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Hit Counter Tutorial
Welcome to Part 1 of 4 Counter
Tutorials. First we are going to cover the basic hit counter.
Create A Text Hit Count File
Create a text file, I called mine
"hit_counter.txt".
In this text file, you only want to place the number 0. Then of course
save it to your directory at which you are constructing your Hit Counter ASP
script.
NOTE: Do not place any other characters or number in this file!
If you
are a loser and you want to cheat on how many hits you have had, you can
change the 0 to any number you want. The counter will start on that number.
Or, maybe you are resuming an old count. Whatever it may be, that will be the
starting number.
If you have read other tutorials
and they use Access databases, .inc, and or any other type of
file it is the same idea as my .txt file. Just, my way is easier!
Begin writing the code:
Since I want this code to display on a page,
we'll start off with simple HTML codes for a display page. Name the page
anything you want with in .asp format.
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<html>
<head>
<title>Hit
Counter</title>
</head>
<body
bgcolor="white"
text="black">
<div
align="center">
<h3>Hit
Counter</h3>
<%
'Hit Count ASP Script
Here
%>
<br>
</div>
</body>
</html> |
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Dimension the variables to be used in this script. If you are unsure why we need
some of these variables, still continue to read on. They are explained in detail
below.
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<%
'Dimension
variables to be used
Dim
FileSystemObject
'File
System Object
Dim
TextStreamObject
'Text
Stream Object
Dim
FileObject
'File
Object
Dim
NumberVisitors
'Holds the number of visitors
Dim
LoopCount 'Loop
counter to display the graphical hit count |
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OR to Conserve Space
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<%
Dim
FileSystemObject,
TextStreamObject,
FileObject,
NumberVisitors,
LoopCount |
To be able to change the text file holding the hit count we need to use the Microsoft Scripting Runtime object
"File System Object". This object can be used
to write and read a file. So we are going to Set
our
variable FileSystemObject
that we created to be
that scripting object.
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Set
FileSystemObject =
Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject") |
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Now we will use the
"GetFile" method of the
"File
System Object". Initialize the "File
Object"
with the hit count text file. To get the "hit_counter.txt"
text file we need to use the physical path on the server to the file. Use the ASP
Server object and the
"MapPath"
method to get the path and file holding the hit count.
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Set
FileObject =
FileSystemObject.GetFile(Server.MapPath("hit_counter.txt")) |
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Once the File Object has been initialized create a
"TextStream
Object".
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Set
TextStreamObject =
FileObject.OpenAsTextStream |
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Using the
TextStreamObject
created above and the "ReadAll"
command we will read into the "hit_counter.txt"
text file to define our variable NumberVisitors
.
We are also using the VBScript function "CLng" to
convert the text to long integer.
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NumberVisitors
= CLng(TextStreamObject.ReadAll) |
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Now, we need to redefine
NumberVisitors
since the visitor will be adding one to
total.
So "Old
NumberVisitors
+ 1 = New
NumberVisitors
If you are
desperate and a loser you can change the number 1 to anything you want. If you
get caught, would be quite hilarious.
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NumberVisitors
= NumberVisitors
+ 1 |
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Now we have to over write the old text file with
the new visitors number using the "CreateTextFile"
command of the "File
System Object" Again using the ASP "Server" object and
the "MapPath"
command.
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Set
TextStreamObject =
FileSystemObject.CreateTextFile(Server.MapPath("hit_counter.txt")) |
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Using the "TextStreamObject"
write the new
hit count to the "hit_counter.txt" text file.
Use the "CStr" VBScript function to convert long integer
to a string.
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TextStreamObject.Write
CStr(NumberVisitors) |
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Reset Server Objects to free resources
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'Reset
server objects
Set
FileSystemObject= Nothing
Set
TextStreamObject = Nothing
Set
FileObject = Nothing |
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There are two ways to display the
hit count. Text or Graphically. Most prefer graphically but text is more
reliable and quicker.
The text version is displayed
simply as seen below.
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'-----------------------------------------------------------
'Display the hit count as
text
'-----------------------------------------------------------
%>
Text Version of Count
<br>
<%= NumberVisitors
%>
<br>
<br> |
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Finally this finished project should look something like this! Make sure it is
saved in .asp format as mentioned before and must be run on an ASP2 enabled
server. Visit Part 2
Create a Graphic Hit Counter
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<html>
<head>
<title>Hit
Counter</title>
</head>
<body
bgcolor="white"
text="black">
<div
align="center">
<h3>Hit
Counter</h3>
<%
Dim
FileSystemObject,
TextStreamObject,
FileObject,
NumberVisitors,
LoopCount
'-----------------------------------------------------------
' Get and open hit count
file
'-----------------------------------------------------------
Set
FileSystemObject= Server.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
Set
FileObject =
FileSystemObject.GetFile(Server.MapPath("hit_counter.txt"))
Set
TextStreamObject =
FileObject.OpenAsTextStream
'-----------------------------------------------------------
' Increment count
'-----------------------------------------------------------
NumberVisitors
= CLng(TextStreamObject.ReadAll)
NumberVisitors
= NumberVisitors
+ 1
Set
TextStreamObject =
FileSystemObject.CreateTextFile(Server.MapPath("hit_counter.txt"))
TextStreamObject.Write
CStr(NumberVisitors)
Set
FileSystemObject= Nothing
Set
TextStreamObject = Nothing
Set
FileObject = Nothing
'-----------------------------------------------------------
'Display the hit count as
text
'-----------------------------------------------------------
%>
Text Version of Count
<br>
<%= NumberVisitors
%>
<br>
<br>
<br>
</div>
</body>
</html> |
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