English
English
In modern instant messaging applications, message read status and unread message notifications are essential features. Using PHP, we can implement these functionalities to improve the interaction experience of the chat system. This article explains how to use PHP and AJAX technologies to realize message read status marking and unread message count notifications.
First, you need to add a field in the messages table in the database to indicate whether a message has been read. Usually, a boolean field like unread is used to represent the unread status of a message.
When a user logs in and views chat history, the unread field of the related messages can be updated to false, indicating that the messages have been read; newly sent messages will have this field set to true to mark them as unread.
The following example shows how to update the unread field to false for a specific message with PHP:
// Define message ID
$messageId = message ID;
// Update the unread field of the message to false
$query = "UPDATE messages SET unread = false WHERE id = $messageId";
mysqli_query($con, $query);
This code allows the system to accurately record the read status of messages when users read them.
To implement unread message notifications, the frontend page can send an AJAX request to the backend to get the count of unread messages for the current user when the page loads.
The example below shows how to query the number of unread messages for the user from the database:
// Get count of unread messages
$query = "SELECT COUNT(*) AS unreadMessages FROM messages WHERE recipient = 'current user' AND unread = true";
$result = mysqli_query($con, $query);
$row = mysqli_fetch_assoc($result);
$unreadMessages = $row['unreadMessages'];
// Return the count of unread messages
echo $unreadMessages;
The frontend can receive this count with JavaScript and display notification information accordingly. Below is an example of updating the notification via AJAX:
// Send AJAX request to get the count of unread messages
$.ajax({
url: 'getUnreadMessages.php',
success: function(unreadMessages) {
// Update the unread message count display
$('#unread-messages').text(unreadMessages);
// Show notification if there are unread messages
if (unreadMessages > 0) {
$('#message-reminder').show();
}
}
});
With this implementation, users can get real-time unread message counts and corresponding notifications upon entering the chat page, enhancing the interactivity of the system.
This article introduces a solution that marks message read status in the message table and dynamically obtains the count of unread messages via AJAX, achieving key message notification functionality in a PHP real-time chat system. This design not only facilitates message management but also improves users’ attention and responsiveness to chat messages.
