[PHP] Online/Offline Status

I'm thinking of making an Online/Offline status bit to add to my profile project.

I have a theory on how im going to do it all, but I just want some feedback first to see if it'll work, or if there are better options.

I've never done this before, so I'm making up the code as I go.

Here's what I've come up with.

I'm going to make a table in SQL called `curLogin` and `lastLogin`
If user signs in, a row is inserted to `curLogin` containing :
`userID`
`loginStart` - TimeStamp
`lastEdit` - TimeStamp

Every action (post comment, remove comment, add friend etc.) will update their curLogin set `lastEdit` row where userID=SessionID
Also, every action will check all the rows under curLogin to see if any other users were innactive for 1 hour.

If a user was innactive for 1 hour, then the code will procede to remove the innactive user's row from `curLogin` and add a new row to `lastLogin`. (Result being: innactive user offline, display last time user was active+1 hour inside lastLogin table)

If a user logs out, then their row from curLogin is removed, and a new row is added to `lastLogin` with their timestamp info.

I could even go as far as recording every action a user takes; Or a log, if you will.

One problem with going this direction is that the users control who is online/offline based on their actions. I can see that unless I have people online editing stuff constantly, the database will still think you're logged in until you either log-out, or until another user edits something after you were innactive for 1 hour.

So let's say there was only 1 user online (user1), and that user just goes away without logging out. He will remain "Online" until someone else happens to login, or perform an action. The new person logged in (user2) will never see user1 logged in, but the `lastLogin` for user1's timestamp will be wrong. Since user1 could've been innactive for days, his online/offline status will not be updated untill the next action is performed on the server by another user.

Well I'm sure there's a better way to go about doing this...

All I really want to do is tell whether or not a user is online.

hmm. i like your theory.
i trying to think of some other way to do it.
its like the myspace online now thing right?

You're in the right direction, but it can be done even simpler :)

You have an account table, don't you? In that table you simply add 2 columns: logged_in (a boolean) and last_action (a timestamp).

Whenever a user logs in, you simply set logged_in to true, and last_action to the current time. Whenever a user logs out manually, you set logged_in to false, nothing has to be done with last_action.

Now, I assume you have a top.php for every header of each page users can visit (this contains initialisation of things, MySQL, sessions, some queries you wish to execute every page etc). In that top.php, you make an If statement, where you check if '(last_action + (10 * 60 /*10 minutes*/)) < time()'.

If that is true, then the users didn't visit a page for 10 minutes, in which 99% of the cases he logged out implicitly. So you set logged_in to false.

If it was false, you update the last_action of the current users (user_id == session_id).

logged_in would be an unsigned integer of length 1 (or a bool if that is possible in MySQL)
last_action would be an unsigned integer of length 11

Now you can simply go through each row of the account table, see if one is logged in and immediatly display it's username, without opening other tables aswell.

So at the part where they are innactive for 10 minutes ->

If they close the browser and never come back, then they'll never get caught by the logMeOut script for innactive users. This would result in other friends seeing them online still, right?

Or wait.. Nevermind. I'll make a global script for everyone to log eachother out still.
Just in case they leave and never come back. So for example, like my origonal plan, but without the timestamp that overcomplicates things. Since the user was already innactive, (s)he must already have a last action, and that truely was their last action. So if another user logs them out automaticly, then I'll leave the last_editted field alone since it's already their last action.

So, when they goto any page with user includes, there's some processing that takes place going through every logged-in user, finding out their last-edit and logging expired users out.

If user is logged in, show (Online Now!), Else if today show(Last Visit: 'time'), else (Last Visit: 'date')


How's that sound? I think I'll do that.

And thanks again Daevius!

You make it too difficult, if you apply my method users that are inactive are logged out anyways, since they are inactive for 10 minutes. Every users that reloads should check that.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Daevius

You make it too difficult, if you apply my method users that are inactive are logged out anyways, since they are inactive for 10 minutes. Every users that reloads should check that.

