Download Counter

[ikon]

i am wondering if there is a way to display a 'counter' in response to the number of times someone clicks a downloadable .mp3 link on my website. heres the link> http://www.ikonmusic.net/audio.html ...the link that says "Download" under each song is what i want to be tracked and displayed. if theres no way it can be displayed on the site itself, at least maybe be able to be tracked by some other source. i guess this sounds like a hit counter type thing..but i dont know of any free counters that provide more than 3 free counters. plus the link to download the song (which is the link i want to track), is not a .html, its a .mp3, therefore thered be no place to insert a code in the link itself, id need to wrap the code around the link (if this is possible). heres an example of what i want...http://www.universalemcees.com/board...pic.php?t=6676 its on a message board, and you can upload a track to be downloaded by anyone, and it shows how many times the file has been downloaded.

any suggestions?

[mwinter]

i am wondering if there is a way to display a 'counter' in response to the number of times someone clicks a downloadable .mp3 link on my website.

There is, but you need some form of server-side process to perform the tracking and storage - a database or flat file - to maintain the results. A basic example would be to link to a script which took a URL to a file in its query string. You could then update the database and redirect the client to the given URL. Displaying these results would then be a matter of writing the values out of the database.

The specifics would depend upon what your host provides.

If these statistics are for your own purposes, you could just look at your server logs. Any self-respecting host (that isn't free) should provide these in some form or another. You might even be able to create a specific log file for these files.

Mike

[ikon]

server logs = counter statistics? or are server logs something else?

my host is bravenet, and i do pay for the service. where would i access these server logs?

[mwinter]

server logs = counter statistics? or are server logs something else?

The server logs contain information about who tried to access what, where, and when. There are log analysis tools about that you could use to extract information about certain entries of the logs, including your downloadable files.

where would i access these server logs?

Usually somewhere amongst your account administration. If you can't find anything, ask your host.

Mike