Topic awaiting preservation: File Download Counter

Aight All

I'm looking for a script I can put in an HTML page so I can monitor the number of times indevidual zip files are downloaded ...helps me know if one product is better than the other etc.
Does anyone have a script I can use?
If so would you kindly include some brief instructions also.
Thanks alot fellas

PS I dont have PHP, ASP or any of those facilities. Hence the need for something basic and simple I can just stuff into a file and let it do its thing.

Aight. can't help ya. doubt you can store a great deal without a server side something... JS is more yer client side language which won't save records where ya want 'em - tho i hope im wrong. read yer webstats'd be my advice, or get a host with php.

dig yer nym splodge - welcome to the Zone. =D

Weadz

Hmz, like Weadah's right, the only way to store information using client-side scripting is through cookies. And that won't help you out. I don't know if you can access your websever, but there should be a weblog registering all that...

Aight fellas
Ah well guess I will have to spend some money on a better host to get what I need.
Thanks all for the assistance tho.

What you could do actually (and this may be a bit much, but it'd probably work), is track hits by having javascript load a counter service image when a user clicks on a download link.

eg.

<a href="some_file.zip" onclick="trackFile(this.href);return false">download</a>

(You could probably write some script to handle "save as.." also.)

So trackFile() would load a counter image by pointing a GIF or whatever image URL to the counter service, then open the actual file URL in a new window (or wait until the image loads, then forward the browser to the URL in the same window.)

I haven't done this myself, but the theory is solid Then your "tracker hits" would be the number of times a file was downloaded or whatever.
www.extreme-dm.com/tracking may work with this kind of thing, although I'm not positive. Since you wouldn't be interested in tracking the referer, instead you could pass the URL of the file they're downloading as the referer argument - then in the referers section of the counter, you could see which files were downloaded. Would be kinda neat!

I should try this myself just for interest's sake, to see if it works. It would be a unique way of tracking downloads, without having to rely on server-side methods. Not bulletproof, but it would be accurate for people downloading files from a link given within your site.



[This message has been edited by Scott (edited 09-29-2003).]

well, shit- when did Weadah come back?


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