---

Alright, I took what you said into heart, and tried to do it.

I ran into a few walls, but hopped most of them. One problem was that I had to find out how to convert a timestamp to the time() method (counting with seconds since jan. 1st 1970, 00:00:00) or whatever it is.. Using the strtotime() method.

That was really a pain in the :eek:

After I got that bit of information, I was flying through the basic math part.. But I still have a problem I just can't understand..
To me, it looks like it should work.. But... this is what I did:

PHP Code:

---

 <?php 
/////////////   Log out expired users //////////////////
//If user's session exists:
if(strlen($_SESSION['SessionID'])>0) {
//Get the data from database:
$getdata="SELECT * FROM `users` ";
$getdata2=mysql_query($getdata) or die(mysql_error());
while($getdata3=mysql_fetch_array($getdata2)) {
$getdata3[userID]=strip_tags($getdata3[userID]);
$getdata3[last_action]=strip_tags($getdata3[last_action]);
$getdata3[logged_in]=strip_tags($getdata3[logged_in]);
//End - Get the data..
$logged_in=$getdata3['logged_in'];
$logCheckID=$getdata3['userID'];
//Time information:
$last_action=$getdata3['last_action'];
$last_action=strtotime($last_action);
$Onehour = 3600 ;
$expired = $last_action + $Onehour; 
$time=time();
//End - Time information
$elapsedTime=$time-$last_action;
//If user is online
if($logged_in == 1) {
print "<p>Last Action+1 hour: $expired<br>Time: $time<br>Elapsed Time: $elapsedTime</p>";
//Close - If user is online
}
//Update session-holders everytime this page is loaded
if($_SESSION['SessionID']==$logCheckID) {
$logged_in = 1;
$update = "UPDATE `users` SET `last_action` = NOW(), `logged_in` = '$logged_in' WHERE `userID` = '". $_SESSION['SessionID'] ."' LIMIT 1 ";
//Close - Update everytime this page is loaded
}
//if user is logged in
if(logged_in==1) {
//If user innactive for 1 hour
if($expired < $time) {
$update = "UPDATE `users` SET `logged_in` = '0' WHERE `userID` = '". $logCheckID ."' LIMIT 1 ";
//Close - If user innactive for 1 hour
} 
//Close - If user is logged in
}
//If update is pending, Query update
if(isset($update)) {
mysql_query($update) or die(mysql_error());
}
//Close - While($getdata3=..
}
//Close - If session
}
?>

---

I put a print to show me some of the details of users online.

Code:

---

Last Action+1 hour: 1217401035
Time: 1217397438
Elapsed Time: 3
1
Last Action+1 hour: 1217394976
Time: 1217397438
Elapsed Time: 6062
1

---

The problem is that the part that has this:

PHP Code:

---

if($expired > $time) {.. 


---

is not doing anything!

So... I'm super lost... because the second account should be displayed as offline since it's 6062 seconds old, and my statement says to kill anyone less than 3600!

Did anyone understand that? lol

You need to put the time() in the database, not strtotime() (time() takes less room, and in PHP you can convert it into a readable text).

top.php (included by every page)

PHP Code:

---

// connecting to MySQL here

session_start();

if ($_SESSION['logged_in'])
{
    mysql_query('UPDATE users SET logged_in = 1, last_action = '.time().' WHERE user_id = "'.$_SESSION['user_id'].'" LIMIT 1');
    mysql_query('UPDATE users SET logged_in = 0 WHERE last_action < '.(time() - (60 * 60)).'');
} 


---

login.php

PHP Code:

---

require('top.php');
// check if input is right etc

$_SESSION['logged_in'] = true; 


---

userlist.php

PHP Code:

---

require('top.php');

$select = mysql_query('SELECT username FROM users WHERE logged_in = 1');
while ($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($select))
{
    echo $row['username'].' ';
} 


