adding counter to php page to count the unique visitors - php

Question

I want to add a counter in my webpage which counts the number of visitors.
But my problem is that when i refresh my page ,counter increases by 1..i want that counter increases only when a new visitor with another ip reaches to my webpage.
here are my codes..
Sorry for my weak english
index.php
<?php
session_start();
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
$_SESSION['current_user'] = $ip;
if(isset($_SESSION['current_user']))
{
$count = file_get_contents("counter.txt");
$count = trim($count);
$fl = fopen("counter.txt","w+");
fwrite($fl,$count);
fclose($fl);
}
else
{
$count = file_get_contents("counter.txt");
$count = trim($count);
$count = $count + 1;
$fl = fopen("counter.txt","w+");
fwrite($fl,$count);
fclose($fl);
}

Answer 1

As database based solution is not preferred, You can try the following file based solution for counting unique visitor. You already have used counter.txt file in your code.
I tried to use the same file that you have used. In my case I am storing IP address in that file. I have used base64 encoding function just to hide the IP address. It is always good to keep that file in a safe place. If that file is lost then the unique visitor IPs will be lost. See the function below:
Function definition
function getUniqueVisitorCount($ip)
{
session_start();
if(!isset($_SESSION['current_user']))
{
$file = 'counter.txt';
if(!$data = #file_get_contents($file))
{
file_put_contents($file, base64_encode($ip));
$_SESSION['visitor_count'] = 1;
}
else{
$decodedData = base64_decode($data);
$ipList = explode(';', $decodedData);
if(!in_array($ip, $ipList)){
array_push($ipList, $ip);
file_put_contents($file, base64_encode(implode(';', $ipList)));
}
$_SESSION['visitor_count'] = count($ipList);
}
$_SESSION['current_user'] = $ip;
}
}
Function call
$ip = '192.168.1.210'; // $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
getUniqueVisitorCount($ip);
echo 'Unique visitor count: ' . $_SESSION['visitor_count'];
Output
Unique visitor count: 2

Answer 2

Change:
if(isset($_SESSION['current_user']))
to:
if($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] == $_SESSION['current_user'])
And, surely you dont need to get $count from a file, and then write the same value back to the file...? If the $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] matches the SESSION['current_user'] then do nothing..

Answer 3

try to store the user IP in database and check for unique user,
<?php
session_start();
if (!$_SESSION['status']) {
$connection = mysql_connect("localhost", "user", "password");
mysql_select_db("ip_log", $connection);
$ip = $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
mysql_query("INSERT INTO `database`.`table` (IP) VALUES ('$ip')");
mysql_close($connection);
$_SESSION['status'] = true;
}
?>

Answer 4

Best And Easy Code
Try to store the user IP in database and check for unique user
$`servername` = "";
$username = "";
$password = "";
$`dbname` = "";
$`conn` = new `mysqli`($`servername`, $username, $password, $`dbname`);
if ($`conn`->connect_error) {
die("Connection failed: " . $`conn`->connect_error);
}
$address = gethostbyaddr($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']);
$name = `gethostname`();
$re = "select * from visitor where name='$name'";
$call = `mysqli_fetch_array`($re);
$as = `mysqli_num_rows`($call);
if($as == 0){
$`sql` = "UPDATE visitor SET visits = visits+1 WHERE name = '$name'";
}else{
$`sql` = "INSERT INTO visitor(visits,name,address) VALUE(1,'$name','$address')";
}
$`conn`->query($`sql`);
$`sql` = "SELECT visits FROM visitor WHERE id = 1";
$result = $`conn`->query($`sql`);
if ($result->`num_rows` > 0) {
while($row = $result->fetch_assoc()) {
$visits = $row["visits"];
}
} else {
$visits = "";
//echo $visits;
}
`$conn`->close();