{"id":689,"date":"2020-12-21T16:04:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-21T14:04:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/html-online.com\/articles\/?p=689"},"modified":"2025-02-04T20:12:55","modified_gmt":"2025-02-04T18:12:55","slug":"simple-php-mysql-visitor-counter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/html-online.com\/articles\/simple-php-mysql-visitor-counter\/","title":{"rendered":"Simple Website Visitor Counter With PHP & MySQL"},"content":{"rendered":"

In this tutorial I’m going to describe how to increment a view counter in a MySQL database. We are going to use PHP with the most simple solution. We want to keep this very simple so we won’t track IP addresses and won’t use cookies to avoid one visitor being counted multiple times. So basically this will be a page load counter, not an individual user counter<\/a>.
\n\"php
\n<\/p>\n

Prepare the MySQL database tables<\/h2>\n

First we have to create the database tables or add the columns to an existing one to store the information.<\/p>\n

Connect with phpMyadmin<\/a> and open the existing database you want to work with. Click Structure \/ Add 1 column and click Go. Let the column name be ‘visits’, INT type, length 15, Default 0 (so we can start counting from 0). Leave the remaining fields untouched and hit the Save button.<\/p>\n

If you don’t have an existing database, create one with an ‘id’ (int, AUTO_INCREMENT, key) field and the ‘visits’ mentioned above<\/p>\n

The PHP code<\/h2>\n

First we have to connect to the database.<\/p>\n

We need two queries. The first one increases the value of the counter, where the id is associated to the specific page. We need to adjust the id for each page, or we can use a PageName\/URL column for that according to our needs:<\/p>\n

UPDATE Counter SET visits = visits+1 WHERE id=1<\/strong><\/p>\n

The following query retreives the value and stores it in a variable. This will be later displayed in the HTML body seciton<\/a>.<\/p>\n

SELECT visits FROM Counter WHERE id = 1<\/strong><\/p>\n

And finally the full code below:<\/p>\n

<?php\n    $servername<\/span> =<\/span> \"localhost\"<\/span>;\n    $username<\/span> =<\/span> \"dtbsuser\"<\/span>;\n    $password<\/span> =<\/span> \"dtbs#passw01\"<\/span>;\n    $dbname<\/span> =<\/span> \"dtbsname\"<\/span>;\n    $conn<\/span> =<\/span> new<\/span> mysqli<\/span>($servername<\/span>, $username<\/span>, $password<\/span>, $dbname<\/span>);\n\n    if<\/span> ($conn<\/span>-><\/span>connect_error) {\n        die<\/span>(\"Connection failed: \"<\/span> .<\/span> $conn<\/span>-><\/span>connect_error);\n    } \n\n    $sql<\/span> =<\/span> \"UPDATE<\/span> Counter SET<\/span> visits =<\/span> visits+<\/span>1<\/span> WHERE<\/span> id =<\/span> 1<\/span><\/span>\"<\/span>;\n    $conn<\/span>-><\/span>query($sql<\/span>);\n\n    $sql<\/span> =<\/span> \"SELECT<\/span> visits FROM<\/span> Counter WHERE<\/span> id =<\/span> 1<\/span><\/span>\"<\/span>;\n    $result<\/span> =<\/span> $conn<\/span>-><\/span>query($sql<\/span>);\n\n    if<\/span> ($result<\/span>-><\/span>num_rows ><\/span> 0<\/span>) {\n        while<\/span>($row<\/span> =<\/span> $result<\/span>-><\/span>fetch_assoc()) {\n            $visits<\/span> =<\/span> $row<\/span>[\"visits\"<\/span>];\n        }\n    } else<\/span> {\n        echo<\/span> \"no results\"<\/span>;\n    }\n    \n    $conn<\/span>-><\/span>close();\n?>\n\n<!d<\/span>o<\/span>c<\/span>t<\/span>y<\/span>p<\/span>e <\/span>h<\/span>t<\/span>m<\/span>l<\/span>><\/span>  \n<html<\/span> lang<\/span>=\"en\"<\/span>><\/span>\n    <head<\/span>><\/span>\n        <meta<\/span> charset<\/span>=\"utf-8\"<\/span>><\/span>\n        <meta<\/span> http-equiv<\/span>=\"x-ua-compatible\"<\/span> content<\/span>=\"ie=edge\"<\/span>><\/span>\n        <title<\/span>><\/span>Visit counter<\/title<\/span>><\/span>\n    <\/head<\/span>><\/span>\n    <body<\/span>><\/span>\n        Visits: <?php print<\/span> $visits<\/span>; ?>\n\n    <\/body<\/span>><\/span>\n<\/html<\/span>><\/span>\n<\/pre>\n
In this tutorial I’m going to describe how to increment a view counter in a MySQL database. We are going to use PHP with the most simple solution. We want to keep this very simple so we won’t track IP addresses and won’t use cookies to avoid one visitor being counted multiple times. So basically … Continue reading “Simple Website Visitor Counter With PHP & MySQL”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-689","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-freebies"],"yoast_head":"\nSimple Website Visitor Counter With PHP & MySQL<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In this tutorial I'm going to describe how to increment a view counter in a MySQL database. 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You can style<\/a> the widget to match your website. I think a 7 segment display font<\/a> fits to this counter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"