How to tell if a user is online!?

victorb17

Hi on some forums, the forum knows if a certain user is online. I can show that somone is online by setting a variable in a db when they log in, but how do I detect when they "log out" if they just close the window or by another means besides clicking "logout"? Thanks!

sysera

What I do it include a file on every page of my website that updates a row in a user database with a timestamp, so each time they load a page, that row gets updated with the time.

Then on each page I also include a function that searches the database for users with an 'update' time within the last 10 minutes or so. Works very well.

victorb17

could you please post a snippet of the code used to insert the time? I'm not good with time or dates yet. Thanks!

ShawnK

Pretty much all you do is change the time in the db every page view. Then when you goto view the users that are logged in do this.

$time = timer() - 600;

$query = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `users` WHERE `lastpgview` > $time");

Remember that a timestamp is in seconds, so 5 mins is 300, and 10 mins is 600.

sysera

Originally posted by victorb17
could you please post a snippet of the code used to insert the time? I'm not good with time or dates yet. Thanks!

Victor,
This is exactly how I do it. You will obviously need to modify the code for your use.

<?php

include('/home/sysera/public_html/concatenated/headers.php');

echo "<div style=\"text-align:left; font-size:9px; font-weight:bold;\">Users online: </div>";

$time = time();
$minutes = 10;
$minuteslong = $minutes * 60;
$timelimit = $time - $minuteslong;

if (isset($setuserid)) {

mysql_connect($dbhost,$dbuser,$dbpass);
mysql_select_db($database) or die( "Unable to select database");

$query="UPDATE $users SET LASTONLINE = '$time' WHERE USERID = '$setuserid'";
mysql_query($query); }

$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM $users WHERE LASTONLINE >= '$timelimit' ORDER BY USERNAME ASC");

$userlist = '';

while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($result, MYSQL_BOTH)) {

$userlist = ("$userlist " . $row["USERNAME"]);

}

echo "<div style=\"text-align:left; font-size:9px;\">$userlist</div>";

mysql_free_result($result);

//mysql_close();

?>