ASP.NET Core website visitor statistics counter

Question

I need to create a site with ASP.NET Core 2.2 that will show and count the number of visitors to the site in four modes:

• People Online
• Today's Views
• Month's Views
• Total Views

In the GitHub repository and other sources, I didn't find anything because it was either related to ASP.NET Core MVC and lower versions, or it was incomplete.

Has anyone made such a code that can help?

Some example by ASP.NET MVC in Global.asax - but I need code for ASP.NET Core:

public static void CounterState()
{
    DateTime dt = new DateTime(DateTime.Now.Year, DateTime.Now.Month, DateTime.Now.Day);

    if (HttpContext.Current.Request.Cookies["StateSite"] != null)
    {
        if (Convert.ToDateTime(HttpContext.Current.Request.Cookies["StateSite"].Value.ToString()) != dt)
        {
            HttpCookie cookieCode = new HttpCookie("StateSite", dt.ToString());
            HttpContext.Current.Response.Cookies.Add(cookieCode);
            CountUpState();
        }
    }
    else
    {
        CountUpState();
        HttpCookie cookie = new HttpCookie("StateSite");
        cookie.Value = dt.ToString();
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Cookies.Add(cookie);
    }
}

Answer 1

ASP.NET Core 2.2 is an older version; you might consider using the latest version.

I need to create a site with ASP.NET Core 2.2 that will show and count the number of visitors to the site in four modes:

People Online Today's Views Month's Views Total Views

Generally, we will store user information in cookie, so you can create a middleware that will track visitors (get the visitor information from cookie) and store the data in a database or memory cache.

Refer to the following steps:

1.Create a service to manage visitor counts.

using System.Collections.Concurrent;

public class VisitorCounterService
{
    private readonly ConcurrentDictionary<string, DateTime> _activeUsers = new ConcurrentDictionary<string, DateTime>();
    private int _todayViews = 0;
    private int _monthViews = 0;
    private int _totalViews = 0;

    public void RegisterVisit(string userId)
    {
        var now = DateTime.UtcNow;

        // Remove inactive users (older than 10 minutes)
        var inactiveUsers = _activeUsers.Where(kvp => (now - kvp.Value).TotalMinutes > 10).ToList();
        foreach (var user in inactiveUsers)
        {
            _activeUsers.TryRemove(user.Key, out _);
        }

        // Add or update user activity
        _activeUsers[userId] = now;

        // Increment views
        _todayViews++;
        _monthViews++;
        _totalViews++;
    }

    public int GetOnlineUsers() => _activeUsers.Count;
    public int GetTodayViews() => _todayViews;
    public int GetMonthViews() => _monthViews;
    public int GetTotalViews() => _totalViews;
}

2.Create a middleware that will track visitors.

using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Http;

public class VisitorTrackingMiddleware : IMiddleware
{
    private readonly VisitorCounterService _visitorService;

    public VisitorTrackingMiddleware(VisitorCounterService visitorService)
    {
        _visitorService = visitorService;
    }

    public async Task InvokeAsync(HttpContext context, RequestDelegate next)
    {
        string userId = context.Request.Cookies["VisitorId"];
        if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(userId))
        {
            userId = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
            context.Response.Cookies.Append("VisitorId", userId, new CookieOptions
            {
                Expires = DateTime.UtcNow.AddDays(30),
                HttpOnly = true
            });
        }

        _visitorService.RegisterVisit(userId);
        await next(context);
    }
}

3.Register the service and middleware in Program.cs file: if you are using asp.net core 2.2 version, you need to register the service and middleware in the startup.cs file.

// Register services
builder.Services.AddSingleton<VisitorCounterService>();
builder.Services.AddTransient<VisitorTrackingMiddleware>(); // Middleware as a service
builder.Services.AddControllersWithViews(); // For MVC support

var app = builder.Build();

// Use middleware
app.UseMiddleware<VisitorTrackingMiddleware>();

app.UseStaticFiles();
app.UseRouting();
app.UseAuthorization();

4.Then in the view page, you can display the visitor statistics:

@inject VisitorCounterService VisitorService

<h3>Visitor Statistics</h3>
<ul>
    <li><b>People Online:</b> @VisitorService.GetOnlineUsers()</li>
    <li><b>Today's Views:</b> @VisitorService.GetTodayViews()</li>
    <li><b>Month's Views:</b> @VisitorService.GetMonthViews()</li>
    <li><b>Total Views:</b> @VisitorService.GetTotalViews()</li>
</ul>

Note: In the VisitorCunter service, before increasing the number of views, it is better to check visitor exist to prevent duplicate counter.