Hit Counter Code giving ERROR

[vishalonne]

Hi All
I am getting an warning on my web page when I uploaded the page on server I just writing a PHP PAge Hit Counter-

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cookie - headers already sent by (output started at /home/cbsecpsn/public_html/csnip/form_453570.php:7) in /home/cbsecpsn/public_html/csnip/counter.php on line 2

Warning: session_start() [function.session-start]: Cannot send session cache limiter - headers already sent (output started at /home/cbsecpsn/public_html/csnip/form_453570.php:7) in /home/cbsecpsn/public_html/csnip/counter.php on line 2

And this is the output Total page views = 1
Here is the Code -
Counter.php

<?PHP
  session_start();

  if(isset($_SESSION['views'])){
     $_SESSION['views'] = $_SESSION['views']+ 1;
  }else{
     $_SESSION['views'] = 1;
  }
  echo "Total page views = ". $_SESSION['views'];
?>

And I used it like this in Survey_Form.php

<div class='sfm_cr_box' style='padding:3px; width:350px'>
  <?php
  echo "<hr><div align=\"center\">";
  include_once "counter.php"; // this will include the counter.

  echo "</div>";
?>
</div>

What is the problem with the code

[blocblue]

You've outputted HTML to the page before calling session start.

To resolve the problem, you need to call session_start(); at the beginning of your file.

Or you could try something like:

<?php 
session_start(); 
$_SESSION['views'] = isset($_SESSION['views']) ? $_SESSION['views'] + 1 : 1;
?>
<div class='sfm_cr_box' style='padding:3px; width:350px'>
    <hr />
    <div class="center">
        <?php echo $_SESSION['views']; ?>
    </div>
</div>

[vishalonne]

Thank you for looking in my problem, actually I want to display hit counter at the bottom of the page. Do I need session...?????
I just want to keep track how many of visitors came to this page.

Is it possible without session??

[blocblue]

The session will only record the number of times a single visitor visits the page.

To record the number of visits across all visitors, you'll need to use a persistent solution - e.g. database or text file.

It's only the start_session(); call that needs to go at the top of the page. The output can be displayed anywhere.

[JameB]

To create what you want, you should create a PHP script that adds one to the number existing in a text file somewhere.

1. In the HTML file, you simply echo the contents of the file where needed.

   <small>This page has been visited <?php $count = file_get_contents("INSERT_PATH_TO_THE_TEXT_FILE"); echo $count; ?> times!</small>
   

2. At the end of the same HTML page, insert a function that:

Opens a text file, reads it's contents in a variable
Adds one to the number read
Overwrites the existing file with the new number (after adding one to the existing number)
Closes the file

Hope that's clear!

[vishalonne]

Is this code okay as you suggested

<?php

$filename = 'hitcount.txt';
$handle = fopen($filename, 'r');
$hits = trim(fgets($handle)) + 1;
fclose($handle);

$handle = fopen($filename, 'w');
fwrite($handle, $hits);
fclose($handle);

// Uncomment the next line (remove //) to display the number of hits on your page.
//echo $hits;

?>

And at the end of my form.php page I will add this

<p>This web site has had <b><?php include("counter.php"); ?></b> hits since January 1st, 2007.</p>

[blocblue]

<?php
function increment_hit_count()
{
    $count = file_get_contents('hit_count.txt');
    file_put_contents('hit_count.txt', $count + 1);
}

function get_hit_count()
{
    return file_get_contents('hit_count.txt');
}
?>


<?php increment_hit_count(); ?>
<p>This site has had <?php echo get_hit_count(); ?> hits since January 2007.</p>

[JameB]

vishalonne, the code you wrote is exactly what I suggested!

Good luck!

[vishalonne]

Thank you very much for for guidance