Web Development Exam > Web Development Videos > PHP for Absolute Beginners: From Novice to PHP Master > Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter
Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter Video Lecture | PHP for Absolute Beginners: From Novice to PHP Master - Web Development
FAQs on Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter Video Lecture - PHP for Absolute Beginners: From Novice to PHP Master - Web Development
| 1. How can I create a hit counter in PHP? |  |
Ans. To create a hit counter in PHP, you can use the following steps:
1. Create a file to store the hit count data, such as a text file or a database table.
2. Retrieve the current hit count from the file or database.
3. Increment the hit count by one.
4. Update the file or database with the new hit count.
5. Display the hit count on your webpage.
| 2. Can I track unique visitors with a non-unique hit counter? | |
Ans. No, a non-unique hit counter cannot track unique visitors. A non-unique hit counter simply counts the number of times a webpage has been accessed, regardless of whether it's the same visitor or multiple visitors. If you want to track unique visitors, you will need to implement additional logic, such as using cookies or IP addresses, to identify and count unique visitors.
| 3. How do I display the hit count on my webpage? | |
Ans. To display the hit count on your webpage, you can use PHP code to retrieve the hit count from the file or database and then output it in the desired format on your webpage. For example, you can use the echo statement to display the hit count as plain text or incorporate it into HTML tags to style the display. Make sure to properly sanitize and validate the hit count data to prevent any security vulnerabilities.
| 4. Can I customize the appearance of the hit counter? | |
Ans. Yes, you can customize the appearance of the hit counter to match your webpage's design. Since the hit counter is displayed on your webpage, you have full control over its styling. You can use CSS to apply different styles, such as font size, color, background, or even create a graphical representation of the hit counter using images. Modify the HTML structure of the hit counter to fit your desired layout and apply CSS styles accordingly.
| 5. How can I protect the hit counter from manipulation or fake hits? | |
Ans. To protect the hit counter from manipulation or fake hits, you can implement various techniques. Here are a few suggestions:
1. Implement server-side validation: Verify the authenticity of the hit count data on the server-side by checking its format, range, or comparing it with previous values.
2. Use CAPTCHA: Implement CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart) to ensure that only real human visitors are counted.
3. IP address filtering: Ignore hits from suspicious or known fake IP addresses or implement rate limiting to prevent excessive hits from the same IP.
4. Session-based tracking: Use session variables to track unique visitors and prevent multiple hits from the same visitor within a short period.
5. Regularly monitor and analyze the hit count data to identify any unusual patterns or suspicious activities.
Text Transcript from Video
hi this is Alex from PHP academy' org
and this is another tutorial for the new
Boston now in this tutorial we're going
to be creating a non-unique hit counter
and by a non-unique hit counter I mean
that every time the page is refreshed or
rather every time we call the count
function because we're going to be
dealing with a lot of functions in here
we're going to update an a text file
with a value and that value is an
increment on to the value that was
previously in the text file so we're
going to start off by creating a text
file with a value of 0 inside it so I'm
going to save this and I'm going to call
it count
txt so we've got count dot txt with 0 in
it eventually this will increment
depending on how many times the page is
refreshed but that's that obviously the
basics of it now what we need to do in
PHP is work out how we're going to do
this now it's always a good idea to use
include files in your website and the
reason for this is you don't have to
copy and paste the code over for every
page that you want to count on so we're
going to create another new file this is
going to have PHP tags in it and this is
going to be called count PHP now count
dot PHP is going to contain the function
we need to increment account so what
we're going to do is we're going to
start by creating a function and that's
going to be called and we'll say hit
underscore count so what do we need
inside this function well first of all
we need to access count.txt so I'm going
to create a handle and this is going to
be F open and that's going to be a count
txt and we're opening to read in so we
use an R to specify that we're reading
in from this file now what we're going
to do is we're going to incorporate the
F read function into this so I'm going
to say current
equals F read so it sorts about freed so
F read and that's handle
now we need to specify the data that
we're reading in the length of the data
we're reading in so this could be for
example to my have a two digit number so
basically if I had say the word Alex or
the name Alex inside a file we need to
read four from the for the length of
four so how are we going to go about
reading what's that you know we'd only
read too much and we don't read too
little if you've already seen the file
handling tutorials you'll know that we
can use the file size function which we
can put in here to read in a specific
file size of a file so I'm going to
create a new variable up here called
file name and this is going to make it a
lot easier to update everything
dynamically so I'm going to change this
