Mark Hensler — Wed, 11 Feb 2004 06:56:21 +0000

Just a passing thought...

I was wondering if running a short shell script would be more efficient than using two file handles for a text counter. The first handle to read the contents (required to increment the unknown number). The second to record the new number.

It just seemed like a waste to me that two handles should be required for a single task (incrementing an unknown number). Especially when we don't need the number (I'm assuming the number won't be displayed on the page).

So, I made a short shell script. I haven't benched it. It was just something to occupy 5 minutes of my time (spent writting this post).

cat sample.php | awk '{printf "%d\n", ($0+1);}' > sample.php

Renegade — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 19:29:54 +0000

I made my own PHP counter code, if you want, you can use that or see how that works and try fixing your version of the code with it...

mjs416 — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 19:28:15 +0000

Well, I managed to figure out the problem just as I checked back on the boards. It was the html/php extension problem.

I know the simple text counters are very inaccurate (the refresh/increment issue). I currently have a book on php that I am reading thru and just wanted to see some of the syntax in working order.

Thanks for the input all!!!!

Greg K — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 19:21:34 +0000

The code you provided needs to go into a .PHP file, not an .HTML file.

PHP commands will not get processed unless they are in a file with an extention of .PHP (or another extension the server is set to procees, which usually doesn't include .html files)

Try renaming it to counter.php and then calling that page. Also, to avoid confusion later, I would use something like "sample.data", as the file (from the example you gave) does not actually contain php code, but just a numeric value. This may down the road help determine what files are what in the directory.

Just in case the page you got this code from didn't warn you, this type of counter, while very basic, will tend to be very inacurate. If it is on you home page, each time i go to the home page it increases (so if i go to a subpage, then come back to home, it registers another hit). Also someone could sit on the page and jsut keep hitting RELOAD/REFRESH to increase it.

IMO, if you seriously need a counter, it's worth to pay the small fee places like thecounter.com charge for a counter.

Hope this helps.

-Greg

Suzanne — Tue, 10 Feb 2004 19:13:47 +0000

you can't parse php in a .html file -- name the page counter.php and try again? The php should NOT appear.