Can I use this plugin to delete limited transient-cached IP list?

G’day Peter,

This plugin won’t help you do that, but it’s simple enough to do through MySQL — e.g. phpMyAdmin in your website hosting control panel.

This SQL query will delete all transients that expired before 1 January this year:

delete from t1, t2
using wp_options t1
join wp_options t2 on t2.option_name = replace(t1.option_name, '_timeout', '')
where (t1.option_name like '\_transient\_timeout\_%'
  or t1.option_name like '\_site\_transient\_timeout\_%')
and t1.option_value < unix_timestamp('2014-01-01');

However, I suspect that the IP addresses won’t be set to expire that way, so you’ll need to determine what makes them expire naturally. I say this because anything already set to expire at some date that is now in the past, like 1 January 2014, will be automatically deleted when next accessed through WordPress — that’s how transient expiration works.

cheers,
Ross

Hello Ross

Thank you very much for your help.

I’m guessing my problem would be that the transients may not have expired, I just want to delete the IP addresses that are older than 1st January this year.

You are dealing with a total amateur here but I copied the following code from the “Edit Plugin’ option in WordPress, post-ratings.php file.

Does this mean it will only store 20 IP addresses and they should expire after 90 days?

If I change the expiry to 35 days and then run your code, would that work and if I then wanted to increase these numbers to improve security against multiple votes, could I just change them?

I really do appreciate any advice you can give and I might just add that post ratings is the only plugin that includes a ‘top 20’ sidebar widget, and the plugin has been out of support for ages. If you were to write and support a new ratings plugin I’m sure there must be a market – including me!

Cheers
Pete

/*
  * Attempt to get the visitor's IP address
  *
  * @since    2.3
  * @return   string
  */
  private function getIP(){

    if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP']))
      return $_SERVER['HTTP_CLIENT_IP'];

    if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR']))
      return $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_FOR'];

    if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED']))
      return $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED'];

    if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR']))
      return $_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED_FOR'];

    if(isset($_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED']))
      return $_SERVER['HTTP_FORWARDED'];

    return $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'];
  }

 /*
  * Process rating, or set up plugin hooks if this is not a rate request
  *
  * @since 1.0
  */
  public function Run(){

    $options = $this->getOptions();
    extract($options);

    if(!isset($_GET['rate'])){
      if($custom_filter)
        add_filter($custom_filter, array($this, 'ControlBlockHook'));

      if($before_post || $after_post){
        // post content
        add_filter('the_content', array($this, 'ControlBlockHook'), 20);

        // bbpress
        add_filter('bbp_get_topic_content', array($this, 'ControlBlockHook'));
        add_filter('bbp_get_reply_content', array($this, 'ControlBlockHook'));
      }

      add_action('wp_enqueue_scripts', array($this, 'assets'));

    // this is our $.ajax request
    }else{

      defined('DOING_AJAX') or define('DOING_AJAX', true);

      $post_id  = (int)$_GET['post_id'];
      $voted    =  min(max((int)$_GET['rate'], 1), $max_rating);
      $error    = '';
      $post     = &get_post($post_id);
      $rating   = 0;
      $votes    = 0;

      if(!$post){
        $error = __("Invalid vote! Cheatin' uh?", self::ID);

      }else{

        // get current post rating and vote count
        extract($this->getRating($post->ID));

        // vote seems valid, register it
        if($this->currentUserCanRate($post_id)){

          // increase global post rate count if this is the first vote
          if($votes < 1)
            $options['num_rated_posts']++;

          // global vote count
          $options['num_votes']++;

          // update post rating and vote count
          $votes++;
          $rating = (($rating * ($votes - 1)) + $voted) / $votes;

          update_post_meta($post->ID, 'rating', $rating);
          update_post_meta($post->ID, 'votes', $votes);

          // update global stats
          $options['avg_rating'] = ($options['num_votes'] > 0) ? ((($options['avg_rating'] * ($options['num_votes'] - 1))  + $voted) / $options['num_votes']) : 0;
          update_option(self::ID, $options);

          $ip_cache = get_transient('post_ratings_ip_cache');

          if(!$ip_cache)
            $ip_cache = array();

          $posts_rated = isset($_COOKIE[$this->getRecordsKey('posts_rated')]) ? explode('-', $_COOKIE[$this->getRecordsKey('posts_rated')]) : array();
          $posts_rated = array_map('intval', array_filter($posts_rated));

          // add user's IP to the cache
          $ip_cache[$post_id][] = $this->getIP();

          // keep it light, only 10 records per post and maximum 10 post records (=> max. 100 ip entries)
          // also, the data gets deleted after 2 weeks if there's no activity during this time...

          if(count($ip_cache[$post_id]) > 10)
            array_shift($ip_cache[$post_id]);

          if(count($ip_cache) > 10)
            array_shift($ip_cache);

          set_transient('post_ratings_ip_cache', $ip_cache, 60 * 60 * 24 * 14);

          // update user meta
          if(is_user_logged_in()){
            $user = wp_get_current_user();

            $current_user_ratings = get_user_meta($user->ID, $this->getRecordsKey('posts_rated'), true);

            if(!$current_user_ratings)
              $current_user_ratings = array();

            $posts_rated = array_unique(array_merge($posts_rated, array_filter($current_user_ratings)));

            update_user_meta($user->ID, $this->getRecordsKey('posts_rated'), $posts_rated);
          }

          // update cookie
          $posts_rated = array_slice($posts_rated, -20); // keep it under 20 entries
          $posts_rated[] = $post_id;
          setcookie($this->getRecordsKey('posts_rated'), implode('-', $posts_rated),  time() + 60 * 60 * 24 * 90, '/'); // expires in 90 days

          $this->rated_posts[] = $post_id;

          do_action('rated_post', $post_id);
          $this->clearQueryCache();

        }else{
          $error = __('You cannot rate this post!', self::ID);
        }

G’day Pete,

That’s a lot of code you’re asking me to look at, from someone else’s plugin. I have precious little time for supporting my own free plugins, let alone someone else’s plugins. What have the authors of that plugin told you about your requirement? e.g. will they incorporate it into a new version of the plugin, or have they told you to solve the problem yourself?

cheers,
Ross

G’day Ross

You’re completely right, I’m sorry it’s a damn cheek.

The author hasn’t been responding to support requests or any other questions for about a year so I got a bit desperate. I’m not a programmer but I rely upon this plugin for my ‘not for profit’ book awards site.

It would be great if someone would write a new version of a ratings plugin because I’m not the only who is stranded. But that isn’t your problem.

Thanks anyway for your suggestions so far.

Pete