and replace it with the variable I've
just created so this is this lines now
going to do exactly the same thing
however with file name we need to
specify something like count.txt inside
it we don't specify the handle that
we've actually opened so we can then
specify file name now what we can do is
echo out current and see what happens so
we need to call this function so let's
go into index dot PHP let's require in
fact let's include because it's not
really a required file we don't really
want to kill the rest of the page if we
can't count people's views for pages
views so includes count.php okay so now
we can call this function because we've
included this file so I'm going to say
hit count now at the moment obviously
this isn't going to update the count ext
file but hopefully we should now read
right to the screen the value of zero
let's double check that okay yes so
we've got a value of zero now let's just
double check that everything's actually
working and we'll update this to a
thousand so the function here a file
size would have taken the size of this
so it will include that all four
characters that we have inside here so
let's refresh yeah so it's working
correctly
so we've successfully read it and let's
just change this back to zero we've
successfully read in the current file
size now what we need to do is every
time this functions cold
we need to increment it so current
underscore Inc equals current plus one
okay so what we're doing is we're
creating a new variable current
underscore Inc and this is basically
stamp increment and that's equal to
current plus one so now let's echo well
we can do that up here just to save
space echo current Inc to see what it
says it says one even though at the
moment count is equal to zero so we're
incrementing the value so we can store
that hit and we don't need to echo that
out but now what we need to do is reopen
the file we can actually close the file
here so F close that so we need to
specify the handle so what we've done
here is we've closed the file down here
we're going to reopen the file and we're
going to write the new value and the new
value is this so let's just double check
that we've got no errors now I've added
that F close in there let's refresh echo
this out just to make sure it's working
ok so we've still got the value of one
so everything is working now now like I
said before what we want to do is we
want to open up the file again so we can
more or less use the exact same code
here and in a minute I'm going to show
you how we can change this and we're
going to create another function that
allows us to read or open up the file
name again so we're going to create less
code and we're going to create a more
sort of flowing application that uses
less less sort of repetitive code if you
like so we'll do that in a minute so I'm
going to say handle equals F open and
again we're opening file name now
already you can see we're duplicating
code so we don't really want to do this
that's why in a minute we're going to
create another function up here and I'm
going to choose w-4 right we could
append but we don't want to be want to
rewrite the file so we're reopening this
count txt file
then what we want to do is we want to F
right we're writing to handle and the
data we're writing is the current but
incremented so now after this we want to
close the file again and this should
have updated our file so it's updated
with the original value plus one we've
reopened the file but this time we're
writing to it rather than reading to it
writing to the file using this F write
function and we write into this handle
which is the open file here and we're
inputting the current value but
incremented by one which was obtained
from here and then we've closed the file
again so let's close count up txt and
we'll return here we're recalling this
function so now what should happen is it
should automatically update one
paramount column for F close oh yeah of
course so we haven't closed current file
so let's refresh okay so now let's try
and open our count up txt and see what
it says so it's got two because I've
refreshed the page twice so now let's
close it again and let's refresh again
come back to context open up this file
count.txt and it says three so now that
we've couldn't successfully created our
hit counter and then we know that it
works obviously now you'll probably
understand why it's not unique because
every time we're refreshing the page
we're not checking that it's the same
user so okay like I've said before we've
reused this code here which is handle a
review we'll set a handle with the F
open function and the same with the F
right in actually fact looking at this
code because we're doing two different
things I mean we've got the file name
here and then what we're doing is we're
opening the handle we're actually
retrieving data then we're closing we're
performing this operation and then we're
reopening another file and because we're
doing different things inside each one
probably not a good idea to put this as
a function
so I guess for now this would be
acceptable to to write this like this
we're not going to need to put another
function in however because we've
created this function this is a good
idea because we've included this count
file and we can specify this wherever we
want so let's say we wanted to include
this file but not count we can we can do
that but if we include the file then we
have the option to call this function
which will hit count so if we don't call
if we don't call the function and we
refresh the page you can see that when
we open the count txt file again it
still remains at 3 so this is a non
unique hit counter in PHP
and this is another tutorial for the new
Boston now in this tutorial we're going
to be creating a non-unique hit counter
