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Let the user know when they last visited your web site

Cookies

Let the user know when they last visited your web site

by  adrikev  Posted    (Edited  )
So, you want the user to know when they last visited your web site. This can be done using cookies (yum). This is how it works:

When a user makes a first visit to your web site he/she will see a message that says This is your first visit here. Then the script will write a cookie on the users machine that contains todays date and time. When the user returns to your site the script will read the cookie, return a message to the browser and overwrite the cookie with a new one that contains todays date and time. The new message will read:

Your last visit was on:
weekday month day at time PM/AM, year

Is this great or what? Here is how it is done.
[color red]
Code: 
<script language="JavaScript">
<!--
readCookie();

function readCookie() {
     if (document.cookie == "") {
	writeCookie();
        alertMessage();
     } else {
	var the_cookie = document.cookie;
	the_cookie = unescape(the_cookie);
	the_cookie_split = the_cookie.split(";");
	for (loop=0;loop<the_cookie_split.length;loop++) {
		var part_of_split = the_cookie_split[loop];
		var find_name = part_of_split.indexOf("nfti_date")
		if (find_name!=-1) {
			break;
		} // Close if
	} // Close for
	if (find_name==-1) {
		writeCookie();
	} else {
		var date_split = part_of_split.split("=");
		var last = date_split[1];
		last=fixTheDate(last);
		document.write('<font color="#000000" font size="1" font face="Verdana, Helvetica">Your last visit was on:<BR></font><font color="#FF0000" font size="1" font face="Verdana, Helvetica">'+last);
		document.write('</font>');
		writeCookie();
	} // Close if (find_name==-1)
      }
} // Close function readCookie()


function writeCookie() {
     var today = new Date();
     var the_date = new Date("December 31, 2023");
     var the_cookie_date = the_date.toGMTString();
     var the_cookie = "nfti_date="+escape(today);
     var the_cookie = the_cookie + ";expires=" + the_cookie_date;
     document.cookie=the_cookie
}

function alertMessage(){
     document.write('<font color="#000000" font size="1" font face="Verdana, Helvetica">This is your first visit here.</font>')
}

function fixTheDate(date) {
     var split = date.split(" ");
     var fix_the_time = split[3].split(":")
     var hours = fix_the_time[0]
     if (hours>=12) {
	var ampm="PM"
     } else {
	var ampm="AM"
     }
     if (hours > 12) {
	hours = hours-12
     }
     var new_time = hours+":"+fix_the_time[1]+" "+ampm
     var new_date = split[0]+" "+split[1]+". "+split[2]+" at "+new_time+", "+split[5]
     return new_date;
}
//-->
</script>
[/color]
If you use a text editor to open the cookie that is set to the users machines, it will look something like this:

nfti_dateWed%20Aug%207%2012%3A35%3A45%20CDT%202002webdev/0252880076831079342369748411229507128*

Thats all there is to it. Play with the font styles, document.write statements and date/time formats to tweak the script to deliver the exact message you want.

[color red]WARNING[/color] changing the writeCookie() function might cause the script to generate errors. Don't change this one unless you know what you are doing.
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