).

I am logging session data for security reasons and I need the table to clean itself when a user exits.

There will be a session ending at this time, but I don't know how to run a command when this happens.

[deleted]

Search before you post.

HTTP is stateless. People don't exit, they stop requesting pages.
If they haven't requested any pages for X minutes, they probably left.

saltwater

Everytime a user enters the site, I check wether there are records older then so many hours or so and delete them..
this way the table doens't get full either

Anon

Thanks Bruno

I think that's what I'm going to do. i just need to decide on a suitable duration for having left.

And to Vincent, yes, I did search but sometimes you can't find a simple answer within huge lists of archived pages :o

Thanks anyway guys

Anon

if a session is ending, then you are assuming that they are pressing the 'log out' button to leave your site...

so just put the code in there!

otherwise, create your own session handling functions (RTFM) to handle all the session data.

[deleted]

The point is that people don't press 'logout'.

Anon

So...

Is there any way of harnessing the moment that PHP decides to end a session in order to trigger another event?

[deleted]

No. As of yet PHP does not have a function that is called when a session ends.

This is mainly because sessions expire, and expired sessions are 'cleaned up when found'.

If a session 'lives' for 30 minutes, then the session data is not erased untill the first time that the garbage-cleaner runs after the 30 minutes. If th garbage cleaner doesn't run untill 4 hours later, then the session data is still there for another 4 hours.

HTTP is stateless, there is nothing running continuesly.

Anon

Fine

It's a shame really. This is one of the few things that sessions in PHP can't do.

I can think of hundreds of uses for it, though where clening up is necessary.

I'm going to have to adopt a similar method with my MySQL session table where it deletes sessions determined (somehow) to be no longer in use. It's pretty difficult to decide if a user has just left their PC for a while or has actually left the site...

Anyway, thanks for all your help.