How can I track a variable across different sessions/users?

Question

I'm making a NeoCities site using HTML/CSS/Javascript. PHP doesn't seem to be supported without add-ons, so for the time being, i'm not considering that.

I want to see if I can have a button that simply says how many times it has been clicked, not just by the current user but by any user. I know that if I wanted it to show how many times a user clicked it, I could use localstorage or sessionstorage, but that does not seem to accomplish what I want to do. How can I store a variable that can be changed with an event that persists across users and sessions?

You need a server/backend/database that stores the value. You've mentioned and tagged JavaScript. Is it only frontend JavaScript or also backend JavaScript? Your goal is impossible using only frontend technologies. — user16540390
– user16540390, Commented Jun 9 at 23:21

Faisal · Accepted Answer · 2025-06-10 08:46:11Z

1

I believe you need a backend language that runs on the server because using only Javascript on the client side every time a user send request to the page he will get the same exact Javascript code without a variable being modified.

Keep in mind that you don’t necessarily need a database, once you have a backend language you can keep track of the variable value in a text file on the server.

Possible solution

One possible solution you can make if you can't use PHP or any other backend language is to use a third-party service to keep track of that variable. In this case, every time the client Javascript will talk to the service (send a request to other server that can serve you as a database or file storage) and that server gives you the latest value.

You can use:

• Google Sheets API – store and retrieve data using JavaScript by treating a sheet like a database
• Firebase Realtime Database – a simple cloud database that works great with client-side JavaScript
• JSONBin or MockAPI – free online REST APIs to store and fetch JSON data
• GitHub Gist API – use gists to store data in a file-like way (not ideal for high traffic, but works for small-scale projects)
• Formspree or Getform – services that allow writing data via POST requests even without backend code

edited Jun 10 at 8:46

user16540390

answered Jun 9 at 23:45

Faisal

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1 Comment

user16540390 Jun 9 at 23:48

API stands for application programming interface. That's probably not what you actually mean.

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