Question

What i want to do is that every user gets 1 points every minute. Now i have the php code in the addpoints.php, and then i have tried myself with jQuery javascript:

function addpoints()  { 
  var userid = document.getElementById('user_id_points');
  var postFile = 'addpoints.php?userid='+ userid.value;
  $.post(postFile, function(data){  
    $("#points").html(data); 
    setTimeout(addpoints, 60000);
  });
}    

This works pretty good, and gives a point every 1 minute.. BUT one issue is that if you just refresh the page where the script is on, then you will receive a point.. so you could likely just refresh the page some times and then you raise your points..

I was thinking of maybe in addpoints.php make a if() that checks for last datestamp is longer than 1 minute then give out point else error..

I was just wondering if there was any better idea/thing to make, to prevent the little issue?

Answer 1

Storing the date+time (using a timestamp for instance) of the last time the score was incremented, next to that score (be it in $_SESSION or in database) would indeed be a solution :

• when a request to increment the score arrives, check the timestamp
  • if it’s more than 60 seconds ago, then increment the score, and update the timestamp
  • else, don’t update the score nor the timestamp