Counters
This document describes how to add counters to your TDE home page(s). A counter is a
graphic image placed on a home page that indicates how many times the home page has been
hit by people on the Internet. Each time someone accesses the home page, the current count
is converted into a GIF image and displayed on the home page. The counter is then
incremented to count the access which just occurred.
While counters can be used to get an indication of how many times a home page has been
hit, they are by no means exact. If you plan to use your counter for statistical purposes,
please keep the following things in mind.
Many web browsers implement caching to improve performance. If the home page being
accessed is already stored in the computer's memory or hard drive, the browser will
retrieve the page from there rather than accessing the server again. While this does
improve performance from the perspective of the person browsing the web, the counter for
that page is not incremented since the server was not accessed. This produces a count
which may be lower than the number of times the home page has actually been read by
people.
Many web browsers have a "back" button to return to the home pages passed
through to get to the home page currently being viewed. Suppose someone hits the TDE home
page, goes to your home page, then follows a link on your page to somewhere else. If they
then use the "back" button several times to get back to the TDE home page, they
will hit your page on the way. If your page isn't in their browser's cache any longer,
their browser will access the server to retrieve your page (and thus increment your
counter). In this situation, it's likely that this is not a "real" hit on your
home page, but rather was just a step back though the pages that they had been to. This
situation may produce a count which is higher than it really should be.
Finally, keep in mind that counters will also be incremented if someone uses the
"reload" button found in many browsers. If someone repeatedly uses the
"reload" button on a page, the effect will be an inflated counter.
Usage Instructions
This section explains how to add a simple counter to your home page. There are also a
number of options that can be used customize your counter.
To install a counter on your home page, add a line similar to the following to the home
page where you want the counter to appear:
<IMG
SRC="http://webtools.tde.com/cgi-bin/counter/counter.exe?arg1=value1&arg2=value2&.....&argn=valuen">
or translated using real arguments (options):
<IMG
SRC="http://webtools.tde.com/cgi-bin/counter/counter.exe?style=a&link=username.pagename">
Username is your username at TDE. Pagename is the name of the home page you are
installing the counter on. If your home page is in a subdirectory, be sure to include the
subdirectory name as part of pagename, but separate the subdirectory from the pagename
with a . (period) rather than a / (slash). Please note that the ? character is required,
and there is no leading / character before username.
Example #1:
<IMG
SRC="http://webtools.tde.com/cgi-bin/counter/counter.exe?style=a&link=jdoe.index">
This line will add a counter for jdoe's
index.html home page.
Example #2:
<IMG
SRC="http://webtools.tde.com/cgi-bin/counter/counter.exe?style=a&link=jdoe.funstuff.goodies">
This line will add a counter for jdoe's "goodies" home page located in the
"funstuff" subdirectory.
Here is the list of available counter arguments (options):
Argument
(* means required) |
Possible Values |
Meaning |
| link* |
anything that doesn't contain a space |
Uniquely identifies the page calling the counter. This is case-sensitive. See examples
below. |
| width |
0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 or 9 |
The width of the resulting image in digits. Extra zeros will be added to the
beginning. If the width is too short for the number to be displayed, it is lengthened so
that all digits may be displayed. Default is 4. |
| style* |
any directory name under the /digits directory, for example, led, or
the reserved value simple. Should not contain spaces |
Specifies the set of digits to use in constructing the final image, or specifes the
use of the simple style 1. Should be all lower-case |
| bgcolour |
RRGGBB or trans |
When using the simple style, specifies the background colour of the image, or
if trans is used, specifies a transparent background. RRGGBB should be 3 2-digit
hex values in one string, similar to the HTML command <BODY BGCOLOR="RRGGBB">
. This argument has no meaning when style does not equal simple. The default
is 000000 (black). |
| fgcolour |
RRGGBB |
When using the simple style, specifies the foreground colour of the image.
Same format as bgcolour. The default is FFFFFF (white). |
| inc |
0, 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 |
Determines how much to increment the counter. Using 0 means the counter will not
increment. Using a value less than 0 will result in no increment. Using a value greater
than 5 will result in an increment of 5. If you are calling from a computer specified in
the [No-Increment-For] section of counter.cfg, this argument has no effect. |
Examples
<img
src="http://webtools.tde.com/cgi-bin/counter/counter.exe?link=myhomepage&style=led">
<img
src="http://webtools.tde.com/cgi-bin/counter/counter.exe?link=page2&style=odometer&width=7">
<img
src="http://webtools.tde.com/cgi-bin/counter/counter.exe?link=page3&style=simple&bgcolour=00FFFF&fgcolour=FF0000">
Digit Styles
A main feature of this counter is the ability to use many different styles of
digits. TDE Internet has upgraded the counter program over the years. Each time the
counter program is upgraded, new digit styles come with the newer counter program.
You will notice in the examples below, that some styles are very similar to other styles.
In an effort to be backward compatible, we have made any digit style ever used by TDE
Internet available for you to use. Please note that many of the digit style examples
are larger in size than displayed in the examples below.
| Style Name |
Example |
| led |
 |
| odometer |
 |
| lcd |
 |
| speckled |
 |
| noisy |
 |
| cyan |
 |
| eggs |
 |
| halloween |
 |
| curly |
 |
| timex |
 |
| red |
 |
| orange |
 |
| chalk |
 |
| scoreboard |
 |
| neat |
 |
| beach |
 |
| electric |
 |
| fancy |
 |
| frozen |
 |
| handwriting |
 |
| oldstyle |
 |
| sf |
 |
| web1 |
 |
| web2 |
 |
| netscap |
 |
| amini |
 |
| buftom |
 |
| a |
 |
| b |
 |
| c |
 |
| d |
 |
| e |
 |
| f |
 |
| g |
 |
| h |
 |
| i |
 |
| j |
 |
| k |
 |
| l |
 |
| m |
 |
| n |
 |
| o |
 |
| odb |
 |
| odw |
 |
| lot |
 |
| dg |
 |
| dr |
 |
| fb |
 |
| wd |
 |
| cb |
 |
| sbg |
 |
| sbr |
 |
| bajbp |
 |
| banco |
 |
| bancord |
 |
| blueblk |
 |
| bluewht |
 |
| blutrns |
 |
| cgblue |
 |
| cgdizzy |
 |
| cgstony |
 |
| enya_g |
 |
| enya_r |
 |
| ironl |
 |
| irons |
 |
| ironswd |
 |
| orgtrns |
 |
| orngblk |
 |
| orngwht |
 |
| slasher |
 |
| slashrc |
 |
| tiny |
 |
FAQ
Q: How can I keep track of hits without having a visible counter?
A: Not sure why people want to do this, but anyway:
In your <img src="...">, put height=1
width=1.
Q: How can I get my web page to load faster when I'm using a
counter?
A: You should specify the height and width of the image. Each digit
in these style are 15x20, so width = 15*(# of digits displayed)
and height = 20. Now put this in your HTML: <img height=20
width=X src="/cgi-bin/...">
Q: I'm using the simple style, but I can't change the background/foreground
colour?
A: 1) Did you spell bgcolour and fgcolour correctly? (Americans
note the U).
2) If it uses the default colour (black for background, white for
foreground) then you didn't specify 3 two-digit hex numbers. Remember
that it goes RRGGBB (Red, Green, Blue).
Q: How accurate is the counter?
A: The counter increments everytime it is loaded. It is not loaded
when:
- People with non-graphical browsers see your page.
- People are not autoloading images
- People hit "Stop" before it gets loaded.
- People look at your page with certain browsers that do not like
.exe files in img tags.
- Someone on the [No-Incremenet-For] list looks at the page.
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