Title: Counter Script
Author: Sazzad Hossain & WMSZ
Language: PHP
Demo: http://jorsek.info/stats/
Demo 2: http://jorsek.info/tcounter/
Summary: In this tutorial, we will learn how to create a very simplified counter script. Unlike the general counter scripts, here we will also have a general page view counter, unique view counter, total users online and users viewing current page.

Step 1: db.sql
Lets write our database information first. This help out with understanding the rest of the items we will talk about later on in this tutorial. For this tutorial we will have 2 tables created. The first will be for the general display number of page views and unique views (this is displayed in the stats table). Next we will use a separate table for the users online under the usersonline table. It will take some time to explain all the little details, so if you want to know what they are meant to do, then go here.


Step 2: config.php
The main purpose of this file is to make our life a lot easier. This file will help store all the databse connection information. Instead of writing the following lines in every single file we are going to use it in, we are just going to include this entire file through the use of the includes function. So lets list all the connection information

The $host will help us list the type of host you are connecting to. In general we use localhost as our default host, but it may differ. In such case, contact your server admin to gain that information. Next we are going to use $username to input users name for the database. Next the $password is used to connect to that users account. Finally we are going to input the name of the database in the $db_name. Often people tend to use the database's name first, but it really doesn't make much of a difference.

Step 3: stats.php

Ok now we want to write a script that will count the number of current page views and unique views. In order to do that we need to first get the connection info for the database. Note that we already defined all of the database connection information in config.php, so now all we have to do is connect to that folder. In addition, we want to define which table in the database all information should be gathered and stored into. We can achieve that by:

Next we want to connect to the database itself. If we don't connect to the databse, all our hard work will go down the drain. So lets use the following code to connect to the database

Now that all the easy work is done, lets get down to writing the actual script. To be honest, this is a pretty simple job. In php there is a built in function called $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];. This function allows us to gain the visitors IP address and store it somewhere.

Now we need to select the IP field and row of our SQL table.

For a brief description, the $fetch is supposed to select the row if it exists in our database. If the output of the $fetch equals 0 (zero) that means that the row does not exist.
In such case where the value does not exist, we need to insert the visitors IP address into the IP and visits row of the table. We can do that by with the following line

If the users IP was found already (say he/she visited the site already), we need to add his new visit in our visits row next to his previously recorded IP. We can achieve that with an else statement and the line that follows

Now we need to bring all the recorded information back to one area so that we can display it on our site. We can do that with the following series of lines.

This line of code helps us select our SQL table and if it fails, it will print out an error.
Now that we have that done, we need to count the number of rows in our table and and store it as $unique. This basically works almost exactly like our else statement does. If the persons IP address exists in our databse, it will add 1 to the visits row, if it does not, it will create a new field and add 1 to the new IP since it was their first visit. So lets put that in our code

Now we want to get the total number of visits. We can do that using a while statement. While statements are very useful in php. Lets get what we are looking for by using the following codes

Ok now that we have almost everything done, we need to display that all in page. We can do that by echoing the $visits and the $unique. So lets give you a nice clean look for it. (Do note that we are also ending our php code, so we need to add in that end php line)


Step 4: useronline.php
Many people may think this will be very hard to do. Well they are partially correct. In some sense it is hard, but compared to the stats.php file we just wrote, this is a piece of cake.
For this file, we also have to gain the database information, connect to sql server and open the correct table. Since we have already learned this before, its best we don't copy and paste the same information. So we'll just write the code in. If you need the explanation, just scroll up.

Ok I know we never added $timeoutseconds in the previous code. Yeah sorry about that, but it makes life a little easier. So simplest explanation of what that does is that it will count the time (in seconds) needed till it will remove the user from the database. So if a person visits your website, his IP will be stored in the database for that amount of time. The others are fairly self explaining.

Next we need to add the user to the database (since he doesn't exist yet). So we use this line

Now we need to delete the users that have been online for more than the $timeoutseconds we set up, helps out when a person goes idol and forgets to close the browser he had opened.

Since that is done, we can now get the total users online from the database. We can achieve that by

Now that we got the total users online, we want to get the number of users on the current page. To do this we will use

Finally its time for to display all users online. We can do this by echoing the $user


Step 5: Displaying
Ah finally the last and final step. This is real simple, all we want to do is include those two pages on our index or a page of our choice. Since we really didn't add any styles to it, we can simple include it on any page. We can do this by using the includes function. If you don't know what the include function does, then read this tutorial on php includes. So here is a really simplified code for it.


DOWNLOAD
If you are lazy like me you can download the file here

Before we end, I would like to say that I read a tutorial on how to do things such as this, I have been working on perfecting this script for a little time, taking out little bugs and so far this is the final version. If you notice a bug, please do report it to me. If I made a mistake post here and say "Hey I think you did this wrong" or "you are missing this." Thank you for reading.

Good tutorial :] I did have a working version but i kinda accidently deleted it haha
Thanks man:]

Well I wrote up all the parts and created one rar file for those who just want to download it. Thanks for your feedback.

Solid effort. It's good that your spreading your knowledge. I am way too busy at the moment to create anything too in depth.

Jacob.

Nice tutorial!

To be honest, I hate those tutorials just just gives you a chunk of code and only explains the general concept of the full code. That way you can't really learn what each line or set of lines do and why they were used. I would rather learn it in the method where I get to learn the purpose of each single line.

MySQL Error: Duplicate entry '1216152741' for key 1
i keep getting that

Hmm strange. I'll try to get that fixed. I never got that error so I'll look into it.

Found the error. Please rename the usersonline.php file to useronline.php. I am updating the rar file right now. Sorry for the error.


//EDIT
SORRY for double post. Didn't realize the previous post was mine. Please merge. Thanks

Good tutorial, this topic very useful for me.

I'm glad that it was useful for you. I now use it often for my work.