How can cookies be used to implement a reload lock in a view counter in PHP?

When implementing a view counter in PHP, a reload lock can be used to prevent users from artificially inflating the view count by continuously refreshing the page. This can be achieved by setting a cookie on the user's browser after incrementing the view count, and then checking for the presence of this cookie before allowing another increment. 

// Check if the reload lock cookie is set
if (!isset($_COOKIE['reload_lock'])) {
    // Increment the view count
    $views = // Get the current view count from database
    $views++;
    // Update the view count in the database
    // Set the reload lock cookie to prevent further increments
    setcookie('reload_lock', 'locked', time() + 60, '/');
}

Keywords

cookies reload lock view counter PHP implementation

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