Does anyone know how I can manipulate joomla to only allow one view per user to certain articles? I am looking to make the article gray out and not allow the user to click on it after it has been viewed for the first time. Any help would be much appreciated.
Thank you, Dave
This is would probably have to be a plugin. This could only really be reliably done on a page that requires a user to be logged in and you can't just register new accounts. Also someone could just copy the text the first time and then your security is moot. Nevertheless, the plugin would have to track the page ID and the user ID and when the visit the page a row gets added to table. Then you could have a page template where you check that table and if the row exists for that page id and user you do whatever to the content otherwise display it as normal.
The only correct way to do is create a plugin "content" that will check the database in the field "hits". If it is greater than X, you can redirect Joomla to block his access:
$mainframe->redirect('index.php', JText::_('AN ERROR HAS OCCURED'));
The advantage of this method is that you have the option to reset the counter in the administration of articles
As for the display of the results list, I advise you to use your html file of your template to make such audit and carried away those who are no longer available.
I'm not sure why you would want to do this, but it would take a plugin that does several things. First, your content would have to be available to registered users only. Cookies would work, but it would be really easy to clear your cookies to regain access to the content. Next, the plugin would need to record every visit to the page, the record would need to include the userID. Last, the plugin would need to look up the specific user that is trying to access an article and check to see if they have been to the page before.
However, all of that work would not prevent anyone from registering another account to access the content again. Or copying and pasting the content or saving the page locally. Why would you want to limit your users to a single page view?