# of people Online -- Please help

[Dinold]

Is there any code for telling the numbers of people currently online in my site and also an counter...

for example:
Like 18 people are currently online
1000 total vistors

[thetestingsite]

I would recommend using server-side scripting (PHP) for this. Below is a counter script that uses AJAX to increment the counter in "real-time". (Using PHP).

counter.php (configure the parts in red to point to the text files that will be used for the counter - make sure these files have writable permissions [777]):

<?php
$timeout = 5;

session_start();
header("Cache-Control: no-cache, must-revalidate");

//configuration

$counterTxt = "counter.txt"; //text file for the currently online counter
$hitsTxt = "hits.txt"; //text file for the total hits counter.

//###################### CALCULATE USERS ONLINE #########################

$userip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$time = time();
$usersonline = 0;
$alreadyonline = 0;



$onlinetxt = fopen("$counterTxt","r+");
flock($onlinetxt,2);
while (!feof($onlinetxt)) 
$user[] = chop(fgets($onlinetxt,65536));

fseek($onlinetxt,0,SEEK_SET);
ftruncate($onlinetxt,0);
foreach ($user as $line) {
  @list($savedip,$savedtime) = split("\|",$line);
  if ($savedip == $userip) {
    $savedtime = $time;
    $alreadyonline = 1;
  }
  if ($time < $savedtime + ($timeout)) {
    fputs($onlinetxt,"$savedip|$savedtime\n");
    $usersonline = $usersonline + 1;
  }
}
if (!$alreadyonline) {
  fputs($onlinetxt,"$userip|$time\n");
  $usersonline = $usersonline + 1;
}
fclose ($onlinetxt);

//###################### CALCULATE HIT COUNTER #########################

$stats = file("$hitsTxt");
$stats = explode("|",$stats[0]);
$unique_today = $stats[0]+0;
$unique_total = $stats[1]+0;
$old_today = $stats[2];
	
$today = date("Ymd");
if($old_today != $today)
  $unique_today = 0;

if(!isset($_SESSION['counted']) || ($_SESSION['counted'] != 1)){
  $unique_today++;
  $unique_total++;
  $_SESSION['counted']=1;
}

$fp = fopen("$hitsTxt","w");
fwrite($fp,$unique_today."|".$unique_total."|".$today);
fclose($fp);

//######################## DISPLAY STATISTICS ##########################

echo 'Currently Online: '.$usersonline.'<BR>
        Hits Today: '.$unique_today.'<BR>'
        Total Hits: '.$unique_total;
?>

Then place this code wherever you want the counter to appear.

<div id="counter"></div>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
if (window.XMLHttpRequest) { 
    xmlHttp = new XMLHttpRequest();
} else if (window.ActiveXObject) { 
    xmlHttp = new ActiveXObject("Microsoft.XMLHTTP");
}
function callServer(url) {
  xmlHttp.open("GET", url, true);
  xmlHttp.onreadystatechange = updatePage;
  xmlHttp.send(null);
}
function updatePage() {
  if (xmlHttp.readyState == 4) {
    var response = xmlHttp.responseText;
    document.getElementById("counter").innerHTML = response;
    setTimeout("callServer('counter.php')",2500);
  }
}
callServer("counter.php");
</script>

Hope this helps, and let me know if you need any more help.

[djr33]

I would recommend using server-side scripting (PHP) for this.

Recommend PHP, perhaps, but this REQUIRES server side scripting. Javascript just has access to the individual user, with no way of communicating across the server to other users, so server side scripting is the way to connect the users, such as with a counter, etc.

[thetestingsite]

Sorry, forgot to put in the description about the AJAX contacting the PHP script. I guess I thought it was clear that the above script uses PHP, but I guess not. Anyways, editted (spelling?) my last post.