The counter is a small CGI script which is included by default in the cgi-bin directory of Web Secure Web Hosting customers. It provides an easy to utilise graphical counter that you can display on any of the Webpages contained within your website.

How do I add it to my Website?

It is relativly simple to setup, you need to add an image tag into any HTML document and it will be replaced when displayed by the graphics to show you the number of times that page has been loaded.

for example: <IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl">

What options are there?

Firstly, to use the options you append them to the URL for the CGI (mcounter.pl). Each option is a tag and setting pair. e.g. tag=setting. And are fairly easy to follow and use.

ref=xxxx (where xxxx is a text identifier)

This is a reference tag used to identify the page the counter is on. Making use of this lets you have a seperate counter on several pages on your site. Simply place the exact same IMG SRC line into a second or third Webpage, and set the reference to something different for each. And automatically a new counter will be started for this page. It will also count independantly of any other referenced counter.

e.g.
<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl?ref=index_page">
<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl?ref=orders_page">

w=#### (where #### is a number in pixels)

This is a modifier for the width of the character graphics.
Each digit graphic is joined into a single image for the counter, and due to this they are spaced at set intervals, you can modify this setting to move the digit graphics closer or further away for each other. The default is 21

e.g.
<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl?w=50">
<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl?w=15">

h=#### (where #### is a number in pixels)

This is a modifier for the height of the character graphics.
Settign this value addes blank space around the graphics.
The default is 24

e.g.
<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl?h=50">
<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl?h=15">

fw=#### (where #### is a step size)

This enables a border, similar to table borders, around the digits. A larger number will cause a thicker border to be generated. The default is not to display a frame.

e.g.
<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl?fw=2">

style=xxxx (where xxxx the name of the style)

This lets you change the graphic set used for the digits. By default there are 5 digit sets installed on the hosting server these are:

57chevy

blueodo

caliblu

emboss

mred

e.g.
<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl?style=57chevy">
<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl?style=emboss">

digits=#### (where #### is the number of characters)

The Digits tag lets you change the total number of digits displayed if the number is greater that the number the other numbers are shown as zeros. Setting it to 1 allows the digits to only display if required.

e.g.
<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl?digits=6">

Multiple tags

If you want to have multiple tag references, like you want 57 Chevy font plus a 4 digit counter, then use ampersands to separate the instructions.

e.g.
<IMG SRC="/cgi-bin/counter/mcounter.pl?style=57chevy&digits=4">

Setting the counter to a higher initial starting figure

Access the directory /cgi-bin/counter/data and find a file called "count.txt". You will see it is set to a default value. This can be easily reset.