---

Tell me why I got no errors with this code, the first SQL statement works (it puts a 1 on your ID's logged_in column), but the second 2 do not work; nor do they show errors..
(they will not put a 0 on expired ppl or logging out ppl)

PHP Code:

---

<?php 
// initialize a session 
session_start(); 

include "connect.php";

if(!isset($_REQUEST['logout'])) {
mysql_query('UPDATE users SET logged_in = 1, last_action = '.time().' WHERE userID = "'.$_SESSION['SessionID'].'" LIMIT 1') or die(mysql_error());

mysql_query('UPDATE users SET logged_in = 0 WHERE last_action < '.(time() - (60 * 60)).'') or die(mysql_error());
}
    
if(isset($_REQUEST['logout'])) {
//user is logged-out:
mysql_query('UPDATE users SET logged_in = 0, last_action = '.time().' WHERE `username` = "'.$_SESSION['SessionUser'].'" LIMIT 1') or die(mysql_error());
print "Logged out: ". $_SESSION['SessionUser'] ."";
$queryDone=1;
}
if($queryDone==1) {
//kill sesssion
session_destroy();


print "<meta http-equiv=\"refresh\" content=\"1;URL=http://www.avsbest.com/\" /><p>Logging out.. Refreshing page.</p>";

}

?>

---

Any ideas?

Unsure what you mean, but I would rewrite the If like this:

PHP Code:

---

if(!isset($_POST['logout'])) // request?
{
}    
else
{
} 


---

But I see no errors in your queries...

Maybe set '(60 * 60)' to just a few seconds...then you can more quickly see if it works.

Well I was setting the time backwards 2 hours inside my database lol.. But I was doing it the way you said just now, yesterday. and yeah.. it stil wasn't working..

I'm really frustrated right now with PHP not understanding me.. Nobody understands me >.< lol.. except you Daevius.

But anyway, I origonally had it as post until I started making links like href="thisURL.php?logout=LogMeOut"

So since I was using $_POST and $_GET both to log ppl out, then I decided to just use $_REQUEST which works for both, instead of doing if(isset($_POST..)) {} else if(isset($_GET..)) {}

But if it's not gonna work, it's not gonna work. I'll just setup the display so it displays ppl online if they were active 10 minutes ago.. The update last_edited works everytime you refresh any page with a session. I'll just say:
if( (strtotime($last_edited)+600)-$time > 1) {
print '<small><span style="color: #00CC00;">Online Now!</span></small>';
}

That way I'm just taking out a step and it should still be effective for the job it's titled to.. - Display ppl onine -

EDIT: I got it working pretty good now.
Basicly, I just do this query on every page:

PHP Code:

---

$update='update `users` SET `last_action` = NOW() where `userID`= '.$_SESSION['SessionID'].' LIMIT 1'; 


---

There's really no reason for a limit, since I don't think it's even possible to do UPDATE *(All) ... And default is 1..

Anyway, I load the table to the page, and it goes through this code:

PHP Code:

---

<?php
if( (strtotime($last_edited)+600)-time() > 1) {
print '<br><small><span style="color: #00CC00;"><strong>Online Now!</strong></span></small>';
} else {
list($date,$time) = split(" ", $last_edited);
list($yr,$month,$day) = split("-",$date);

// Month change:
  if($month=="01") {
  $month="Jan";
  }
  else if($month=="02") {
  $month="Feb";
  }
  else if($month=="03") {
  $month="March";
  }
  else if($month=="04") {
  $month="April";
  }
  else if($month=="05") {
  $month="May";
  }
  else if($month=="06") {
  $month="June";
  }
  else if($month=="07") {
  $month="July";
  }
  else if($month=="08") {
  $month="Aug";
  }
  else if($month=="09") {
  $month="Sep";
  }
  else if($month=="10") {
  $month="Oct";
  }
  else if($month=="11") {
  $month="Nov";
  }
  else if($month=="12") {
  $month="Dec";
  }
  if($day < 10) {
list($zero,$day)=split("0",$day);
}
print '<br><small><span style="color: #990000;">Last Online: <i>'.$month.' '.$day.', '.$yr.'</i></span></small>'; 
}
?>

---

If the user is online, say: Online Now!
else, say last log-in (ex.): Last Login: Aug. 1, 2008

I put this^ code on the main profile page.

