number of logins

[hughie]

Anyone know a way to have a site list the usernames of those logged in?
It could be done by writing to a db when a session is started and
ended but it would be nicer if there is some global session that I can
go through an array of users. Is that possible or is it against the
whole spirit of sessions?

mm?

Hughie

[BKDotCom]

Re: number of logins


hughie wrote:

Anyone know a way to have a site list the usernames of those logged in?
It could be done by writing to a db when a session is started and
ended but it would be nicer if there is some global session that I can
go through an array of users. Is that possible or is it against the
whole spirit of sessions?

poll the db for active users.
perhaps your DB could have a meta-data table/row
update an "active_num_use rs" each time someone logs in/out
either a straight-forward increment/decrement or actually test for
"active/non-idle" users.
of course to track that, you'd need to also store not-only when someone
logs in, but their last activity (ie, each time they load a page)

[hughie]

Re: number of logins

poll the db for active users.

aha, you have any code for that?

perhaps your DB could have a meta-data table/row
update an "active_num_use rs" each time someone logs in/out
either a straight-forward increment/decrement or actually test for
"active/non-idle" users.
of course to track that, you'd need to also store not-only when someone
logs in, but their last activity (ie, each time they load a page)

exactly..but I was hoping to find a way to do that from some uber
session or something.
It's starting to look like going the db table way is probably best.

Hughie

[Tim Van Wassenhove]

Re: number of logins

hughie schreef:

Anyone know a way to have a site list the usernames of those logged in?

How would you define a user that is logged in? (Please take into
consideration that http is stateless when you come up with a definition)

it would be nicer if there is some global session that I can
go through an array of users.

And how would that global session be shared over all servers that host
your webapplication?


--
Tim Van Wassenhove <url:http://www.timvw.be/>

[hughie]

Re: number of logins


Tim Van Wassenhove wrote:

How would you define a user that is logged in? (Please take into
consideration that http is stateless when you come up with a definition)

When a user enters a correct username and password then a session is
created for them. During the lifetime of that session I'm calling that
'logged in'.

And how would that global session be shared over all servers that host
your webapplication?

The app is only on one server. I realise that if it were distributed
then using the db for this is best. Can I assume your question is
partly rhetorical? I'm just trying to find out a good way to do it.

[Tim Van Wassenhove]

Re: number of logins

hughie schreef:

Tim Van Wassenhove wrote:

>How would you define a user that is logged in? (Please take into
>consideratio n that http is stateless when you come up with a definition)

>
When a user enters a correct username and password then a session is
created for them. During the lifetime of that session I'm calling that
'logged in'.

And where is the session data stored? Since that is the place where you
will find all the information about (current) sessions... (Eg: iterate
over the files in session.save_pa th)


--
Tim Van Wassenhove <url:http://www.timvw.be/>

[Gordon Burditt]

Re: number of logins

>How would you define a user that is logged in? (Please take into

>consideratio n that http is stateless when you come up with a definition)

>
>When a user enters a correct username and password then a session is
>created for them. During the lifetime of that session I'm calling that
>'logged in'.

Now, when is a session DELETED? Hint: users don't use logout
buttons, except maybe by accident. They click on an ad and never
come back, their browser crashes, they just leave for a 3-week
vacation, etc.

>And how would that global session be shared over all servers that host
>your webapplication?

>
>The app is only on one server. I realise that if it were distributed
>then using the db for this is best. Can I assume your question is
>partly rhetorical? I'm just trying to find out a good way to do it.

You can use a session save handler which puts the session data in
a database. That way it's shared across all servers.

[Rik]

Re: number of logins

hughie wrote:

>poll the db for active users.

>
aha, you have any code for that?

Google jpmaster77 login script.

>perhaps your DB could have a meta-data table/row
>update an "active_num_use rs" each time someone logs in/out
>either a straight-forward increment/decrement or actually test for
>"active/non-idle" users.
>of course to track that, you'd need to also store not-only when
>someone logs in, but their last activity (ie, each time they load a
>page)

>
exactly..but I was hoping to find a way to do that from some uber
session or something.
It's starting to look like going the db table way is probably best.

Probably the fastest & most reliable solution indeed.

--
Rik Wasmus

[hughie]

Re: number of logins

thanks all - i've built it thusly: my login script writes a unix
datetime stamp to the db, my pages check it and fiddles with the times
and things. I appreciate the advice.

Hughie

[hughie]

Re: number of logins


usenet@isotopeR EEMOOVEmedia.co m wrote:

On 28 Dec 2006 06:03:40 -0800, "hughie" <hughie.carroll @gmail.comwrote :
>

thanks all - i've built it thusly: my login script writes a unix
datetime stamp to the db, my pages check it and fiddles with the times
and things. I appreciate the advice.

>
I'm catching this thread late, but you might want to check out DB_eSession.

http://www.phpclasses.org/browse/package/1624.html

>
It doesn't look like it's updated anymore, but . . .

thanks for that - i've got deep into my own coding and it's going ok so
i'll stay with that for the time being.

H