What are some alternative methods to accurately determine user online status in a PHP-based community website?

One alternative method to accurately determine user online status in a PHP-based community website is to use AJAX requests to periodically update the user's status in the database. This way, you can track the user's last activity time and determine if they are online based on a predefined time threshold. 

```php
// Update user's last activity time in the database using AJAX
// This code should be included in a separate PHP file that is called via AJAX

// Connect to database
$pdo = new PDO("mysql:host=localhost;dbname=your_database", "username", "password");

// Update user's last activity time
if(isset($_POST['user_id'])) {
    $user_id = $_POST['user_id'];
    
    // Update user's last activity time in the database
    $stmt = $pdo->prepare("UPDATE users SET last_activity = NOW() WHERE id = :user_id");
    $stmt->bindParam(':user_id', $user_id);
    $stmt->execute();
}
```

Make sure to call this PHP file periodically using AJAX to update the user's last activity time in the database. This way, you can accurately determine if a user is online based on their last activity time.

Keywords

Real-time WebSocket AJAX Session management Database query

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