I only ask if the user is online on the friendlist and comments area. I don't put the: [Last Login:...] bit on those areas; Just [Online Now!].

u can also use..

instead of Aug. 1, 2008

Last login: 1month, 2days ... something.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by s-p-n

Well I was setting the time backwards 2 hours inside my database lol.. But I was doing it the way you said just now, yesterday. and yeah.. it stil wasn't working..

I'm really frustrated right now with PHP not understanding me.. Nobody understands me >.< lol.. except you Daevius.

But anyway, I origonally had it as post until I started making links like href="thisURL.php?logout=LogMeOut"

So since I was using $_POST and $_GET both to log ppl out, then I decided to just use $_REQUEST which works for both, instead of doing if(isset($_POST..)) {} else if(isset($_GET..)) {}

But if it's not gonna work, it's not gonna work. I'll just setup the display so it displays ppl online if they were active 10 minutes ago.. The update last_edited works everytime you refresh any page with a session. I'll just say:
if( (strtotime($last_edited)+600)-$time > 1) {
print '<small><span style="color: #00CC00;">Online Now!</span></small>';
}

That way I'm just taking out a step and it should still be effective for the job it's titled to.. - Display ppl onine -

EDIT: I got it working pretty good now.
Basicly, I just do this query on every page:

PHP Code:

---

$update='update `users` SET `last_action` = NOW() where `userID`= '.$_SESSION['SessionID'].' LIMIT 1'; 


---

There's really no reason for a limit, since I don't think it's even possible to do UPDATE *(All) ... And default is 1..

Anyway, I load the table to the page, and it goes through this code:

PHP Code:

---

<?php
if( (strtotime($last_edited)+600)-time() > 1) {
print '<br><small><span style="color: #00CC00;"><strong>Online Now!</strong></span></small>';
} else {
list($date,$time) = split(" ", $last_edited);
list($yr,$month,$day) = split("-",$date);

// Month change:
  if($month=="01") {
  $month="Jan";
  }
  else if($month=="02") {
  $month="Feb";
  }
  else if($month=="03") {
  $month="March";
  }
  else if($month=="04") {
  $month="April";
  }
  else if($month=="05") {
  $month="May";
  }
  else if($month=="06") {
  $month="June";
  }
  else if($month=="07") {
  $month="July";
  }
  else if($month=="08") {
  $month="Aug";
  }
  else if($month=="09") {
  $month="Sep";
  }
  else if($month=="10") {
  $month="Oct";
  }
  else if($month=="11") {
  $month="Nov";
  }
  else if($month=="12") {
  $month="Dec";
  }
  if($day < 10) {
list($zero,$day)=split("0",$day);
}
print '<br><small><span style="color: #990000;">Last Online: <i>'.$month.' '.$day.', '.$yr.'</i></span></small>'; 
}
?>

---

If the user is online, say: Online Now!
else, say last log-in (ex.): Last Login: Aug. 1, 2008

I put this^ code on the main profile page.

I only ask if the user is online on the friendlist and comments area. I don't put the: [Last Login:...] bit on those areas; Just [Online Now!].

---

What time stamp are you using? Your code is ugly and can be done in 1-2 lines.

Yep.

Make sure you use time() everywhere near the database, which returns an int with the number of seconds since 1970.

Then use this function: http://nl.php.net/date to retrieve the month number / name and other kind of time display's ;)

Well, some thoughts, you could do it easier as pieman said far less lines. You are putting wayyyy too much work into this time thing.

