How to get LOGOUT?

Anon

I make one system where users login and logout. I want to record each login and logout time.

But how can I get the logout time if the user just closes the browser

Please help to find a solution

Thank you

knickerlas

Hi
I've not done it myself but were I trying to do this I'd be looking at testing to see if a session ends at regular intervals.

Or perhaps you could use JS to call a script each time the window is closed?

HTH

Nick

[deleted]

"But how can I get the logout time if the user just closes the browser"

You can't. If the user closes the browser, then he doesn't log out, so you cannot tell when he has logged out.
The only thing you can do is mark the time of the login, and then update a datetime somewhere everytime the loggedin user accesses a script on your website.
If the current time is 6PM, and the user last visited a page at 5:30PM, then the user has probably left your website.

knickerlas

But what if he has a DB full of active session id's and checks peroidically to see if they are all still active`Then you'd be able to report inactive ones and thus get a kind of accurate picture as to who has logged out when?

Nick

[deleted]

...and how would you go about checking if a session is still 'active'? hmm? :-)

knickerlas

Well that's a bugger isn't it?

A session has an id once it's created right?
So... if I remember correctly (that'd be a first!) the id is deleted once that session ends.
So... You could enter the id into the DB using session_id() when it's created and then check to see if it still exists periodically with session_is_registered($id)

Must be possible Ias I see it all the time on sites I visit.

Nick

[deleted]

session_is_registered() checks wether a certain var is registered in an opened session.
So you'd have to go through all the session_ids, open all of them, and see if that var is registered in each of them...

methinks it is easier to use a timeout :-)

knickerlas

Yeah perhaps. So how do you reckon other sites do it? I know of at least one where you can see if other members are logged on.

I just checked the manual and you're right of course so I guess they probably do it the way you said.

What about the JS idea, that might work if you weren't to fussy about absolute foolprofing it?

Nick

Anon

I agree, but with some alterations.

You should be using session variables to hold user info, from the login process to personalise your site.
If your storing login info then you will also produce a new entry in your database logs. Use the unique key field from this entry as a session variable.
E.g. LogID

Use the javascript onunload command to update the database record entry using UserID LogID.

Database log should be a single entry for this
E.g. LogID autonumber indexed
UserID
LoginTime
LogoutTime

If the session varible is not set then don't update.

For peace of mind set the LogoutTime to the LoginTime or some arbitary value when the user does login, to prevent any errors.

Anon

you could have a hidden js frame refreshing each 2 or 3 minutes (setTimeout function) 'confirming' the user as logged on. - actually updating the logged off time. if the time since logged off (last logged on)is greater than 2 or 3 minutes then user is 'logged off' - would be how i'd go about it, if i had to... or am i missing the point?

knickerlas

Sounds good to me although I'm not keen on frames. I'm not a JS guy (on my list of stuff to learn) so I wouldn't know about any inherint difficulties with this.

Vincent?

knickerlas

Goddamit, I knew that wasn't a dumb idea!

😉

Nick

parena

but erm... a frame reload is the same as a page hit. So you could just update the db with every action done by the user. Gets rid of JS, extra frames...

Anon

I know of at least [site] one where you can see if other members are
logged on.

Erm, you left out the quotes around the words "see" and "logged on". They do it as Vincent has described--in other words, it's a gross approximation.

Let me just mention again that, in all my travels among the numerous (far too numerous) rehashings of this subject, no one has ever bothered to explain why they want to do this. It just seems to be assumed of obvious value, but I can't think of a single site I've ever gone to where it mattered if someone else had looked at it, or even added something, 2 minutes versus 20 minutes versus 2 hours ago.

Somebody please help me out!

Anon

Who cares why?
It's an interesting problem 🙂

Nick

Anon

Well Well Well, Huge Number of explainations and alternatives. I think in case if i was asked to do that i will do it in one of this ways:
When the user comes to your site use a session to identify wether the persons entry has been made or not. To do this I will include one file in every page of my site.This checks if session exists if not register it and put the login details and on every body unload i will call a javascript function which will open a new window through window.open that will be a php file. This php file will put the Logout details on the database or what so ever. So at last my database will be something like this:

SessionID TimeIN TimeOUT

***Hint: Use <body unload=""> part and javascript in an include file and include that template in every pages to give the flexibility to the site..

--Nikunj Virani
(Perfection comes with Experience)

Anon

Thank you all for the ideas

OK JS solution seems good enough but is there any way to avoid opening new window?

Can I call php script with UNLOAD without opening new window. It will be very boring to open new window each time I jump to another page

[deleted]

"you could have a hidden js frame refreshing each 2 or 3 minutes (setTimeout function) 'confirming' the user as logged on."

...and if that stops refreshing then the user is logged out.

Is it just me or is that 100% the same as updating a date in the database with whenever the user visits a page on your site, only three times more difficult to do?

[deleted]

Uhm... so on every page LOAD you use a piece of PHP to updater some information about the user's login-state, and then on every UNLOAD you do exactly the same but through javascript?

am I missing something here?

Anon

every unload pops up a new window.... sorry but how annoying. also if you have two windows open - closing one logs you out. shutting the other window will ermm.... log you out.
the hidden JS frame doesnt bother with logging you out directly. it keeps you logged in - i.e. if a page is open the hidden frame refreshes every 2 minutes saying this user is logged in. 2 windows open keep you logged in.
if a window closes then no 'logged-in' message comes from it but still from the other. when the last window is closed so is the last frame that logs you in every 2 minutes. hate to go on about it but i dont see the problem. i use hidden frames and javascript a lot in my ecommerce stuff to take fields from an input and call a php script with the data entered. when the script runs and comes back the javascript in this then updates other parts of the main window, possibly other inputs with the relevant information. saves popping up windows for stuff that has nothing to display to the user, and saves going from input page to another. my job is replicating the functionality of vb programs using html/javascript and php though, so it seemed the 'cleanest' way.