download counter

[rh71]

I have a site with video files and I want to implement a download counter for each download (not the number of site visits). What's the best and easiest way to accomplish this? I looked through cpanel but nothing jumped out at me. There was a CGI script that does page-visit counts but that's not what I want (unless that's the only way to do it).

 

[Markbnj]

In order to implement a download counter you will need to refer the video link through a server-side script that increments a value that you can later read and display. Typically this value is in a database, but it might also be in a file.

 

[DaveSimmons]

^ you can also have that script run anti-hotlinking code to stop bandwidth thieves and uncredited deep linking.

1. anti-hotlinking (could be just checking referrer header)
2. counter increment
3. echo the video file

... you can find anti-hotlinking scripts that do 1 & 3, just modify the script to add 2.