In MySql use timestamp, it automatically updates every time the record is changed, so any insert, update will change it to the current timestamp. (ok im 90% sure its timestamp and too lazy to look it up)

also use something in MySql called INTERVAL

you can basically say:

Code:

---

update logintable set logged_in = 0 where DATE_SUB(CURDATE(),INTERVAL 10 Minutes)  <= lastactivity

---

Ok that might not be exact its 1 am but you get the idea I hope and here is a reference link:
http://dev.mysql.com/doc/refman/5.0/...functions.html

in other words, let MySql do the work of date checking not Php as Daevius is also showing you in his examples.

you are making it entirely tooooo hard.

There's really no need for a logged_in varriable here.. And it could be done in about 6-7 lines of code, but it's not.

To Daevius: You see, I tried $date=date(d-M-Y,$date); or whatever it is to make the months appear like Jan, Feb, etc, but that code decided to give me december instead of august or july (or anything). The number was 07, it came up with december. I changed the number to 7 by taking out the 0, and still came out with december. Wierd stuff...

I decided it'd be faster if I just went back to my notes and copied my month changer script (very simple, but it's about 27 lines of code).

A timestamp works for regular YYYY-MM-DD 00:00:00 formatted time, and a Unix Timestamp works with the time() method a bit better, but it didn't seem to be the same format as time() like I expected. I'm using a regular timestamp, and then I convert it after I load it to the page.

Yes, I could do the function itself in MySQL, but if you read back a few posts, you'd see that I was having trouble doing it all like that.

To Pieman: I don't think that's all that much code.. Like I said, most of it is just the month renamer, which isn't really needed, but it helps, I like it, and I'm going to continue using it instead of date() because, if you do your research, you'll notice date() is buggy with PHP4 especially. And another thing, maybe you think my code is ugly or whatever because you can read it? But unlike you, I like to be able to easily read my code so I can use it in future projects later, or maybe even be able to read it 10 years down the line with no problem. If you think it's ugly because it's basic, than keep it to yourself :/

To Madison: My host does wierd things with MySQL databases, so I really can't do more then 1 query at once due to the terms in big, red, bold letters above my databases. It's possible.. but why take the risk of losing my databases? 'Tis my fault for not mentioning this, but MySQL databases can't take that much punch. You should never use a mysql database for loops or functions such as chatting, automatic banner changers, chatlogs; anything that may cause stress. Or at least that's what 1and1 says.. (I really hate them and I'm going to switch to Hostgator soon)...

PHP4 on the other hand, doesn't have this problem, so I tend to do most conditional programming in PHP rather then MySQL. PHP was designed for it, where as in MySQL it's just an added pluss.

In other words, I had already looked into mostly all of the things you all said, and they didn't work out for me, and this is what I ended up with.

Thanks for the help everyone, mostly Daevius for opening my mind to an easier way of doing things.

Echo the following:

date(M m, time());

If that doesn't display 'August 08' then your server clock is broken...:S

As to Madison...that looks rather interesting, high chance it's faster then PHP. Never thought of that ^^, will look into it.

Echo the following:

date(M m, time());

If that doesn't display 'August 08' then your server clock is broken...:S

As to Madison...that looks rather interesting, high chance it's faster then PHP. Never thought of that ^^, will look into it.

MySQL databases can perfectly handle loops, they should just be all in one query. If you do a for loop of 200 items (for $i = 0; $i < 200; $i++) { [query] } you will hang your database.

That being said, I'm appaled at your code. It's not ugly because it's basic, it's ugly because it uses no abstraction, no indentation, no descriptive variable names, mixes display logic with data logic and you rely upon PHP's string parser to build your dynamic texts. If you plan to still write PHP code in 10 years I strongly advice you to read an article I wrote a while ago here on maintainable PHP code.

Then, to actually go to the usefull part, a much more elegant way to count active users is to count active sessions. To do that you can either loop trough the session_safe_path directory or write a custom session handler that uses a database - it's fairly easy. I've written an article on how to do that here. It includes a link to my own session handler that has a public member function to show the amount of logged in users, though it is all written for PHP 5.