and by a non-unique hit counter I mean
that every time the page is refreshed or
rather every time we call the count
function because we're going to be
dealing with a lot of functions in here
we're going to update an a text file
with a value and that value is an
increment on to the value that was
previously in the text file so we're
going to start off by creating a text
file with a value of 0 inside it so I'm
going to save this and I'm going to call
it count
txt so we've got count dot txt with 0 in
it eventually this will increment
depending on how many times the page is
refreshed but that's that obviously the
basics of it now what we need to do in
PHP is work out how we're going to do
this now it's always a good idea to use
include files in your website and the
reason for this is you don't have to
copy and paste the code over for every
page that you want to count on so we're
going to create another new file this is
going to have PHP tags in it and this is
going to be called count PHP now count
dot PHP is going to contain the function
we need to increment account so what
we're going to do is we're going to
start by creating a function and that's
going to be called and we'll say hit
underscore count so what do we need
inside this function well first of all
we need to access count.txt so I'm going
to create a handle and this is going to
be F open and that's going to be a count
txt and we're opening to read in so we
use an R to specify that we're reading
in from this file now what we're going
to do is we're going to incorporate the
F read function into this so I'm going
to say current
equals F read so it sorts about freed so
F read and that's handle
now we need to specify the data that
we're reading in the length of the data
we're reading in so this could be for
example to my have a two digit number so
basically if I had say the word Alex or
the name Alex inside a file we need to
read four from the for the length of
four so how are we going to go about
reading what's that you know we'd only
read too much and we don't read too
little if you've already seen the file
handling tutorials you'll know that we
can use the file size function which we
can put in here to read in a specific
file size of a file so I'm going to
create a new variable up here called
file name and this is going to make it a
lot easier to update everything
dynamically so I'm going to change this
and replace it with the variable I've
just created so this is this lines now
going to do exactly the same thing
however with file name we need to
specify something like count.txt inside
it we don't specify the handle that
we've actually opened so we can then
specify file name now what we can do is
echo out current and see what happens so
we need to call this function so let's
go into index dot PHP let's require in
fact let's include because it's not
really a required file we don't really
want to kill the rest of the page if we
can't count people's views for pages
views so includes count.php okay so now
we can call this function because we've
included this file so I'm going to say
hit count now at the moment obviously
this isn't going to update the count ext
file but hopefully we should now read
right to the screen the value of zero
let's double check that okay yes so
we've got a value of zero now let's just
double check that everything's actually
working and we'll update this to a
thousand so the function here a file
size would have taken the size of this
so it will include that all four
characters that we have inside here so
let's refresh yeah so it's working
correctly
so we've successfully read it and let's
just change this back to zero we've
successfully read in the current file
size now what we need to do is every
time this functions cold
we need to increment it so current
underscore Inc equals current plus one
okay so what we're doing is we're
creating a new variable current
underscore Inc and this is basically
stamp increment and that's equal to
current plus one so now let's echo well
we can do that up here just to save
space echo current Inc to see what it
says it says one even though at the
moment count is equal to zero so we're
incrementing the value so we can store
that hit and we don't need to echo that
out but now what we need to do is reopen
the file we can actually close the file
here so F close that so we need to
specify the handle so what we've done
here is we've closed the file down here
we're going to reopen the file and we're
going to write the new value and the new
value is this so let's just double check
that we've got no errors now I've added
that F close in there let's refresh echo
this out just to make sure it's working
ok so we've still got the value of one
so everything is working now now like I
said before what we want to do is we
want to open up the file again so we can
more or less use the exact same code
here and in a minute I'm going to show
you how we can change this and we're
going to create another function that
allows us to read or open up the file
name again so we're going to create less
code and we're going to create a more
sort of flowing application that uses
less less sort of repetitive code if you
like so we'll do that in a minute so I'm
going to say handle equals F open and
again we're opening file name now
already you can see we're duplicating
code so we don't really want to do this
that's why in a minute we're going to
create another function up here and I'm
going to choose w-4 right we could
append but we don't want to be want to
rewrite the file so we're reopening this
count txt file
then what we want to do is we want to F
right we're writing to handle and the
data we're writing is the current but
incremented so now after this we want to
close the file again and this should
have updated our file so it's updated
