Help with telling whether a user is logged in or out

Inkybro

OK, here's my problem. It's easy to set it as logged in when they log in, but because we use sessions, most people just close the browser window and it works just as well. But I don't know how to set it as logged out when they close the browser window. I just have no idea where to start.

ajmoore

I had to code an application at one point where it was absolutely necessary to detect when a user logged out by either clicking the logout button or by closing the window. The way I did it was with javascript's onUnLoad function and a pop-up window. In the body tag of my page I set onOnLoad to pop up a new window with my php code to log the user out. The php page that popped open also just automatically closed itself once it was finished.
main page

<body onUnLoad="window.open('title','logout.php');">

logout.php

<?php
//code to log the user out
?>
<html>
<body onload="window.close();">
</body>
</html>

Inkybro

that should work