Last but not least: date/time conversions are faster in SQL than in PHP, just for your information :wink:

I read your first article, FragFrog. Thanks for the feedback. One thing I noticed is my varriable for last_edited. It should be called last_action instead, to better relate to the SQL database, you're absolutly right. I think that's what you noticed. I'm going to have to change that for the future.

I'm still fairly new to PHP, as I'm sure you all can tell, haha; -but what exactly do you mean by: "mixes display logic with output logic and you rely upon PHP's string parser to build your dynamic texts." That could be my biggest problem, but I don't see the problem there.. Do you mean that I manipulated my timestamp too much and relied on that to build the date display?

I always want to improve. With that said, I'd like to know a couple downfalls to this if it's not too much trouble.

To me, all of the varriable names, with the exception of $last_edited being last_action and $zero being null, make perfect sense for their placements. The indent is bad.. -I mostly just used spaces because I wrote it in 10 minutses-.. It's simple, not very abstract or complex/creative, but it gets the job done. It kinda hurts to hear that you're all appalled by it.. lol

I was actually proud of myself for splitting up the timestamp like a roasted ham, but I can sort of see why I shouldn't rely on it.. Then again.. I did do what I needed to do, and there's no question it works logicly.. (might as well say 1+1=2 here) I never thought I'd get so much conversation over such a simple little thing, but I guess I haven't seen anywhere near everything yet.

As for indents, I don't take as much time as I should formatting my code like I used to when I first started. I should improve there.

It's 4:41 am, here. I value all the time you all spent here helping me. I promise someday I'll become a better coder. Untill then, I'll just keep helping with what I know, and keep practicing, reading tuts, inventing, reading PHP.net docs and user input etc. etc. like I've been doing.

I think I need a good kick in the ass every once in a while to keep me in line with my programming.. Thanks Frag

Most specifically I meant blocks like these:

PHP Code:

---

while($getdata3=mysql_fetch_array($getdata2)) { 
$getdata3[userID]=strip_tags($getdata3[userID]); 
$getdata3[last_action]=strip_tags($getdata3[last_action]); 
$getdata3[logged_in]=strip_tags($getdata3[logged_in]); 


---

For one, this could have been written a lot shorter:

PHP Code:

---

while ($getdata3 = mysql_fetch_array($getdata2)) { 
 foreach ($getdata3 as & $field)
   $field = strip_tags($field);
} 


---

Notice the indents and whitespace there, making it a lot clearer what block sits where. However, it doesn't explain to me what "getdata3" is. Or what "getdata2" is. Or "getdata1", "getdata34" or whatever getdata you are using. Instead use descriptive variables:

PHP Code:

---

$userSelectQuery    =   "SELECT   *  
                         FROM     `users`"; 
$userQueryResource  =   mysql_query($userSelectQuery) or die(mysql_error()); 

while ($userData = mysql_fetch_array($userQueryResource))
  foreach ($userData as & $field)
    $field = strip_tags($field); 


---

Now an outsider can see what each variable is and does - note that I've slightly exagerated this, a variable called $userQueryResource can, if the context is small enough, also be called $queryResource for instance. I advice against abbreviating types and names, though within limit's they can't hurt. As I wrote in that article, it takes you only half a second to write out a name, it will take someone else reading your code a lot longer to figure out what "$qrRsltRsrc54" refers to :smile:

As for mixing presentation and business logic, this I talked about here. In short, in a good coding model you will want the part that loads the info from the database, modifies it etc to be seperate from the HTML code your users will eventually see. This filosophy is much better described in the two most commonly used (web)development architectures, the MVC model and the Multitier architecture. The most general way to achieve this is the use of a template engine, which can be something small you wrote or an extensive engine like Smarty.

