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Counter, Clock & Date Display Options

Authors who write web pages for inclusion on our site have the option to display counter, clocks and dates on their pages.

Please follow these steps to add one or more of these options to your page:

  • Visit the Example page to find html code for a variety of styles.
  • Copy and paste the selected html into your web page exactly where you want the object to appear.
  • You can alter the code to display various colors, styles and frames.
  • For clock and date displays, that's it! Upload your page to test the results.
  • For a counter to work an additional step is required before you upload.
    • with the following information:
      • Your name, email and building location
      • URL of the page you want to display a counter
      • Whether or not the counter will display on the page or be hidden
    • The webmaster will send you the text that must replace yourfilename in your counter html string. You will be sent the URL to read the count of a hidden counter if you select that option.
    • If you need your counter reset you will need to ask the webmaster to do that for you.
    • Please try to remember to notify the webmaster if you delete your counter.
    • Note: you will be able to alter the style of your counter at a later time and the hit count will not be effected. You do not have to notify the webmaster for any reason other than deleting the counter or to request a count reset.
  • If you have problems please read all the documentation below and view the samples on the Example page. If you are interested in other options, please visit the official Access Counter and Clock website where you will find indepth, advanced documentation and a FAQ, as well as additional examples and access to a list forum.
  • If you continue to experience difficulty contact the

Available styles:

Style A styleA
Style B styleB
Style C styleC
Style D styleD
Style E styleE
Style cd stylecd
Style cdr stylecdr
Style cdd stylecdd
Style bang stylebang

Options

The counter program has lots of options if you want to alter the given examples. In the query string, you can use the options described in the table below. Separate the options with &. The options can be in any order and are not case sensitive. Here is an example:
<img src="http://www.boiseschools.org/cgi-bin/Scripts/Count.exe?ft=4&frgb=gold&df=yourfilename.dat" align=absmiddle>

Keywords

align Align counter image on a base image. istrip Use strip.gif or not.
cache Deprecated. Use expires instead. lit Show literal string.
chcolor Change one color of the counter image. md Maximum number of digits to display.
cdt Countdown target date. negate Show the negative image of counter.
cdf Countdown from date. offset Offset from the counter image from the edge of the base image while compositing.
comma Show comma after 3rd digit from right. pad Left pad with zeros or not.
dd Digit directory. reload Count page reload or not.
degrees or angle Rotation angle of the image. rotate Rotate the counter image.
df Counter data file. sdhms Show the day, hr, min, sec in countdown or not.
dformat Date format. sfd Show "from" date while showing countdown.
display Counter, clock, date, countdown or image. sh Show the counter or keep it hidden.
expires Used to change the image caching behavior of the browsers. srgb, prgb Change source color to pen color.
frgb Frame color. st Start count number.
ft Frame thickness timezone Show time of that time zone.
fy Full year (all digits). tformat Time format, 12 or 24 hr.
image Display a GIF image. tr Transparency On or Off.
incr Increment the counter or not. trgb Transparency color.
    xy Composite the counter at x,y location of a base image.
Parameter Name Description Default
expires=X This parameter can be used to change the image caching behavior of certain web browsers. The integer value of expires specifies the cache expiration duration time in seconds. If you do not want the browser to cache the image, specify 0. If you want the browser to cache image for 5 minues, specify the value as 300. The valid integer range of the expires parameter is between 0 and 604800 (7 days). Note, these parameters will work with browsers that support the HTTP Expires header as specified in HTTP specification. By default, most web browsers cache the image received from the counter. That means, if someone visits your page and comes back after a while, the counter or clock does not get refreshed. None
reload=B Count page reload if the site admin configured the counter to support it. If the site admin configured the counter to count reload, users can choose to count reload (default) or ignore reload. The site admin allows count reloading by yes, 1 or true in the [options] section of the configuration file with the keyword count_reload. Note, if the admin decided to ignore reload count (count_reload=No), user preference is ignored. The valid values for the Boolean parameter reload are Y, N, T, F, 1 or 0. reload=T
Count reload if site admin configured to so.
cdt=year;month;
day;hr;min;sec 		Show the countdown time to this target date. The parameter cdt specifies the countdown target date. The valid values for this parameter is 6 integers separated by semicolon. The first integer specifies the year, for example: 2000. The month starts at 1 (January). The first day is 1. Note: in Unix systems, the year can not be less than 1970 as Unix epoch starts starts at 00:00:00 on January 1, 1970, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The range of hr is 0 to 23. The range of min is 0 to 59 and the range of sec is 0 to 59. To count down to Year 2000, the parameter will be: cdt=2000;1;1;0;0;0. If you do not specify any Timezone with the parameter timezone, the countdown will be calculated from the web server time. For example if you like to show the countdown from GMT, specify timezone as: timezone=GMT+0000. None
cdf=year;month;
day;hr;min;sec 		Show the countdown time from this date. The parameter cdf specifies the countdown from date. The default is to calculate from the current local time or local time of a specific timezone if the parameter timezone is specified. The valid values for this parameter is 6 integers separated by semicolon. The first integer specifies the year, for example: 1999. The month starts at 1 (January). The first day is 1. Note: in Unix systems, the year can not be less than 1970 as Unix epoch starts starts at 00:00:00 on January 1, 1970, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). The range of hr is 0 to 23. The range of min is 0 to 59 and the range of sec is 0 to 59. The local web server time.
sdhms=B Show the day, hr, min, sec in countdown or not. This parameter affects how the countdown is displayed. The valid values for the Boolean parameter sdhms are Y, N, T, F, 1 or 0. By defualt, the value for this parameter is True, that means the countdown is shows as Day, Hour, Min and Sec. If you just want to show the countdown days, specify F as the value. sdhms=T
sfd=B Show from date (sfd) below the countdown. The parameter sfd shows the from date below the countdown. The from date is the time when the program is executed. The time in date is always in 24 hr format. If you use the parameter timezone, the timezone offset will be shown at the end of time. It may be necessary to see this date to make sure that the Counter program actually ran and the browser is not loading the image from cache. Use cache=F&expires=0 to make sure that browser does not cache the image. The valid values for the Boolean parameter sfd are Y, N, T, F, 1 or 0. sfd=F
display=X Specifies what to display. The valid values for X is: counter, clock, date, countdown, image or version. If the value is countdown and if the countdown time is not specified with parameter cdt, the countdown to year 2000 is assumed. See also: cdt. Note: If you specify display=image and if you specify a datafile with df parameter and if incr is true, then counter will be incremented in the datafile. This will help some people who do not like to show the counter, instead they can show an image. You can use incr=F from another page to monitor the counter. display=counter
timezone=X Display time/date of the specified timezone. The parameter timezone= is only significant with display=clock, display=date or display=countdown Use this parameter if you want to display time or date of another timezone or calculate countdown in reference to a timezone to a target date. The timezone must be specified with a negative or positive four digit offset from GMT, for example: timezone=GMT-0500 or timezone=GMT+0000 or timezone=GMT+0530. The routine to display time of various timezones are written in a generic way. Therefore, the unix machines will not be aware of daylight saving time because of the way the routine is written. For example, if daylight saving time is on, to display time of NY, the timezone will be timezone=GMT-0500 instead of timezone=GMT-0400. If the clock displays your local time wrong, specify your timezone with that parameter in order to display the correct time. None.
tformat=X

