# users currently logged on

BEFOR

What could I use to display # users currently logged on.

Just discovered my host has a limit of 15 simultaneous connections, so I'll need to manage it better.

devinemke

add a DATETIME field to your users table that is normally set to NULL and flip it to the current time when someone logs in. you will also need to update again it on each page request. when someone logs out flip it back to NULL. then you can just do a simple COUNT() query of any user who's login_time field is not null. the reason you should use DATETIME instead of a boolean field is that you will need to keep track of how long someone is logged in for. some of you users may not log out but simply close their browsers. because of this you will need to run a cron to automatically log out users who have be inactive for a certain period of time.

if you need to keep more accurate/permanent record of this then do this all in a separate table with login/logout time

BEFOR

devinemke,

thanks for the response.

My host says # simultaneous connections. This may mean anyone accessing a table, and there are many pages without log on that echo values.

Very sorry about the confusion. What would you suggest?

This is a web based calendar.

Weedpacket

Nothing to do with connections. No-one said anything about connections. Connections are another matter entirely. What devinemke said was to add a datetime field to your users table, that gets reset to the current time whenever that user requests a page.

BEFOR

Weedpacket,

I don't follow you.

Need to determine the # of simutaneous connections from my site to the database.

Can this be done with php?

Weedpacket

Well, that's completely different from the numbers of users logged on; hence the confusion.
My guess (not using MySQL, but knowing how to use Google) would be to use some sort of SHOW query (I'm sure MySQL's manual has information about what you can ask for).
Ah, yes. Here we go. Easy when you know how.

http://dev.mysql.com/refman/5.0/en/show-status.html

Threads_connected is the field you want. I wonder if that is the same as the "Threads" field you get if you use [man]mysql_stat[/man]?