Add a Counter

FrontPage users follow the instructions for a FrontPage-specific counter.

A counter may be added to your page to record and display the number of people who have viewed your home page.A typical counter display:

You are visitor number:

Before creating the counter, ITD recommends that you understand the following:

• Telnet
• Pico, a text editor on frank
• Paths to your directories on frank
• UNIX file permissions
• Counter options and configuration. This shows what you will be creating and modifying

To create this counter, you will do the following:

• Create the counter directory within public_html
• Create a file to store the number of visits to your page
• Create a configuration file that sets all of the options for the counter
• Change the permissions of these files and the directory so that they can be read from the web
• Insert the appropriate IMG tag in your HTML document

Instructions

Create the Counter Directory within "public_html"

1. At the frank prompt, change to your "public_html" directory.
   frank $ cd public_html
2. Create a directory for the counter, naming it "counter."
   frank $ mkdir counter
3. Change the group for "counter" to that of the web server.
   frank $ chgrp httpd counter
4. Change the permissions for "counter" to make the directory accessible on the web.
   frank $ chmod 775 counter
5. Open "counter."
   frank $ cd counter

Create a File to Store the Number of Visits to Your Page

1. Use Pico (a text editor on frank) to create a file that will store the number of visits to your page.
   Name the file "home.count."
   frank $ pico home.count
2. Type the number you want the counter to start at (e.g. 1 or 10).
3. Exit Pico, answering Yes to save the file.
   Ctrl-X (exit)
   Y (Yes to save)
   
4. Change the group for "home.count" to that of the web server.
   frank $ chgrp httpd home.count
5. Change the permissions for "home.count" to make it accessible on the web
   frank $ chmod 775 home.count

Create a Configuration File that Sets All the Options for the Counter

1. Use Pico to create the configuration file that will set all your options for the counter.
   frank $ pico home.config
2. Type in the desired options and required directory path names. (Read Configuration optionsand samples.)
3. The following line is required in "home.config":
   

   CountFile=/ path to your home directory /public_html/counter/home.count

   frank $ pwd will tell you where you are currently working; the "path to your home directory"
   is from the first slash to your username: /users/your group/username/...

4. Exit Pico, answering Yes to save the file.
   Ctrl-X
   Y
5. Change the permissions for home.config.
   frank $ chmod a+r home.config

Add the Text and HTML Tags to Your Web Document

1. Add the following text and tags to your html document:

You are visitor number:
<img src="/cgi-bin/counter.pl? path to your home directory /counter/home.config">