[Resolved] About the date() function

ajdegans

Does the date() function show the server date, or the clients date?

If it shows the clients date then could a visit counter which counts how many visits per day be wrong if you base it on a

$today = date('d-m-Y');

im testing a script which does so... but it screw up in the counts and tables in the db.... making a mess of it...

for one day it showed 239 times the same day with one count.... imagine the mess in the database when each day has its own row in a table...! lol

bubblenut

PHP is server side, therefore PHP functions relating to the system relate to the server. [man]date()[/man] gives the date on the server.

ajdegans

what about local side then.... doesnt that mean client side?

but if youre right why does my script screw up the dates in the database...

bubblenut

If php's running on a *nix box and you want to double check then try this little script.

<?php
echo(date('r')."<br />\n".shell_exec('date'));
?>

How, exactly, is your script screwing up the dates in the database?

heiev

The best way of make a counter is to use a file where u sum the times that i user is entering. This way u dont have to check the date and it doesn't count thre reload in the page. But remember that the file has to have the permisision for writting

$counter_file = "./count/counter.cnt";

$fp = fopen ($counter_file,"r");

$nume =trim(fread ($fp, filesize($counter_file)));

fclose($fp);

Try this in the index.php

ajdegans

my script doesnt count a reload either... i figured that part out, i dont like flatfile sollutions.

ANyway,

The purpose is to count the total visitors PER day, so at the end of each day is a number shown...

each number is entered in the database with a date as shown in earlier posts and a time in unixformat

Now somehow the reading of the date in the db is screwed so it enters a day lets say january 5 more then one times, resulting in multiple january 5 netries with all one visit....

i think this happend cuz when im in gmt+1 entering a hit then come back an hour later it sees a new day makes a new entry , then someon from gmt-5 enters and stil enters the january 5 but it doesnt match anymore since i entered a januray 6 already so it creates a new one.... this way the db can get fucked over and over resulting in total chaos and unreliable results...

heres the script i made:

		$getnumberday="SELECT * FROM bl_counter2";
		$getnumberday2=mysql_query($getnumberday) or die("Could not grab todays visit count");
		$getnumberday3=mysql_fetch_array($getnumberday2);
		$today = date('d-m-Y');
		if($getnumberday3[day]!=$today){
			$resettodayscount="INSERT INTO bl_counter2 (day, hits) VALUES ('$today','0')";
			mysql_query($resettodayscount) or die("Could not reset todays count");
		} else {
			$newcount=$getnumberday3[hits]+1;
			if($getnumberday3[timer]<=$unixtime-3600) {
				$updatetodayscount="UPDATE bl_counter2 SET hits='$newcount', timer='$unixtime' WHERE day='$today'";
				mysql_query($updatetodayscount) or die("Could not update todays count");
			};
		};
		print "<br>$getnumberday3[hits] <img src='images/today.png' alt='todays visits'> visits today";

the timer field in the db defaults to 0 so its updateable...

db table:
id bigint(21) auto_increment
day varchar(50)
timer bigint(21)
hits (bigint(21)

primary key = id

bubblenut

You first query is where it's going screwy. SELECT * FROM bl_counter2 makes no contraints on which rows and in what order they're being pulled out of the database so it's going to return them in the order they went in. This means that the first row returned by that query will always be the first row ever put into that table regardless of the date.

Try the following. I wasn't sure where you got $unixtime from so I assumed it was supposed to represent the current unixtime.

$day=date('d-m-Y');
$sql="SELECT hits FROM bl_counter2 WHERE day=$day";
$res=mysql_query($sql) or die('Could not grab today\\'s hits');
if(mysql_num_rows($res)==0) {
    //first hit of the day so we need to insert the row.
    $sql="INSERT INTO bl_counter2 SET day=$day, hits=1, timer=".time();
} else {
    //Not the first hit of the day, lets update the existing value;
    list($hits) = mysql_fetch_row($res);
    $hits++;
    $sql="UPDATE bl_counter2 SET hits=$hits, timer=".time();
}
mysql_query($sql) or die('Failed to update the database');

HTH
Bubble

ajdegans

date('U')

for unixtime i thought it was...

Anyway, i used it to prevent it from counting the refreshed pages, since the code works throughout the whole site and not just the first page (there is no first page...)

But am i not achieving the same if i load it like this?

SELECT * FROM bl_counter2 ORDER BY id DESC

or use your query in my code...

Maybe your code is more efficient and maybe should i use that? 😕

[edit]
Though your way is more save to get the right row i guess. i just was looking at it again... 🙂

bubblenut

The best way to prevent multiple hits per user session is to set a session variable and then only increment the counter if the hit is from a user which does not have a session set.
Check out the [man]session[/man] pages in the php manual.

ajdegans

maybe yes....

But i prefer not to use sessions.

Anyway thanks for your help, i think i solved it now with the code you provided

Thanks again 🙂