VersaCounter

Features include:

• Graphical (GIF) image output mode, with an expandable number of digit styles
• Plain text output mode (SSI only)
• Can display count, initialization date, or both. (SSI only)
• Can be made invisible
• Adjustable number of displayed digits
• In text mode, commas after every three digits are optional
• Can block against consecutive reloads (with an adjustable time window)

• Optional logging of visitor's:

  time/date

  IP address

  referring page (SSI only)

  web browser/operating system

• Automatic creation of new counters...just add the tag to the web page.
  (can be turned off or restricted to specified domain names)

With SSI operation the script outputs ordinary text/html to the server, which then parses it into the web page. For the text counter style this output is plain text, with an optional preset hyperlink around the hit count. The text style is very handy , since ordinary HTML markup can then be used to change the font. (See the examples below.) For the graphical counter styles (LED, odometer, ...) the script replaces the hit count with an HTML image tag pointing to the GIF image of the counter, saved as another file on the server.

For the graphical counter styles the single counter image is created from individual images of the counter digits. Each digit style is contained in a separate subdirectory (of the same name as the style). Hundreds of digit styles are available from the Digit Mania archive. New styles can be added at any time by simply placing them in the proper directories.

For non-SSI operation an HTML image tag can be placed in the web document pointing to the VersaCounter script. The GIF image of the counter is then output directly to the browser. In this mode of operation, the text style is unavailable.

When logging is enabled a log file is created for each HTML document. This contains the time/date, remote host, referring page (SSI only), and user agent/platform associated with each hit. I am currently working on a site statistics program which utilizes these logs. Here is a demo of the current program.

How to Get it!

Use in HTML Documents

with Server Side Includes:

<!--#include virtual="/path/vcounter?option1=value1&option2=value2... " -->

path is the directory path from the top of the web site to the VersaCounter script, with filename vcounter (change to vcounter.cgi as necessary). The available options are

options	defaults	possible values
page	URL	name or if unspecified, the URL of the page is used (with /'s changed to _'s)
show	counter	counter, date, all ("<counter> hits since <date>"), nothing
style	text	text, odometer, LED, ... names of the installed digit directories ...
digits	0	N - minimum number of digits to display
trans	-	r,g,b - color number to make transparent (r,g,b each run 0 ... 255)
link	0	0, 1 - turn off, on the preset hyperlink
align	bottom	top, middle, bottom - alignment of text after graphical counter image
block	360	sec - number of seconds to block consecutive reloads from incrementing
increment	1	0, 1 - turn off, on counter incrementation ("counting")
log	1	0, 1 - turn off, on logging of visitor statistics
start	0	count - initialize counter to start at the value count *
start_date	creation	date - initialize counter as if started on date (any format) *
* these options only need to be supplied upon initial creation (if ever)

Examples of SSI Use:

1. Simple graphical counter:

   <!--#include virtual="cgi-bin/vcounter?style=odometer" -->

   

2. Simple text counter:

   <B> Welcome! <B> You are visitor number <!--#include virtual="cgi-bin/vcounter?style=text" -->.

   Welcome! You are visitor number 4,710,532.

3. Display both the count and date of initialization:

   <!--#include virtual="cgi-bin/vcounter?style=text&show=all" -->

   4,710,532 hits since May 31, 1998

4. Adding the preset hyperlink and removing commas:

   <H1> <!--#include virtual="cgi-bin/vcounter? style=text&commas=0&show=all&link=1" --> </H1>

   4710532 hits since May 31, 1998

5. Using counter and initialization date separately:

   <FONT SIZE="5">
   <!--#include virtual="cgi-bin/vcounter? show=counter&style=text&link=1" -->
   </FONT> < BR >
   <I> visitors since <!--#include virtual="cgi-bin/vcounter?show=date" --> </I>

   4,710,532
   visitors since May 31, 1998

6. Using graphical counter and initialization date separately:

   <!--#include virtual="cgi-bin/vcounter?show=counter&style=rosewood" -->
   <FONT SIZE="7">satisfied customers</FONT>,
   since <B> <!--#include virtual="cgi-bin/vcounter?show=date" --> </B>

   satisfied customers, since May 31, 1998

without Server Side Includes:

<IMG SRC="http://www.wherever.com/path/vcounter?option1=value1&option2=value2... ">

Here, www.wherever.com is the hypothetical name of the server running the VersaCounter script. The available options are

options	defaults	possible values
page	URL	name or if unspecified, the URL of the page is used (with /'s changed to _'s)
show	counter	counter, nothing
style	odometer	odometer, LED, ... names of the installed digit directories ...
digits	0	N - minimum number of digits to display
trans	-	r,g,b - color number to make transparent (r,g,b each run 0 ... 255)
block	360	sec - number of seconds to block consecutive reloads from incrementing
increment	1	0, 1 - turn off, on counter incrementation ("counting")
log	1	0, 1 - turn off, on logging of visitor statistics
start	0	count - initialize counter to start at the value count *
start_date	creation	date - initialize counter as if started on date (any format) *
* these options only need to be supplied upon initial creation (if ever)

Examples of IMAGE TAG use:

1. Simple odometer style:

   <IMG ALT="Counter Image" SRC="cgi-bin/vcounter?style=odometer">

   

2. LED style and specifying 10 digits:

   <IMG ALT="Counter Image" SRC="cgi-bin/vcounter?style=LED_green&digits=10">

   

3. Adding a hyperlink:

   <A HREF="http://www.aquilo.net/stats.cgi">
   <IMG ALT="Counter Image" SRC="cgi-bin/vcounter?style=curly">
   </A>

   

Using VersaCounter in Virtual Web Pages

Printing an HTML image tag:

     #!/usr/bin/perl

     print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";               # output http header
     print "<HTML>\n";
     print "<HEAD><TITLE>Virtual Web Page</TITLE></HEAD>\n";
     print "<BODY>\n";
     print "Hello, you are visitor number"; 
     print "<IMG SRC=\"/cgi-bin/vcounter?style=odometer&header=0\">\n";
     print "</BODY>\n";
     print "</HTML>\n";

With this method the counter works the same as in normal non-SSI operation. Hence, no text output is available. A better method is to emulate SSI operation, as in the following example.

Explicit system call:

  #!/usr/bin/perl

     print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";               # output http header
     print "<HTML>\n";
     print "<HEAD><TITLE>Virtual Web Page</TITLE></HEAD>\n";
     print "<BODY>\n";
     print "Hello, you are visitor number"
     {
     local $ENV{'DOCUMENT_URI'} = '/cgi-bin/$0';             # pass page name
     local $ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} = 'GET';                   # ensure GET method
     local $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'} = 'style=odometer&header=0'; # pass counter options
     print `/usr/local/www/cgi-bin/vcounter`;                # call counter
     }
     print "</BODY>\n";
     print "</HTML>\n";

As in SSI operation, all VersaCounter options are now available.