Detect whether the browser is refreshed or not using PHP

Question

I want to detect whether the browser is refreshed or not using PHP, and if the browser is refreshed, what particular PHP code should execute.

Answer 1

If someone refreshes a page, the same request will be sent as the previous one. So you should check whether the current request is the same as the last one. This can be done as follows:

session_start();

$pageRefreshed = false;
if (isset($_SESSION['LAST_REQUEST']) && $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] === $_SESSION['LAST_REQUEST']['REQUEST_URI']) {
    if (isset($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'])) {
         // check if the last request’s referrer is the same as the current
         $pageRefreshed = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] === $_SESSION['LAST_REQUEST']['HTTP_REFERER'];
    } else {
         // check if the last request didn’t have a referrer either
         $pageRefreshed = $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] === null;
    }
}

// set current request as "last request"

$_SERVER['LAST_REQUEST'] = array(
    'REQUEST_URI'  => $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'],
    'HTTP_REFERER' => isset($_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER']) ? $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] : null
);

I haven’t tested it but it should work.