Login Logs

[MichaelC]

A useful log I have always thought would be useful would be a log of who logged on at what time, when they logged off and the IP.

Off course some people have more or less dB size for this and there should be a an on/off button and max amount of space field this bit on the db can use up.

[imkingdavid]

Well, the logoff would be less useful because a lot of people never actually click Logout. But I think having a log with the IP, the number of attempts, etc. would be useful.

[MichaelC]

Well, as soon as they stop viewing something on the site they effectively have logged off. Thats what I mean. I mean come onto and come off of the site as well as failed logins ect.,

[code reader]

Well, as soon as they stop viewing something on the site they effectively have logged off. Thats what I mean. I mean come onto and come off of the site as well as failed logins ect.,

insightful, but pray tell: how do you know when someone stopped viewing something?
all we have on server side is the knowledge of pages requested (which and when). is there a way to sense what does the user actually view?

put differently (in your words): how do you sense the "come off" part?

[ToonArmy]

Well, as soon as they stop viewing something on the site they effectively have logged off. Thats what I mean. I mean come onto and come off of the site as well as failed logins ect.,

insightful, but pray tell: how do you know when someone stopped viewing something?
all we have on server side is the knowledge of pages requested (which and when). is there a way to sense what does the user actually view?

put differently (in your words): how do you sense the "come off" part?

Well you could log when the session is garbage collected, but I think logging user activity in this way is a step to far.

[MichaelC]

Well, as soon as they stop viewing something on the site they effectively have logged off. Thats what I mean. I mean come onto and come off of the site as well as failed logins ect.,

insightful, but pray tell: how do you know when someone stopped viewing something?
all we have on server side is the knowledge of pages requested (which and when). is there a way to sense what does the user actually view?

put differently (in your words): how do you sense the "come off" part?

Well you could log when the session is garbage collected, but I think logging user activity in this way is a step to far.

Fair point

[code reader]

session garbage-collected is a far cry from "as they stop viewing something on the site" which is what the OP was talking about.
this happens, afair about an hour later?
so if you log user activity, you can *automatically* assume that an hour after log-in there is a log-out, and the quality of your information will not differ significantly than if you also log garbage-collecting sessions.
iow: i do not think that logging "garbage collecting the session" will have any real information content.
corollary: you may want to log log-ins (don't we already do it?), but it is pointless to log session expiration.

you *might* want to log active (=user-initiated) log-outs, but at least for me, personally, the only times i actually do it is on my own site, when i want to test something with a different user-thingy.
i never bother logging out of any other forum, and i guess many (most?) other users are like me in this regard.

peace.

[Comkid]

Why not use JS, like you know those sites that say something when you try to leave, like please come back, well, why not send the info of them leaving the page with JS

[MichaelC]

Why not use JS, like you know those sites that say something when you try to leave, like please come back, well, why not send the info of them leaving the page with JS

That would probably work.

[onehundredandtwo]

Just out of interest, why do you think forums would need to see when users have logged in and out? Maybe this would be better left as a MOD/plugin/whatever system phpBB4 will use?