Thread

We have a fairly active board, and the users have asked me if the “Active Members” stat could be under-reported.
1) Views to posts increase in a 10 minute period greater than the # of users reported online.
2) One user stated that he logs in the morning and refreshes the board throughout the day but does not appear on the list.

“Show my name in the online users list” is checked by default.
Anonymous Users: 0.

I’ve been watching the stats, and typically
“Total Guests” 0-2
“Total Logged-in Users” 1-5

Before EE we used phpBB, and perhaps the stats were calculated differently, so it just “feels” low to us.

I tried looking in the code to see what an “active” user might be.  It seems to be defined as someone who’s created a session in the last 15 minutes. 

Are there any other triggers that add users into the exp_online_users table?  What about posting, replying?  I’m guessing not viewing.  Thanks.

Stephen,

Views to posts increase in a 10 minute period greater than the # of users reported online.

One user can view multiple posts over a period of time so that would make sense.

Have you got a link to your forum so we can observe the other behaviour you describe?

Hi John, sure and thanks for helping.

This is the thread that they ask on.  They intersperse stock trader stuff in the same thread, but basically the relevant discussion happens on any reply with that stat image quoted.

I don’t think anything is behaving wrong (but I could be wrong), but I’d like to be able to understand what actions trigger an update to the exp_online_users table.

Thanks, Stephen

Yes, EE uses a 15 minute frame and counts the sessions created. That’s really all there is to it, I’m afraid 😊

Thanks Ingmar.  Could you explain (or point to a reference) about how long sessions are active for?  I found a note on the login tag documentation:

This conditional will display the contents inside (typically the “stay logged in” checkbox) based on how your session preference is set

but couldn’t find any “session preference”.

Also, I noticed that I have “Enable Online User Tracking?” off, but it’s obviously still tracking who’s logged in.  The docs just say:

You can determine whether tracking of online users is performed by the system. When you have this preference set to “Yes”, a database update will be performed for each page load so that the user statistics can be tracked and stored.

  What information does this provide me?  How would I use this info?

Stephen,

Could you explain (or point to a reference) about how long sessions are active for?

Sessions are active for 2 hours then expire.
Have a look at this thread here for more info

but couldn’t find any “session preference”.

I believe this refers to either have sessions or cookies set as a preference and not your actual session preferences

  What information does this provide me?  How would I use this info?

there is a Statistics Module you can avail of

Thanks John.

Sessions are active for 2 hours then expire.

This was a great help, but it has me more confused on this active members list.  I have it set to cookies only, so how are the forums able to generate the list at all if no sessions are getting set?

there is a Statistics Module you can avail of

Ok, thanks.  And this is separate from the forum module’s statistics, correct?

Stephen, there is a EEDocs:// Stats Module

The exp_online_users table is separate from cookies that are set. Does that help?

Hi Sue, thanks for the help, but I’m still confused.  I’m going to backtrack, list my setup.

Enable Online User Tracking? No

User Session Type: Cookies Only

Will Forum Statistics Work / Be Correct?

If so, Users will be added into the forum active members list every time they ____, _____ or _____.

We’ve asked the dev team for additional clarification. Thanks in advance for your patience.

Thanks Sue… it will help me greatly to be able to explain to my users.

P.S. Everyone on the EE Support Team: Thanks for your always prompt and thorough help!

Glad to see you’re set. Please don’t hesitate to post again as needed.

Glad to see you’re set. Please don’t hesitate to post again as needed.

Well wait, no.  We’re waiting to here from the dev team, but I was just letting everyone know I really appreciate everyone’s help even if it’s just a “we’re looking into this more”.

Sorry for the confusion.

Yes, this thread was closed in error, and now re-opened, as you can see 😊 We’re still waiting to hear from the devs.

You’d want to enable user tracking- without it on, page requests don’t trigger a stats update, which will likely reduce the number showing as ‘active’.  (There are other request types- but it means standard surfing around your forum isn’t going to trigger the stats update.) 

Dynamic tracking disabling could have an impact- but I don’t think it likely in this case.  You might want to enable user tracking- and then set a ‘Suspend ALL tracking when number of online visitors exceeds:’- which should reduce the stats tracking if you get super busy, but won’t interfere in the normal course of things.

You might skim this blog entry for more discussion of some of the tracking controls.  That help?