----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Shiflett" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Fireborn Silvaranth" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 1:04 PM
Subject: Re: [PHP] newbie-php user tracker prob
Pretty new to PHP but I've always wanted to make a user tracking system.
I'm trying to grab a number (sessionNum) out of a text file and increment it
whenever someone leaves and comes back to the site.. the problem is the text
file appears to be cached somewhere, the first time someone comes back the
value is incremented and appended but if they leave again and then come back
the file's contents appear to be unchanged. Opening the file up after the
first time reveals that it has been appended but after subsequent visits it
is not (but yet it still goes through the function).
I tried just appending the info on with 'a' but since it didnt work I have
it rewriting the whole file.... still doesnt work however...
thanks if you can give any help.
an example of the file's contents:
1-12:17:2:Tuesday:February:11:2003--page1,page2,page3,
(sessionNum-date-referer-pagelist)
the function I'm using :
function incSession($trackFile, $pagename){
if (file_exists($trackFile)){
//read the file
$fileLine = file_get_contents($trackFile);
print "alert('File contents before write : $fileLine');";
//split the tracker file's contents into major sections
Session-Date-Referer-Pages
$headerArray = explode("-", $fileLine);
//get correct entry for last session number in the tracker file
$headerArrLen = count($headerArray);
$arrayentry = $headerArrLen - 3; //back 3 to get last session number
entry
$arrayentry = $arrayentry - 1; //correct number to account for number
sys. beggining with 0
//get the old session number and increment it
$sessionNum = $headerArray[$arrayentry];
$sessionNum = $sessionNum + 1;
//get timestamp-user function
$currentDate = makeDate('PHP');
//get referer site if it exists
$referer = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'];
//put it together for output
$addon = '-' . $sessionNum . '-' . $currentDate . '-' . $referer . '-'
. $pagename;
$everything = $fileLine . $addon;
print "alert('To be appended to file : $addon');";
print "alert('File contents after write : $everything');";
//user tracker file is appended with new session date referer and page
$fp = fopen($trackFile, 'w');
fwrite($fp, $everything);
fclose($fp);
}
}
> --- Fireborn Silvaranth <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > I'm trying to grab a number (sessionNum) out of a text file and
increment
> > it whenever someone leaves and comes back to the site.
>
> How about this:
>
> <?
> session_start();
> if (!isset($_SESSION['count']))
> {
> $_SESSION['count'] = 0;
> }
> else
> {
> $_SESSION['count']++;
> }
>
> echo 'You have visited ' . $_SESSION['count'] . ' times before.';
> ?>
>
> Chris
That's a good way to handle it while they're in the browser but what if they
close it and log off then come back on and visit again? I want to track the
user as they move through my site, write what pages they go to and when they
log onto my site, where they come from and how many times they come.
I thought about logging their IP but what good does that do when a lot of
people still have dial up? I could set a cookie, and I have tried that,
however when I try to access that cookie with PHP upon their return it does
not see it. Javascript sees the cookie fine but by then PHP is done
processing.
It could be that I set the cookie with Javascript but even then PHP still
sees it after the page is reloaded or the user browses to the next page. I
couldn't set the cookie with PHP because I needed it to occur after checking
to see if they had a cookie etc... I tried using output buffering but it
still didnt work.
I read in the manual that sessions are just meant to last as long as the
user is in the browser so I dont know what to do.
Your thoughts on this?
Learning is fun!
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