[Resolved] empty chatroom contents??how??

[dotty]

Hi,

I've made a very simple chatroom for my website using php/mysql and displaying comments in an iframe.

I don't know how to clear the comment table contents at the end of the session. Or if I should just automatically send it to an archive folder after a period of time.

Has anybody got any suggestions?

thanks

[drawmack]

put a field in the table called posted that is type timestamp and give it an index. Then everytime someone posts delete any posts that are older then a preset amount of time, say 5 minutes.

[dotty]

oh cool! I will try that -

thanks drawmack🙂

[dotty]

drawmack

I now pass the time in the form - so how do I delete the postings after 5 minutes? Is this done directly in mysql or with php?

please excuse my ignorance :queasy:

[drawmack]

If you create a timestamp field and index it you won't have to pass the time of the post in mysql will automatically stamp it for you.

As for deleting the old posts something like this should work, though this is untested and may need some tweeking.

<?php
//get the timestamp from 5 minutes ago
$epoch = strtotime('-5 minutes');
//convert it into a mysql timestamp
$epoch = date('YmdHis',$epoch);

//delete the old posts
$sql = "DELETE FROM <table> WHERE posted < $epoch";
mysql_query($sql);
?>

[dotty]

I got this to work on my chatroom. Thank you so much drawmack for the code.😃

I would also like to show the date and time beside each posting.
I called the timestamp field in mysql "autotime" and do not know how to format it on the page. The recordset variable is:

<?php echo $row_comments['autotime'];?>

any suggestions on how to do this?

[dotty]

It's okay - I found how to do this from another posting by drew010

<?php $time = $row_comments['autotime']; 

$ts = mktime( substr($time, 8, 2), substr($time, 10, 2), substr($time, 12, 2), substr($time, 4, 2), substr($time, 6, 2), substr($time, 0, 4)); 

echo date("r", $ts); ?>

Great - thanks drew010 🙂