Number of people using program?

[ug505]

Hello again all,

Has anyone else seen on Skype where it tells you how many people are online? (How many people are using the program right now.) Is there a way to do that in Delphi? I have a viewing program that gives views to web pages and I'd like to know how many people are using my program. Is there a way to get these numbers and put them in a label?

 

[TonHu]

Register with some central service when connecting, and refresh the info every so-many minutes/seconds, so you know the user is still active.

 

[djjd47130]

Use a socket set, such as the one I just posted in the FAQ:

http://tek-tips.com/faqs.cfm?fid=7503

to build a communication between the user's program (using TJDClientSocket) and the central server (TJDServerSocket). I made this so you can A) Login to the server, and B) Send direct packets of info. In this case, on the client's side, you may do something like...

//Notifying server that program started
Socket.SendPacket(CMD_NOTIFY_ON, []);

//Notifying server that program stopped
Socket.SendPacket(CMD_NOTIFY_OFF, []);

//Ask server for total count of uses
Socket.SendPacket(CMD_GET_COUNT, []);

and then on the server side, you would recognize this command in an event handler...

procedure TForm1.MySocketCommand(Sender: TObject; Socket: TJDServerClientSocket;
  const Cmd: Integer; const Data: TStrings);
begin
  case Cmd of
    CMD_NOTIFY_ON: begin
      //Client is telling server that it's using program.. do something accordingly
      SomeProcedureWhenStarted(Socket, Data);
    end;
    CMD_NOTIFY_OFF: begin
      //Client is telling server that it stopped using program.. do something accordingly
      SomeProcedureWhenStopped(Socket, Data);
    end;
    CMD_GET_COUNT: begin
      //Client is asking server for count of users - send count
      Socket.SendPacket(CMD_SEND_COUNT, [IntToStr(GetCurrentUserCount)]); //There would be some check for user count here
    end;
    else begin
      //Unrecognized command - raise exception
    end;
  end;
end;

I would be more than happy to build a demo for you with this exact scenario, just let me know. I need to make a demo for the components I built in the FAQ anyway.


JD Solutions