How do I count unique visitors to my site?

Question

I am making a visitor counting system for user posts to show the most viewed posts on homepage. I have a visitor counting system now but all it registers a view at every pag

Answer 1

Here is a nice tutorial, it is what you need. (Source: coursesweb.net/php-mysql)

Register and show online users and visitors

Count Online users and visitors using a MySQL table

In this tutorial you can learn how to register, to count, and display in your webpage the number of online users and visitors. The principle is this: each user / visitor is registered in a text file or database. Every time a page of the website is accessed, the php script deletes all records older than a certain time (eg 2 minutes), adds the current user / visitor and takes the number of records left to display.

You can store the online users and visitors in a file on the server, or in a MySQL table. In this case, I think that using a text file to add and read the records is faster than storing them into a MySQL table, which requires more requests.

First it's presented the method with recording in a text file on the server, than the method with MySQL table.

To download the files with the scripts presented in this tutorial, click -> Count Online Users and Visitors.

• Both scripts can be included in ".php" files (with include()), or in ".html" files (with

This script (and the other presented below) works with $_SESSION. At the beginning of the PHP file in which you use it, you must add: session_start();. Count Online users and visitors using a MySQL table

To register, count and show the number of online visitors and users in a MySQL table, require to perform three SQL queries: Delete the records older than a certain time. Insert a row with the new user /visitor, or, if it is already inserted, Update the timestamp in its column. Select the remaining rows. Here's the code for a script that uses a MySQL table (named "userson") to store and display the Online Users and Visitors.

1. First we create the "userson" table, with 2 columns (uvon, dt). In the "uvon" column is stored the name of the user (if logged in) or the visitor's IP. In the "dt" column is stored a number with the timestamp (Unix time) when the page is accessed.

• Add the following code in a php file (for example, named "create_userson.php"):

The code for create_userson.php:

query($sql) === TRUE) echo 'Table "userson" successfully created';
else echo 'Error: '. $conn->error;

$conn->close();
?>

2. Now we create the script that Inserts, Deletes, and Selects data in the userson table (For explanations about the code, see the comments in script).

• Add the code below in another php file (named usersmysql.php): In both file you must add your personal data for connecting to MySQL database, in the variables: $host, $user, $pass, and $dbname .

The code for usersmysql.php:

query($sqldel)) echo 'Error: '. $conn->error;
if(!$conn->query($sqliu)) echo 'Error: '. $conn->error;
$result = $conn->query($sqlsel);

// if the $result contains at least one row
if ($result->num_rows > 0) {
  // traverse the sets of results and set the number of online visitors and users ($nrvst, $nrusr)
  while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
    if(preg_match($rgxvst, $row['uvon'])) $nrvst++;       // increment the visitors
    else {
      $nrusr++;                   // increment the users
      $usron .= '
 - '.$row['uvon']. '';          // stores the user's name
    }
  }
}

$conn->close();                  // close the MySQL connection

// the HTML code with data to be displayed
$reout = '
Online: '. ($nrusr+$nrvst). '
Visitors: '. $nrvst. '
Users: '. $nrusr. $usron. '
';

// if access from 

Both scripts (with storing data in a text file on the server, or into a MySQL table) will display a result like this: Online: 5

Visitors: 3 Users: 2

• MarPlo
• Marius