with the original value plus one we've
reopened the file but this time we're
writing to it rather than reading to it
writing to the file using this F write
function and we write into this handle
which is the open file here and we're
inputting the current value but
incremented by one which was obtained
from here and then we've closed the file
again so let's close count up txt and
we'll return here we're recalling this
function so now what should happen is it
should automatically update one
paramount column for F close oh yeah of
course so we haven't closed current file
so let's refresh okay so now let's try
and open our count up txt and see what
it says so it's got two because I've
refreshed the page twice so now let's
close it again and let's refresh again
come back to context open up this file
count.txt and it says three so now that
we've couldn't successfully created our
hit counter and then we know that it
works obviously now you'll probably
understand why it's not unique because
every time we're refreshing the page
we're not checking that it's the same
user so okay like I've said before we've
reused this code here which is handle a
review we'll set a handle with the F
open function and the same with the F
right in actually fact looking at this
code because we're doing two different
things I mean we've got the file name
here and then what we're doing is we're
opening the handle we're actually
retrieving data then we're closing we're
performing this operation and then we're
reopening another file and because we're
doing different things inside each one
probably not a good idea to put this as
a function
so I guess for now this would be
acceptable to to write this like this
we're not going to need to put another
function in however because we've
created this function this is a good
idea because we've included this count
file and we can specify this wherever we
want so let's say we wanted to include
this file but not count we can we can do
that but if we include the file then we
have the option to call this function
which will hit count so if we don't call
if we don't call the function and we
refresh the page you can see that when
we open the count txt file again it
still remains at 3 so this is a non
unique hit counter in PHP
About this Video
Sep 27, 2025
Last updated
Related Exams
Video Description: Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter for Web Development 2025 is part of PHP for Absolute Beginners: From Novice to PHP Master preparation.
The notes and questions for Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter have been prepared according to the Web Development exam syllabus.
Information about Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter covers all important topics for Web Development 2025 Exam.
Find important definitions, questions, notes, meanings, examples, exercises and tests below for Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter.
Introduction of Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter in English is available as part of our PHP for Absolute Beginners: From Novice to PHP Master for Web Development & Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter in
Hindi for PHP for Absolute Beginners: From Novice to PHP Master course. Download more important topics related with notes, lectures and mock test series for
Web Development Exam by signing up for free.
Description
Video Lecture & Questions for Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter Video Lecture | PHP for Absolute Beginners: From Novice to PHP Master - Web Development - Web Development full syllabus preparation | Free video for Web Development exam to prepare for PHP for Absolute Beginners: From Novice to PHP Master.
Information about Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter
Here you can find the meaning of Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter defined & explained in the simplest way possible.
Besides explaining types of Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter theory, EduRev gives you an ample number of questions to practice Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter tests,
examples and also practice Web Development tests.
Related Searches
Sample Paper
,practice quizzes
,shortcuts and tricks
,Summary
,Free
,video lectures
,ppt
,past year papers
,MCQs
,Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter Video Lecture | PHP for Absolute Beginners: From Novice to PHP Master - Web Development
,Viva Questions
,Extra Questions
,Previous Year Questions with Solutions
,Semester Notes
,Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter Video Lecture | PHP for Absolute Beginners: From Novice to PHP Master - Web Development
,Important questions
,Objective type Questions
,mock tests for examination
,Exam
,study material
,Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter Video Lecture | PHP for Absolute Beginners: From Novice to PHP Master - Web Development
;
Study Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter on the App
Students of Web Development can study Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter alongwith tests & analysis from the EduRev app,
which will help them while preparing for their exam. Apart from the Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter,
students can also utilize the EduRev App for other study materials such as previous year question papers, syllabus, important questions, etc.
The EduRev App will make your learning easier as you can access it from anywhere you want.
The content of Beginner PHP Tutorial - 92 - Creating a non-unique Hit Counter is prepared as per the latest Web Development syllabus.
|
© EduRev
|
Education Revolution
|
|
Signup on EduRev and stay on top of your study goals
10M+ students crushing their study goals daily