To give you an idea: my PHP files contain 0,0 HTML code. Most texts the user sees are stored in a database. For one of our latest sites we had to implement a translation future where every single field could be displayed in any of 8 given languages - and they had to be translateable by an outside company. This resulted in a system where each and every piece of text was stored as a "section" and "key" combination (for example, "userLogin", "submitButton") with translations stored in a different table which could be added, updated or removed without trouble.

With your code, that would mean making 8 PHP files for each page, having to manually edit the files for each translation and if you'd make a change to one page you'd have to update 7 other files with the exact same change. I hope it's clear that would be an unworkeable situation :smile:

An additional adventage is that you can simply modify the looks of your site without having to change your PHP code. Say you want a block moved from the header to the footer, in your case you'd have to strip out the PHP code, retrieve the HTML, move it downwards, verify all your variables are still good (ie, not overwritten later on), echo the HTML again and fix any PHP code that got broken. With a template engine you can savely move it anywhere because all the PHP code will be done already.

Well currently I'm creating includes to put in place of certain PHP code. Things such as connections, comments, messages and I already setup the friendlist like that.

Since I have to do all this anyway, I'm most def going to rename all my getdata123's to names that correspond to their actions. The idea of calling things userQuery123 and friendQuery123 instead of getdata swam through my mind. But I can just as easily say userDate, userQuery, userRow instead. I don't know why I use getdata.. I've used it since I first learned how to make a connection, and stuck with it. Obviously the guy just used getdata as an example of how to do a connection, but for some reason I never did rename any of my data fetchers untill I ran into problems repeating varriables. Then after that I named the second one getdata4,5,6.. Ha.. stupid me.

After I made that mistake, I should've just gave them all definitive names. I do actually write out getdata, I don't copy and paste usually.. well not always. So I really don't know why I didn't just say userData, userQuery, userRow... But I will from now on.. (for users, that is.)
Of corse friends would be friendData, friendQuery, friendRow etc.

I really should've saw that coming.. ha

My sig should say: There's a fly on my brain! - lol

Also, and I think FragFrog meant that as well, try not to use $variables inside strings, but rather use the append function. This makes it much more clear that you're inserting a variable, and requires less parsing for the interpreter. I always use single quote above double quotes, since single quotes cannot contain $variables, and thus would be marginally faster.

I would also suggest that you use less variables where it makes no sense.

PHP Code:

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$getdata="SELECT * FROM `users` ";
$getdata2=mysql_query($getdata) or die(mysql_error()); 


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Could as well be written on one line (and is just as clear, IMO):

PHP Code:

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$result = mysql_query("SELECT * FROM `users`") or die(mysql_errno()); 


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Notice I use mysql_errno() rather then mysql_error(). The latter can display some valuable information for possible hackers, while the former simply indicates what kind of an error occured. You can then check your server logs for the actual error (or create a log yourself).

Now lets take a look at this part:

PHP Code:

---

$last_action=$getdata3['last_action'];
$last_action=strtotime($last_action);
$Onehour = 3600 ;
$expired = $last_action + $Onehour; 
$time=time();
$elapsedTime=$time-$last_action; 


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It could be written much smaller and still have the same functionality:

PHP Code:

---

$last_action = strtotime($getdata3['last_action']); // must get rid of this line
$expired = $last_action + 3600; // time at which one is considered being logged off
$elapsedTime = time() - $last_action; // the last time an action occured 


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That is only half the number of rows, and a few variables less :)

Oh, and I forgot to mention that I did update my stuff, and everything seems to be working like a charm.. Except one problem with the guest getting old data that doesn't even exist! Ugh.. see my new post. :) lol..

And I changed most of my sloppy code at least to make it shorter.
I changed everything I found that says $getdata to something more like $userQuery or $profileQuery...

I also changed some things like

PHP Code:

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$row['var']=strip_tags($row['var']); 
$var=$row['var'] 


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to

PHP Code:

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$var=strip_tags($row['var']); 


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Most things are running just as smooth. And now it's easier to update certain things because I made include files for data, post_form data, create_profile data.. etc.