Comparing Times.....

JustJay

I have not been coding in a while so I am a bit foggy on some areas and some basic knowledge seems to have escaped me.....good sign I need to keep up on practising....

Nonetheless I have a problem that I have not been able to address properly.

Situation:

When the user logs in the DB is updated with the DATETIME they log in (2005-09-22 11:30:08) as well everypage they visit and the time they visit that page ($lastpagetime).

What I want to do is automatically log them off if they have been idle on a certain page for a certain amount of time. I was thinking something like 15 minutes.

So what I want to do is set $expiretime = $lastpagetime+15 minutes and if the $expiretime = the current DATETIME then they would automatically be logged out.

However $expiretime has to be updated on each page just like the $lastpagetime already is.

Does any of this make sense?

I realise the answer is probably a simple one that is right in front of me; yet I still am managing to overlook it.

Thanks,

Jay

JustJay

Is there any extra info I could provide that might help in creating some ideas on tackling this issue?

Thanks,

halojoy

if you use a SESSION variable
it will be stored in session and follow this user
as long as his browser is not closed

that is all pages he visits can use, display this variable
in page

see php manual
www.php.net/session_start

JustJay

Ya there is a session running to protect the pages but I am using a "tracking" scheme to log when the users login to access their information - and when the click the LOG OUT link the DB updates their status to offline - so I know that they are not on the site anymore ---- to explain why I am doing this would take too long - but in the end it makes my life easier in one aspect.

So that is why I want to auto change their status in the DB to offline if its been 15 minutes (or whatever) since they last loaded a page without logging off....

halojoy

problem is that a PHP page have to be executed
to change DB status to offline
and if they are inactive, there is no page executed by them

I am sure there is a solution
logically this check can be done when you next time use this informastion in that offline data in DB
but not right when they actually are timed out

A simple timestamp field in DB perhaps, for last activity
And check this against actual current timestamp when data is used

JustJay

To execute it I planned on using a Cron Tab

halojoy

yes,
crontab may work
I did not think of that

still I would use a simple timstamp DB Field: 'last activity'
and whenever I need to see ( use the data ) I can see who are online/offline
because if you do not use this data, it does not matter if online/offline!
I should skip that DB Field: 'offline'
'last activity is much more useful and better than any other boolean OFFLINE data

dont you agree?

IF currrent time() - last activity > 900 seconds THEN offline
ELSE online