Not all web hosts allow server side includes, and many do not provide statistical information about your visitors. You’d like to know who is visiting your page, what route they’re taking through your site, what browser they are using, and what time they were there? Maybe you want to know the sites which are linking to you and which links are generating the most traffic.

Now this is all possible, even with limited CGI access. If you can run basic Perl scripts, and have access to SendMail on this server, CounterMail can retrieve the information from your visitors, and email it to you. You get to choose when the email comes; every visit, after 10 visits, 50 visits, or any number of visits— it doesn’t matter.

Want to show a counter on your page? This script can be called using SSI, to show a simple count of unique visitors. A visitor won’t be counted twice, even if the counter is placed on all your pages.

Call it with an img tag, and add the string /blank.gif to the end of the script to display a one pixel gif. Or, call it with a Server Side Include to show the visitor count.

This is a brand new script, so try it out and let me know what you think. I decided to try using it on ServiceBuilder.net. Cool!

~Jason

FileCABINET is the database script which shows the various programs I have for sale at Intelliscript.net. It allows users to search the database, purchase and make payments with an integrated shopping cart; it generates XML PAD files for software download sites, and lots more.

The two added features are RSS Sydnication and an automated Froogle feed.

RSS (Really Simple Sydnication) allows you to license your content to other sites. It also allows people to subscribe to your content if they want to keep tabs on what’s going on without visiting your site everyday. They can add the ‘feed’ to their newsreader, and this reader will automatically show you when there is new content to view.

FileCABINET lets each script have its own feed (in case someone is interested in subscribing to late-breaking information on any particular script. It also generates a summary RSS feed covering all of the scripts.

Froogle is Google’s integrated shopping search engine. Google asks you to monthly upload a text file containing certain information about your products for sale. Now FileCABINET will generate this file automatically so it’s always an up-to-date reflection of correct prices and information about the scripts.

FileCABINET has only sold one copy— not exactly stellar compared to a script like Auto FollowUp or Crossword (a Scrabble-style game). But it’s becoming one of the most time-saving and efficient programs I’ve written.

~Jason

I’d love to take the credit, but alas, it wasn’t me. A fellow user and programmer— and I guess Scrabble lover— did the real work, and integrated the points subroutines! Pretty impressive.

So it’s not online yet, but will be soon, when I get my act together! Stay tuned.

~Jason

~Jason

(p.s. I use PayPal, and think it’s great, so don’t send me hate email)