counting user actions

[sssweb]

Is there a way to do either of the following:

1) Create a function with an internal counter that tracks how many times the function has been called on the page, without re-loading the page or in any way sending the count data to the function as a variable.

2) Create link code that counts how many times the link has been clicked and either: a) sends that count data to the link destination, or b) uses the count data to modify the link destination (i.e. add a running $count var to the end of the link destination code); the link destination may be a php function or an in-page bookmark, but again, all must be done without re-loading the page.

I found Countable::count() in the manual, but am unclear whether it works here.

[penders]

1) How many times the function has been called during the generation of the page? Do you mean like a static variable [uk.php.net] (inside of a function)?

"...without re-loading the page."

2) User clicks a link and runs a script on the server... you need to look at the XMLHttpRequest JavaScript object (AJAX). Your link would call a local script that opens an AJAX request to the server (calling a server-side script and passing some id to identify that link). Lookup/update values in DB etc. The response from your script would tell your script what to do next, change link destination etc.

This link never goes to an external site?

[sssweb]

1) No, I don't need the count from the page generation; the function call is in a link, and only called when the user clicks the link -- I need to count how many times the user has clicked the link.

2) That sounds like a possibility, though it's way over my head. If you still think it may work, can you point me somewhere for more info?

Basically, I need to set up an in-page nav system, using #bookmark links, with all links dynamically generated. Normally this is easy enough to do, but I also want the navigation links (simple "back" & "next" links) to display in the same position on the page, regardless of what text displays above them.

The problem I'm having is that when I set a fixed link position with CSS, the links don't scroll with the text; they are "stacked" on top of each other, with the same one (the last in the series) showing regardless of what text is above it. So I can't navigate unless I come up with a dynamic way for one link to handle the whole page.

[sssweb]

I looked into the static variable thing -- that might work after all; I'll play around with it.

[sssweb]

No, I don't think it will, because in this case (counting user clicks), it requires reloading the page.

From what I can tell, this can only be done with AJAX, so I will shift focus there: [webmasterworld.com...]