Click counter problem ?

[developer]

Hello! 🙂

How can I make so the url:s are clickable, and when clicking on a link add the field "clicks" in the database with 1 please?

		while($row=mysql_fetch_array($Result))
		{
		echo $row['url'];
		echo " (";
		echo $row['clicks'];
		echo ")";
		echo "<br>";
		} mysql_close($dbh);

Here is the db connection also:

$dbh=mysql_connect ("localhost", "total_xmb1", "xxxxx") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error()); 
mysql_select_db ("total_xmb1");

( Code is working fine and I get the url:s printed out unclickable and the click numbers)

Thanks in advance.

[drawmack]

you have to do a two stage link for this to work.

First the link goes to another page on your site passing the id (or preferably) the md5 of the id.

Then this page does anything like click counting or whatnot you want to do. And then forwards to the actual link location.

Here are some helpful functions:
http://www.php.net/header
http://www.php.net/md5

[developer]

Hello! 🙂

Thanks a lot for the help, it is working now. I do understand that the code can be made more secure and compact. I do have a small question below at the end.

This is how i did it.

First file

while($row=mysql_fetch_array($Result))
		{
		echo " (";
		echo "<a href=\"showurl.php?id=".$row['id']."\">";
		echo $row['url'];
		echo " (";
		echo $row['clicks'];
		echo ")";
		echo "</a><br>\n";
		} mysql_close($dbh);

Showurl.php file:

<? 
$id = $_GET['id']; 
$Link=mysql_connect ("localhost", "total_xmb1", "xxxxxor" die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error()); 
mysql_select_db ("total_xmb1");
$Query = "UPDATE hostedurls SET clicks=clicks+1 WHERE id=$id"; 
mysql_query($Query) or die("Error: ".mysql_error()." in query: ".$Query); 
mysql_close($Link); 

$dbh=mysql_connect ("localhost", "total_xmb1", "xxxxxxx") or die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error()); 
mysql_select_db ("total_xmb1");
$Query = "SELECT * FROM hostedurls WHERE id = $id" or die (mysql_error());
$Result = mysql_query($Query) or die("Error: ".mysql_error()." in query: ".$Query);
$row=mysql_fetch_array($Result);
$url =  $row['url'];

header("Location: $url"); /* Redirect browser */
/* Make sure that code below does not get executed when we redirect. */
exit;
?>

This works just fine🙂

I do actually have a follow up question, I would be happy if I could open the link in a new browser window instead. To add taget=_"blank" in one of these:

(first page)

echo "<a href=\"showurl.php?id=".$row['id']."\">";

or here(second page):

header("Location: $url");

Thanks a lot again.

[LordShryku]

Gotta add it to the anchor tag, should work fine.

echo "<a href=\"showurl.php?id=".$row['id']."\" target=\"_blank\">";

[developer]

Works like a charm. thanks both of you. 🙂

[drawmack]

I would do this. I doesn't change the functionality it's just for security and stability.

Showurl.php file:

<? 
$id = $_GET['id']; 

//connect to database
$Link=mysql_connect ("localhost", "total_xmb1", "xxxxxor" die ('I cannot connect to the database because: ' . mysql_error()); 
mysql_select_db ("total_xmb1");

//make sure the requested url exists in the databse
$sql = "SELECT COUNT(clicks) WHERE md5(id)=$id";
$result = mysql_query or die("Error: " . mysql_error() . " in query: " . $sql);
if(1 < mysql_num_rows($result)) {
   //create a page that handles bad page requests for this page
    header("Location: my_404_page.php");
    die();
}

$Query = "UPDATE hostedurls SET clicks=clicks+1 WHERE md5(id)='$id'"; 
mysql_query($Query) or die("Error: ".mysql_error()." in query: ".$Query); 

$Query = "SELECT * FROM hostedurls WHERE id = $id"; 
$Result = mysql_query($Query) or die("Error: ".mysql_error()." in query: ".$Query);
$row=mysql_fetch_array($Result);
$url =  $row['url'];

header("Location: $url"); /* Redirect browser */
/* Make sure that code below does not get executed when we redirect. */
exit;
?>

this is a bit more secure, actually this is quite a bit more secure.

[developer]

WOW! Thanks, that was very nice of you taking the time writing that.

Thanks.