Download count for website

"Bill Smith" <wilsmith.TakeThisOut@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
news:u9izc.4264$1K6.35000424@news-text.cableinet.net...
 > I run a community website which currently offers free downloads of
 > community photos for personal use.
 > I notice that many website offering free downloads can announce the
 > number of times each item has been downloaded.
 > Can anybody tell me how this count is achieved?

Usually using a database. When someone views a certain link, I will add +1
to the count column.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Download count for website 

"Karl Groves" <karl RemoveThis @NOSPAMkarlcore.com> wrote in message
news:cakbih$s6s$1@ngspool-d02.news.aol.com...
 >
 > "Bill Smith" <wilsmith RemoveThis @blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
 > news:u9izc.4264$1K6.35000424@news-text.cableinet.net...
  > > I run a community website which currently offers free downloads of
  > > community photos for personal use.
  > > I notice that many website offering free downloads can announce the
  > > number of times each item has been downloaded.
  > > Can anybody tell me how this count is achieved?
 >
 > In my case, I keep a database of the information regarding the file(s) in
a
 > database: name, description, file name.
 > A PHP script prints all this stuff to the screen as well as a link to a
 > script that counts the downloads (incrementing the 'count' field in the
 > database) and then redirects the user to the location of the file.
 >
 >

Should be updated after the download is complete. What if the user cancels?<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Download count for website 

Richard wrote:

 > "Karl Groves" <karl.RemoveThis@NOSPAMkarlcore.com> wrote in message
 > news:cakbih$s6s$1@ngspool-d02.news.aol.com...
 >
  >>"Bill Smith" <wilsmith.RemoveThis@blueyonder.co.uk> wrote in message
  >>news:u9izc.4264$1K6.35000424@news-text.cableinet.net...
  >>
   >>>I run a community website which currently offers free downloads of
   >>>community photos for personal use.
   >>>I notice that many website offering free downloads can announce the
   >>>number of times each item has been downloaded.
   >>>Can anybody tell me how this count is achieved?
  >>
  >>In my case, I keep a database of the information regarding the file(s) in
 >
 > a
 >
  >>database: name, description, file name.
  >>A PHP script prints all this stuff to the screen as well as a link to a
  >>script that counts the downloads (incrementing the 'count' field in the
  >>database) and then redirects the user to the location of the file.
 >
 > Should be updated after the download is complete. What if the user cancels?

Also the redirect can be bookmarked and used in the future, or passed
around. Exact counting is difficult.

I discovered that someone started to host a zip file for me, so my count
was extremely off. In a community people start to pass around pics,
probably even by other ways, like MSN.

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Happy Customers: <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://castleamber.com/testimonials.html" target="_blank">http://castleamber.com/testimonials.html</a><!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Download count for website 

Bill Smith wrote:

 > I run a community website which currently offers free downloads of
 > community photos for personal use.
 > I notice that many websites offering free downloads can announce the
 > number of times each item has been downloaded.
 > Can anybody tell me how this count is achieved?
 > TIA
 > Bill S
 >

Our hosting company provides very full webstats, but can't seem to
distinguish between an image viewed on-screen and an image physically
downloaded to the visitor's computer HD, and none of the many other stat
analysing tools I've looked at seems able to do this either.

Karl: Your solution looks promising, but you write:
 > A PHP script prints all this stuff to the screen as well as a link to a
 > script that counts the downloads (incrementing the 'count' field in the
 > database) and then redirects the user to the location of the file.

Could you point me to the PHP code source, please, and/or explain how
you detect that the file has been downloaded rather than just viewed?

Thanks for all suggestions posted,

Bill S.

PS:
Maybe I should have explained "community" better: it's not something
like MSN but a local community website (in fact, a UK community council)
and the photos are of our annual children's gala ceremonies, parade etc.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Download count for website 

Bill Smith wrote:

 > Our hosting company provides very full webstats, but can't seem to
 > distinguish between an image viewed on-screen and an image physically
 > downloaded to the visitor's computer HD

That is because the only way a person can view the image on-screen is to
download it from the server. The server stats only know that the image
was downloaded. They have no way of knowing what the user did with the
image after that.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: Download count for website