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Steps to compile and install (Unix)

The counter can be compiled with or without many options. The default is to probe the system to find out if you have needed libraries, if you do have them you'll get the full functionality of the counter. If you don't have them you'll get a stripped down version of it. Install the FreeType font library if you want TrueType Font support. Please read the section TrueType Font support for instruction to install TrueType library. Please read the section Database Support for installing database libraries. After installing the libraries, come back here.

A shell wrapper script around configure called build is supplied to help you out in compiling. To see the options supplied by build, at the shell prompt type:

./build 

    Usage: build [options]

    where the options include:
       --all                        compile with default settings

       --with-cgi-bin-dir[=DIR]     designated directory for CGI programs,
                                    default is /usr/local/apache/cgi-bin

       --prefix=dir                 counter base directory, default is
                                    /usr/local/etc/Counter

       --with-db[=DIR]              include Berkeyley db 1.x support
       --with-gdbm[=DIR]            include GNU gdbm support
       --with-ndbm[=DIR]            include ndbm support
       --with-sdbm                  include sdbm support. sdbm database
                                    Library comes with the counter.

       --with-ttf[=DIR]             include TrueType font support

       --without-database           don't include database supprt
       --without-ttf                don't include TrueType font supprt

       --clean                      remove object and binary files
       --pristine                   clean real good
       --install                    Install the counter

If you finished all the above steps successfully, you are ready to test the counter.

Test the program from command line (Unix/NT)

A shell script is provided to test out the various features of counter. To test the program, at the shell prompt, type:

cd tests
./testcount-sh
 


The program will create a file called examples.html. Load this file
to your web browser to see the result of the tests.


You can test it out in NT as well, provided you installed the tools from
GNU-Win32  project
by Cygnus. These tools provide
a fairly complete Unix-like environment in NT and they're free.






How to call the program? (all platforms)



If 
database support is on, just put a line like below in your web page/s:


    <img src="/cgi-bin/Count.cgi" alt="******">



That's it! Have a look at the 
 Example Page.




If you're using old style data files for whatever reason, read the following:




If the web server is running on Unix:

    <img src="/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?df=sample.dat" align="absmiddle">


If the web server is running on NT:

    <img src="/cgi-bin/Count.exe?df=sample.dat" align="absmiddle">



Note: in Unix, the .exe extension is not used to determine a executable. 
You can call your program anything you like. So, if your server is not on Unix,
the name of the counter program will be Count.exe instead of Count.cgi.


The string after the ? mark is called the QUERY_STRING. Make sure there are
no newlines in the <img src= line and no space in the QUERY_STRING. 
In df=sample.dat, df means datafile and sample.dat
is the counter datafile. The counter stores the hits in this file. This
datafile is supplied. 
If you configured the counter to allow automatic datafile creation (look at
count.cfg file), you can specify a datafile with df like
df=count.dat. The file count.dat will be created for you if the 
permission to the data directory is correct. 


If you configured not to allow automatic datafile creation (good thing), 
you have to create this file in the data directory.
Change directory (cd) to the data directory and type:

    echo "1" > count.dat


In NT, go to Command Prompt from Start->Programs and do the same.


The counter program has lots of options, you can make it work and look the
way you desire. In the query string, you can use the options described
in the table below. The options can be separated by a | or a &. You can
use either one or combination of both but I prefer to use & as some browser
may not like |.
Here is an example:

<img src="/cgi-bin/Count.cgi?ft=4&frgb=gold&df=sample.dat" align=absmiddle>



The options can be in any order and not case sensitive.


Anyway, look at this
 Example Page
you will get the picture.




    

        

            
               

                    

                        
                    

               


            		
        

    



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