user's status online or offline

[deepM]

Hello,

May be this is already discussed here. but i didn't get anything related to it though(solved one). so sorry if this would become repetitive thread.

I want to show user's status online or offline. so i have created one status column into my database. if user is login change the status to 1. till here i am done. but how can i update that 1 to 0 while i ll logged out.

because in my logout.php, only following code is there

$retval = retpath();
session_start();
$userid = $_SESSION['userid'];
$login_date = date('Y-m-d');
$_SESSION['lastpath']=$_SESSION['lastpath']."\n".$_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']."\n".$_SERVER['PHP_SELF'];
$user_filename = "log_files/user-".$userid.".log";
  $user_file=fopen($user_filename,"a+");

unset($_COOKIE['userid']);

//this is something i want to do
$update = $op->runsql("UPDATE ".tbl_author." SET status = 0 WHERE id = '$userid'");


unset($_COOKIE['lastpath']);
unset($_COOKIE['lasturi']);
session_destroy(); 

if we are able to do this. then there is one more issue will be remaining.
what if user wont do log out and just close the browser as it is then how come my status column would be updated?

please suggest me something.
thanks in advance.

[Dan Grossman]

Don't have a status column, have a "last access" column. Update that column on any page load of your site with the current time.

To determine who is online, select all rows where "last access" is within X minutes. You pick an arbitrary time, like 20 minutes, after which you assume the person has left your site since you can't really know.

[deepM]

thanks for your reply Dan Grossman,
your are right this can be solved my 2nd issue as well where if user left the page without logged in. right?

ok, as you suggested, do i have to do somthing like this :-

database

field name type
last_access TIMESTAMP

query would be like this

$query  =  mysql_query("SELECT usernae,TIMESTAMPDIFF(MINUTE, last_access, NOW() > 20) from 
author where id ='$userid");
if(mysql_num_rows($query) > 0){

echo "online"
}
else
{
echo "offline"
}
// i am considering 20 minutes here. 

please tell me is this something you are talking about?

[Dan Grossman]

Yes, this is the solution to not knowing when someone leaves the site when logging out, and that's the kind of query you'd use to know who's online (but < instead of >).

[deepM]

database
field name type
last_access datatime

not using timestamp. because its giving me updated on current timestamp. that i dont want. is it ok?

here is code. it showing me user as offline. i think query is wrong. could anyone help me. with my query.

$update = $op->runsql("UPDATE ".tbl_author." SET last_access = '".date('Y-m-d H:i:s')."' WHERE id = '$uid'");
//  if(mysql_num_rows($update) > 0){

$result            = $op->runsql("SELECT TIMESTAMPDIFF(MINUTE, a.last_access, NOW() > 10)  from
".tbl_author." as a where a.id ='$uid");
  if(mysql_num_rows($result) > 0){

  echo "online";
  }else{

  echo "offline";
  }
//} 

[Dan Grossman]

You want rows where the difference between now and the last access is LESS than 10 ("within the last 10 minutes"), not greater.

But your code will then always write online since you update the row in that same page.

I'd use a DATETIME column myself.

[deepM]

You want rows where the difference between now and the last access is LESS than 10 ("within the last 10 minutes"), not greater.

i am trying but not getting the proper output. could you please show me the query?

[deepM]

anyone help me??

[deepM]

Hello, I am back here.

with help of mysql forum, i am able track user's last access time from now. and if it is more than 15 minutes from now. show that user is offline.

This we can consider as one condition.

1) the second condition would be what if user left that page(probably logout ) before 15 minutes so how can i update my status column according to that?

2)what if user stayed for more than 15 minutes(lets say 2 hours) so did he need to do log in again and again?

3) As sitepoint shows the logged in users till they themself wont do the log iout/close the browser.

the solved issue is done with query. so can anyone help me here for how to solve these 2 conditions?

thanks in advance.

[tmapm]

1) i wouldn't worry about this. When it was last updated, and he leaves, after 15 minutes he would be considered offline.. You don't need to change the field. If you want to, You can update the datetime field you created when they log out.

2) No, as long as you are updating the datetime field for the user with every page load, you'll be fine..

3) Don't understand. I wouldn't concern myself with it.