After recently having seen a way of showing the number of people currently visiting your site by recording IP address I thought I'd demonstrate my own way of doing it that also includes the ability to show which users online, and number of users/guests online.

They briefly explain the goal of the script and touch on another tool for WordPress that does a similar thing, but this solution would work for any site. The rest of the post is the code for the feature that uses a database table to keep track of users online (via insert/update/deletes).

The idea is to give the owner of the blog the ability to manage the blog by being able to remove users and articles as required, or to alter the status of users by upgrading them to admin status or banning them. It is also a place where the administrator can start new topics that will then garner their own replies.

They go through the creation of the main admin script (functionality managed with a switch statement, including other external PHP files) and the functions that go in each of those individual files to make things work - managing messages, managing users, and managing categories.

So many open source projects depend on MySQL that it's almost impossible for administrators and other open source enthusiasts to avoid working with at least one MySQL database. MySQL's command line interface is easy enough to use, but if you don't feel like reaching for a five-pound MySQL reference book or Googling for proper SQL syntax, phpMyAdmin is a great alternative to learning MySQL commands by heart.

They take a brief look at how it's set up, though it's not an installation tutorial, more about configuration. They guide you through some of the interface before getting to the real functionality - inserts, selects, dumping/restoring data, working with users, and checking/repairing tables when things go awry.

He sets up the situation (complete with database table) and explains the creations of a "Users" extension to the Zend_Db_Table class. He shows how to set it up to work with your table name, and how to create a new user with the sample table provided.

He also demonstrates a simple validation wrapper around the functionality just to ensure that invalid data isn't passed in.

Most web developers will usually like to determine the number of online users currently browsing their web site. Most tutorials will teach you how to do just that using a database of some sort because it is easy to implant. Using a database though can be a bit slow at times, especially if your web site gets a lot of hits. In this tutorial, we will teach you an alternative and effective way to determine the number of online users WITHOUT using a database.

They note the overhead that using a database can cause, and look instead to something PHP works with natively - sessions. Their code is contained inside of a function, checking the session path PHP uses for session files that haven't expired yet.

There are three services they are offering right out of the gate - a system for migration support (from PHP4 to PHP5), a training package (that covers both general PHP and the Zend products), and an application auditing (that look sat things like code quality, stability, and modularity).

For more information about these and other offerings from Zend, check out this press release for everything and everyone you'll need to know.

She talks about the Zend/PHP Conference and Expo happening later this year, and how they've officially released their Call for Papers with a deadline of June 15th. There's also a note about the cancelation of the International PHP Conference that was to happen in Amsterdam due to "resource issues" surrounding the World Cup.

Finally, she mentions the MySQL Users Conference in late April at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Laura mentions the two talks she'll be giving at the conference: "Secure Your PHP and MySQL Web Applications" and "Upgrading to PHP 5: Why and How".

Other PHP-related sessions are also included in the schedule from speakers like Rasmus Lerdorf and Andi Gutmans. For more information on this conference, check out the official site.]]> Fri, 31 Mar 2006 06:57:10 -0600 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/5060 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/5060 The meeting will be held at the UTD School of Management in Richardson, TX and the topic this time will be version control systems (CVS/SVN/RCS).

You can get all of the details on the meeting from their site, including a map to the location.]]> Tue, 28 Mar 2006 18:10:34 -0600 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4852 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4852 February 2006 meeting, they Utah PHP Users Group will be talking about Apache 404 handler scripts created in PHP.

Mac Newbold will present on PHP 404 handler scripts. Running PHP with Apache has some definite advantages. One that I use frequently is using a PHP script as the 404 document that apache uses when a page can't be found. You can use it for many things. PHP.net uses it to run a site search, to try and find the page you were looking for. You can use it to create "virtual" URLs, where one script handles requests for many different URLs and hands back dynamic content based on the page name. You can even combine it with things like GD to make dynamic images that are created on the fly for each URL.

The meeting is happening on the 16th at 7pm MST at the Linux Networx offices. You can RSVP and get a map to the location from their site...]]> Thu, 16 Feb 2006 06:37:15 -0600 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4717 http://www.phpdeveloper.org/news/4717 this post on Michael Arrington's blog mentioned the Techcrunch article about the "death of Ning" (a PHP-based mashup creation tool). Well, this new post on David Sklar's blog is here to set things right.

So there was this inflammatory Techcrunch post about Ning. Diego has already done a good job of walking through the inaccuracies, so I won't repeat that.

He mentions three main points that were mistakes highlighted in the Techcrunch article:

• When it comes to developer relations, (just about) no question or comment should be dismissed.
• The alternative to constantly tooting one's own horn is not total horn silence.
• The old saw is true: "all publicity is good publicity."

For each, he gives a little background, mentioning the real motivation behind Ning's methods and differing ideas...]]> Tue, 24 Jan 2006 06:48:45 -0600