Laravel incrementing the db value by 2 times - php

Question

This is function that is returning the view
// show individual post
public function showPost($id){
$targetPost = Post::findorFail($id);
$targetPost->increment('post_view_count');
$post = [
'post' => $targetPost,
'related_posts' => Post::all()->sortByDesc("id")->take(2)// load some related posts too
];
return view('post_single', $post);
}
What I am wanting here is to update the value by 1 when someone visits the page, the posts are in a list view to some other page, user are supposed to click that link.
Everything is working, but instead of incrementing the value by 1, it is incrementing by 2 even if I hit the reload button.
What I can assume is that the page is requested twice or loading via some kinda middleware first. That's why the request is being sent twice. How do I fix this?

Answer 1

Such a basic counter will not suit your needs. What you can do is create a migration for your Post Views:
Schema::create("post_views", function(Blueprint $table)
{
$table->unsignedInteger("id");
$table->unsignedInteger("id_post");
$table->string("session_id");
$table->string("user_id");
$table->string("ip");
$table->string("agent");
$table->timestamps();
});
Next create a model that will handle the views for you
class PostsViews extends \Eloquent {
protected $table = 'posts_views';
public static function createViewLog($post) {
$postsViews= new PostsViews();
$postsViews->id_post = $post->id;
$postsViews->titleslug = $post->titleslug;
$postsViews->url = \Request::url();
$postsViews->session_id = \Request::getSession()->getId();
$postsViews->user_id = \Auth::user()->id;
$postsViews->ip = \Request::getClientIp();
$postsViews->agent = \Request::header('User-Agent');
$postsViews->save();
}
Now use this in your showPost function():
public function showPost($id){
$targetPost = Post::findorFail($id);
PostsViews::createViewLog($targetPost);
$post = [
'post' => $targetPost,
'related_posts' => Post::all()->sortByDesc("id")->take(2)
];
return view('post_single', $post);
}
Now it will log all views but you can filter it out when you need it on User agent, IP address or session. You can also use that kind of filter when logging a view to just log 1 view per post per viewer.