Display number of consecutive days a user has been active on the site

Question

To encourage regular use, for logged in users, we'd like to display a line like this on the front end of the site: "Activity streak: 8 days"

We'd like it to automatically update based on site activity. i.e. in the example above the user has done something on the site for 8 days in a row. Even just a pageview would be enough.

Our users can remain logged in so this can't be measured on actual logins, it needs to be measured on some kind of activity.

I have looked at gamification plugins but they are overengineered for a simple thing like this and don't seem to offer it anyway.

Answer 1

To implement an activity streak counter in WordPress, you'll need to track user activity and update the streak counter accordingly. Below is a step-by-step guide to achieve this using custom code:

1. Create a Custom Table: First, you'll need a custom database table to store the activity streak information.

2. Hook into User Activity: Use WordPress hooks to detect user activity, such as page views.

3. Update Streak Count: Implement logic to update the streak count based on the last activity date.

4. Display the Streak: Show the activity streak on the front end.

Step 1: Create a Custom Table

Add the following code to your theme's functions.php file to create a custom table for storing user activity streaks. You can also place this in a custom plugin if you prefer.

function create_activity_streak_table() {
    global $wpdb;
    $table_name = $wpdb->prefix . 'activity_streaks';
    
    $charset_collate = $wpdb->get_charset_collate();
    
    $sql = "CREATE TABLE $table_name (
        user_id bigint(20) NOT NULL,
        streak int(11) NOT NULL DEFAULT 0,
        last_activity_date date NOT NULL,
        PRIMARY KEY (user_id)
    ) $charset_collate;";
    
    require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-admin/includes/upgrade.php');
    dbDelta($sql);
}

add_action('after_switch_theme', 'create_activity_streak_table');

Step 2: Hook into User Activity

Hook into a common action like template_redirect to detect page views.

function update_user_activity_streak() {
    if (is_user_logged_in()) {
        $user_id = get_current_user_id();
        global $wpdb;
        $table_name = $wpdb->prefix . 'activity_streaks';
        
        $today = current_time('Y-m-d');
        $row = $wpdb->get_row($wpdb->prepare(
            "SELECT * FROM $table_name WHERE user_id = %d", $user_id
        ));

        if ($row) {
            $last_activity_date = $row->last_activity_date;
            $streak = $row->streak;
            
            $date_diff = (strtotime($today) - strtotime($last_activity_date)) / (60 * 60 * 24);

            if ($date_diff == 1) {
                // Increment streak
                $streak++;
                $wpdb->update(
                    $table_name,
                    array('streak' => $streak, 'last_activity_date' => $today),
                    array('user_id' => $user_id)
                );
            } elseif ($date_diff > 1) {
                // Reset streak
                $wpdb->update(
                    $table_name,
                    array('streak' => 1, 'last_activity_date' => $today),
                    array('user_id' => $user_id)
                );
            } else {
                // Update last activity date without changing the streak
                $wpdb->update(
                    $table_name,
                    array('last_activity_date' => $today),
                    array('user_id' => $user_id)
                );
            }
        } else {
            // New entry for the user
            $wpdb->insert(
                $table_name,
                array(
                    'user_id' => $user_id,
                    'streak' => 1,
                    'last_activity_date' => $today
                )
            );
        }
    }
}

add_action('template_redirect', 'update_user_activity_streak');

Step 3: Display the Streak

Add a function to get the streak count for the logged-in user and display it on the front end.

function get_user_activity_streak($user_id) {
    global $wpdb;
    $table_name = $wpdb->prefix . 'activity_streaks';
    
    $row = $wpdb->get_row($wpdb->prepare(
        "SELECT streak FROM $table_name WHERE user_id = %d", $user_id
    ));
    
    if ($row) {
        return $row->streak;
    } else {
        return 0;
    }
}

function display_activity_streak() {
    if (is_user_logged_in()) {
        $user_id = get_current_user_id();
        $streak = get_user_activity_streak($user_id);
        echo '<p>Activity streak: ' . $streak . ' days</p>';
    }
}

add_action('wp_footer', 'display_activity_streak');

Summary

1. Create a custom table to store user activity streaks.
2. Hook into template_redirect to detect user activity and update the streak count.
3. Display the activity streak on the front end for logged-in users.

With this implementation, the activity streak will be updated based on user activity and displayed on your WordPress site.