Time format in 12 or 24 hour. This parameter can be used to display time in 12 or 24 hour format. The valid values for the parameter X is 12 or 24. tformat=12
dformat=X Specifies date format. This parameter is only significant with display=date. The valid value for the string parameter X is any combination of MMDDYY (Month-Day-Year). For example, dformat=ddmmyy, dformat=YYMMDD. To show the full year in the display instead of two digit year specify YYYY instead of YY, for example dformat=MMDDYYYY. To show full year you can also use the parameter fy. dformat=
MMDDYY
fy=B Show the full year (fy) in the date instead of only two digit year. This boolean parameter indicates whether to show all the year digits instead of default two digits in the date. By the way the program will display all the year digits by default from Year 2000. The valid values for the boolean parameter fy are Y,N,T,F,1 or 0. See also: dformat. fy=F
istrip=B Use of image strip On/Off The boolean value of istrip specifies whether to use image strip or not. If you specify istrip=F, the program will look for the individual digit image files in the digits/style directory. The valid values for the Boolean parameter istrip are Y, N, T, F, 1 or 0. istrip=T
ft=X Frame Thickness You can wrap the counter in an ornamental frame of X pixels thick. Use 0 for no frame. Values over 5 make a nice 3-D effect. ft=4
frgb=R;G;B
or
frgb=RRGGBB (in hex) 		Frame Color Specifies the color of the frame in RGB (red/green/blue) format. Each color component, R, G, and B is specified as a value between 0 and 255. If you use ft= without a frgb= param, the default color is used. If you specify a frgb= without a ft=, then the frame thickness defaults to 5. All the examples show ft=5. The color can be specified as hex string or a name. Do not use a # before the hex string as Netscape. For example, if you want to specify white in hex, use frgb=ffffff. You also can use a color name (e.g. frgb=blue) if the counter is configured to do so (look at the cfg file). frgb=
100;139;216
or
frgb=648bd8
tr=B Transparency On/Off You can specify if your counter image will have a transparent color with the Boolean B. So tr=Y means there will be a transparent color. It does not matter if the GIF files used for the digits are "transparent"; you must specify explicitly which color to make transparent. If you specify a trgb=, then you do not need to specify tr=Y. If you specify tr=Y and do not specify trgb=, then the default color black will be transparent. The valid values for B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0. tr=F
No Transparency
trgb=R;G;B
or
trgb=RRGGBB (in hex) 		Transparency Color Specifies the color to be made transparent in RGB (red/green/blue) format. Each color component, R, G, and B is specified as a value between 0 and 255. If you use tr= without a trgb= param, the default color is used. The color can be specified as hex string or a name. Do not use a # before the hex string as Netscape. For example, if you want to specify white in hex, use trgb=ffffff. You also can use a color name (e.g. trgb=blue) if the counter is configured to do so (look at the cfg file). If you use trgb= then tr=Y is not needed. trgb=0;0;0 or
trgb=000000
md=X Max Digits Defines maximum number of digits to display. Any value between 5 and 80 inclusive are permitted. Padding with leading zeros is automatically done for you; longer counts are truncated to the given X. md=6
Without padding
pad=B Left padding with 0s Turn padding on/off in conjunction with md= setting. It also affects padding hour in clock. Valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0. pad=N
Without specification of a md=value
 pad=Y
With specification of a md=value
dd=A Digit Directory Denotes directory of a specific styles of digits. Four styles of digits are supplied. They are kept at the directories A,B,C and D respectively. Visit the digit mania page for other styles of digits. dd=A
My green LED digits
image=gif_file Display this GIF file You can display any GIF image specified with this parameter. The location of this file is determined by the dd= parameter. Note that no path in the GIF file is allowed. All attributes of the counter apply to the image. This parameter is used for compositing counter image with the GIF image. The default alignment is top-center and the default offset is 2 pixels from the top of the GIF image. If you want to composite clock, date or contdown, specify so with the display paramter. None
comma=B Display comma after every 3rd digit from right. The boolean value of parameter comma specifies whether to display comma after every 3rd digit from right. If you use this parameter as true, the left padding with zeros will be turned off. comma=F
srgb=R;G;B
or
srgb=RRGGBB (in hex)

