How to not increase page/post view count with refresh?

Question

I've searched online for a way to disable post/page view "hacking" with refreshing page but I didn't find any.

How to not increase page/post view count with refresh?

or same question from different angle:

How to register only unique visits?

My current thoughts are IP or nonce but Im afraid I need a little help to get started.

---

Current code is super simple:

    /* Allow devs to override the meta key used. By default, this is 'Views'. */
    $meta_key = 'estate_property_views_count';

    /* Get the number of views the post currently has. */
    $old_views = get_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, true );

    /* Add +1 to the number of current views. */
    $new_views = absint( $old_views ) + 1;

    /* Update the view count with the new view count. */
    update_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, $new_views, $old_views );

Answer 1

Method 1 - Using Cookies:

Instead of IP you can do it using cookies. You need to first check if cookie exists, if it does not then update and set cookie otherwise don't.

Something like this will work:

if(!isset($_COOKIE['not_unique'])) {
    setcookie('not_unique', '1', time() + (86400 * 30)); //30 days
    $old_views = get_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, true );
    $new_views = absint( $old_views ) + 1;
    update_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, $new_views, $old_views );
}

Method 2 - Using Sessions:

Add session_start(); at the very first line of your script and then use it like this:

if(!isset($_SESSION['not_unique'])) {
    $_SESSION['not_unique'] = 1;
    $old_views = get_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, true );
    $new_views = absint( $old_views ) + 1;
    update_post_meta( $post_id, $meta_key, $new_views, $old_views );
}