Do not increment on page reload

Question

I've placed a hit counter on my page. It reads a text file, increments the number in the file, and later in the page, I output the incremented value.

$hitsFile   = "hits/exps/stats.txt";
$hits       = file($hitsFile);
$hits[0]++;
$fp = fopen($hitsFile , "w");
flock($fh, LOCK_EX);
fwrite($fp , $hits[0]);
fclose($fp);

My problem is that if I reload the page, the code will increment the hits. I don't want that. I thought of using session to fix that, but with session, in order the increment the hits again, I need to exit the site and visit again. I don't want that either.

I want it to increment not when I reload the page but when I revisit the page.

For example, let's say I have two-page website, Home and Contact, and on contact page I have a hit counter. I don't want the hit counter to increment if I reload(refresh) the contact page, but if I leave the contact page and visit homepage, and later revisit the contact page, I want it to increment.

In short, I don't want it to increment on page reload. Is there a way to do that?

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited May 20 '17 at 04:57

2

In each of your pages, you need to write the page name in the session.
Do something like this:

$_SESSION['page'] = 'contact';

On the pages where you need to count hits, you need to check this session key.
For example, if you were on page 'contact', then $_SESSION['page'] == 'contact'.
Now when you go to visit the 'homepage':

$page = $_SESSION['page'];
if($page != 'homepage')
{
    //increment your hits counter
    $_SESSION['page'] = 'homepage';
}

edited May 20 '17 at 04:57

SherylHohman

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answered Aug 09 '14 at 19:31

fiction

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What if I'm using hit counter in all pages to store hits for each page? – akinuri Aug 09 '14 at 19:46
@akinuri so you will need to add second code (it will check reload it or not) provided by me on the top of each of pages. **And note, that you need to change comment** `//increment your hits counter` **to code, that increments youe counter, actually.** Also you need to change name of pages (in the example i used _homepage_ name) – fiction Aug 09 '14 at 19:52

Alessandro · Answer 2 · 2019-06-09T13:04:40.030

I suggest this method, is my preferred, create in root these folders: cnt and log... then put inside cnt folder the following files cnt.php and showcnt.php...

cnt.php

<?php
  ##############################################################################
  # Php Counter With Advanced Technology For The Prevention Of Reloading Pages #
  # Version: 1.4 - Date: 13.11.2014 - Created By Alessandro Marinuzzi [Alecos] #
  ##############################################################################
  function cnt($file) {
    session_start();
    global $pagecnt;
    $reloaded = isset($_SERVER['HTTP_CACHE_CONTROL']) && $_SERVER['HTTP_CACHE_CONTROL'] === 'max-age=0';
    $thispage = basename($_SERVER['SCRIPT_FILENAME']);
    if (!isset($_SESSION['first_go'])) {
      $_SESSION['first_go'] = 1;
      $first_go = TRUE;
    } else {
      $first_go = FALSE;
    }
    if (!isset($_SESSION['thispage'])) {
      $_SESSION['thispage'] = $thispage;
    }
    if ($_SESSION['thispage'] != $thispage) {
      $_SESSION['thispage'] = $thispage;
      $new_page = TRUE;
    } else {
      $new_page = FALSE;
    }
    $pagecnt = rtrim(file_get_contents($file));
    if ((!$reloaded) && ($new_page == TRUE) || ($first_go == TRUE)) {
      $fd = fopen($file, 'w+');
      flock($fd, LOCK_EX);
      fwrite($fd, ++$pagecnt);
      flock($fd, LOCK_UN);
      fclose($fd);
    }
  }
?>

showcnt.php

<?php
  ##############################################################################
  # Show Counter Results - v.1.4 - 13.11.2014 By Alessandro Marinuzzi [Alecos] #
  ##############################################################################
  function gfxcnt($file) {
    global $number;
    $number = rtrim(file_get_contents($file));
    $lenght = strlen($number);
    $gfxcnt = "";
    for ($i = 0; $i < $lenght; $i++) {
      $gfxcnt .= $number[$i];
    }
    $gfxind = "<span class=\"counter\"><span class=\"number\">$gfxcnt</span></span>";
    echo $gfxind;
  }
?>

Well, then edit your index.php or other php page... and put at the beginning this piece of code:

<?php session_start(); include("cnt/cnt.php"); cnt("log/index.txt"); include("cnt/showcnt.php"); ?>

Well, then edit index.php or other php page... and use this piece of code for reading counter file:

<?php gfxcnt("log/index.txt"); ?>

It's all, I hope you'll find my answer useful :) My counter can write/read multiple php pages...

Source: my blog (https://www.alecos.it/new/101/101.php)

Oswald · Answer 3 · 2014-08-09T19:36:24.053

0

Update the hit count only if the current URL is not stored in $_SESSION['url'].
After updating the hit count, store the current URL in $_SESSION['url'].

edited Aug 09 '14 at 19:36

answered Aug 09 '14 at 19:30

Oswald

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Aug 09 '14 at 19:31

Add session_start(); to the top.

Now change your if to this:

if (!isset($_SESSION['lastpage']) || $_SESSION['lastpage'] != $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING') {
   $hits[0]++;
}

$_SESSION['lastpage'] = $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'];

This will basically force someone to move to another page if they want to increment the counter.

Do not increment on page reload

4 Answers4