WWW-access Hit Counter FAQ

Which arguments are accepted by the program ?

     The following arguments are currently recognized:
         * width=number
           Specifies the number of digits in the resulting image.
         * link=URL of the page on which the counter is located
           The link-argument is used to keep track of a certain counter. 
           It should be unique for each counter. A good choice is the URL of the page on
           which the counter image is located.
         * increase=number; default 1
           Specifies the number by which the counter should be increased. This can be used to
           check how many times a certain page was visited without increasing the counter. 
           In that case specify increase=0.
           Resetting a certain counter is also possible this way by specifying a negative number here.
         * show=NO
           In case you would like to keep track of the number of accesses to a certain page without
           showing the counter image, specify the above argument.
         * debug=ON
           The above is a special argument which can used to check the correct working of the software. 
           You should NOT specify this argument inside a HTML-page. Instead it should be used directly
           by calling the nph-count program from the 'open URL' window, present in most WWW-browsers,
           using something like the following:
              http://localhost/cgi-bin/nph-count?link=dummy&debug=ON
           This will return an on-line generated HTML-page giving information about possible problems
           with the installed counter software. 

What to add in a HTML-page ?

To activate a counter in a certain HTML-page add something like the following:

     < IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/nph-count?arg1=value1&arg2=value2&arg3=value3">

where arg1,2,3 are any of the supported arguments.

     NOTE: do not specify the debug argument inside a HTML-page.

How to keep track of a page without anybody knowing ?

     In the page you would like to monitor insert something like the following:
     < IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/nph-count?link=link_arg&show=NO">
     and on a different HTML-page where you would like the check the counter regularly:
     < IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/nph-count?link=link_arg&increase=0">

How to reset a certain counter to zero ?

If you would like to reset a counter to zero, check the counter value and the link argument you used in a HTML-page and open the following URL directly (i.e. by typing it in, in the 'open URL' box):

     http://localhost/cgi-bin/nph-count?link=link_arg&increase=-value

This will reset the counter to zero (note: the counter value can not go negative).

Can people from the rest of the Internet (ab)use the counter ?

The current version of the counter program doesn't have access control incorporated yet. This means that anyone could maintain a counter on your machine. However, this imposes no security problem for your machine. The next version of the package will have a possibility to restrict who is allowed to start a counter on your server.

What's the size of the resulting output image ?

The program will return a GIF-image of 20 pixels high and 15 * width pixels wide. This can used to your advantage by specifying the HEIGHT and WIDTH inside the HTML-page. By doing this, during retrieval of the page, the WWW-browser can allocate space for the image while displaying the remainder of the page.

     Example:
     < IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/nph-count?width=5&link=dummy" WIDTH=75 HEIGHT=20>

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© Copyright, 1995. All rights reserved
Heini Withagen
W4 Consultancy
heini@w4.nl