[thelist] tracking a url [implementation?]

[Stuart Young]

pixelmech at yahoo.com 05/11/2003 08:30:06 >

> > They suggested having a 'redirect' page that passes the link of
> > the company ("companyA") the user clicked.

> Okay, so what's the best way to run this?

why don't you just download the code that someone else has used, this is such a standard thing to do, it must be available, I mean its part of the Web Links module of PHP-Nuke so it must be common in CMS code. In Nuke the number of clicks for each link ID number is stored in a database and displayed beside the link. e.g. shameless plug:
http://www.norml.org.nz/link-5.html 

As a user I find it very annoying when sites do this since I can't look at the URL in the status bar to see where I am going. Also if the script falls over then you can't visit the site at all. I have complained to the NZ Government website where all the search results have such links, e.g.

http://www.govt.nz/en/search/search-results?search_basic_string=Green&search_type=basic

and I visited when their technology had fallen over, and couldn't get anything.

so I like the idea of a JavaScript "web bug" - normal URL for everyone but still record the info - it wouldn't catch the people who have JavaScript turned off but I doubt this would be a problem for your statistics. 

cheers

Dr Stuart Young,       +64 (0)9-815 4321 Ex 8656
<syoung at unitec.ac.nz>     
Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Technology,
UNITEC Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
http://hyperdisc.unitec.ac.nz/staff/syoung.htm
I would provide a URL for my official staffpage, but its too long and complex

Dr Stuart Young,       +64 (0)9-815 4321 Ex 8656
<syoung at unitec.ac.nz>     
Lecturer, School of Computing and Information Technology,
UNITEC Institute of Technology, Auckland, New Zealand
http://hyperdisc.unitec.ac.nz/staff/syoung.htm
I would provide a URL for my official staffpage, but its too long and complex