Question

I am trying to develop a solution to following problem. I need to store in db information about time when user logged in and is on page. Currently I am writing to db when user login and logout with WCF service, but how to deal with situation when user closes window or goes to other webpage.
I am wondering if threaded function which calls every user every minute to check if he’s alive is a good solution. Any help will be nice. Thanks.

Answer 1

If You can wait for data a bit(depending on Your aplication usage), You could save data to IsolatedStorage, and send it when user starts application again. It’s pretty simple solution, but You will have to wait for data and some data will be lost, if user don’t open application again(Again, depends on Your app).

Other solution would be sending data from JavaScript (How to call WCF from JS) during OnUnload or OnBeforeUnload event. Or even doing a simple HttpRequest from JS to some aspx site, passing time in query.

EDIT: Another thread is a nice idea(I have solution like this in my current project) but running it too often can clog IIS (depend on number of users, bandwidth etc). It also will prevent Session from timing out, even if user does nothing (that’s main purpose for using this solution in my project).