prgb=R;G;B
or
prgb=RRGGBB (in hex) 		Change a color of the image to a target color on the fly. Any one color of the image can be changed to a different color on the fly. srgb stands for source color, that is the color to change. prgb stands for pen color, that is the target color. The values for srgb and prgb can be colon separated color components (e.g, srgb=255;0;0), a hex value (e.g. srgb=ff0000) or a color name (e.g. srgb=red). The color name can be used if you configured the counter to do so (look at the cfg file). srgb=00ff00
(0;255;0 green) prgb=00ffff
(0;255;255 cyan) With chcolor=T
chcolor=B Change a color of the image. This parameter is usually used to change the default green color to cyan. That is if you specify chcolor=T, and you want to change green to cyan, then you do not need to specify srgb and prgb parameters. 1x1 GIF is displayed. The valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0 chcolor=F
st=X Start Count This parameter is used to set the initial value of the counter to some number X. This is only valid if you decided to allow automatic datafile creation. It is a bad practice to allow automatic datafile creation, however it makes site maintaining easier. The automatic datafile creation option is specified in configuration file and can be changed at run time. Note that this parameter has no effect if the datafile already exists. If you want to change the counter value in a existing datafile, hand edit the file. The minimum value for st is 1. st=1
Count starts at 1
sh=B Show digits Used to turn display of digits on or off according to the Boolean B. When sh=T, counter will be displayed and incremented, this is the default behavior. If sh=F no digits will show, but the counter will still increment; instead of digits a transparent 1x1 GIF is displayed. The valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0 sh=Y
df=data_file Datafile to store count Specifies the name of the file for storing the count in. The file must be allocated to you as was mentioned in the "Authorizations" section above. You can use df=random to display a random number. One special use of the parameter is df=RANDOM. This returns a random number using the fractional portion of the host's time of day clock as a seed for the generator. Unlike all other WWWcounter parameters, the file name provided is case-sensitive, except for the value random. Or Random, or rANDOM, etc. df=random
if no datafile is specified
incr=B Increment Count Makes it possible to display the current count without incrementing the count. This can be used to examine the count for reporting or other purposes without adding to the count. Valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0.

incr=T
Increment the counter
lit=X Display literal Makes it possible to display a given, predetermined string. The valid values for the string X are digits, a,p,: and - None
negate=B Negate the color Makes it possible to negate the color of the counter digits. Note that the Frame is exempted from negating. Valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0. negate=F
Do not negate
degrees=X
or
angle=X 		Rotate X degrees Makes it possible to rotate the counter image X degrees. The possible values of X are 90, 180, 270 and 360. Note 360 is meaningless as the counter will come back to the original 0 degrees. Note: Some versions of MS Explorer interprets &degrees as the degree character , so use angle to be safe. degrees=270
With rotate=Y and without degrees=X
rotate 270 degrees clockwise
rotate=B Rotate On/Off The Boolean value B turns on or off rotating. If you use degrees= setting, rotate is not needed. Valid values for the Boolean parameter B are Y, N, T, F, 1, or 0. rotate=F
Do not rotate
xy=x;y composite the counter image to a base image at the location x,y When a base image is specified with image parameter, the parameter xy can be used to composite the counter image on the base image at location x,y. x is positive towards right and y is positive downward. The co-ordinate of the upper left corner of the base image is 0,0). See also: align. xy=1;1
align=X composite the counter/clock/countdown image with a base image and align the counter image. This option can be used to composite the counter on a base image (specified with image with known width and height. This way, you will be able specify the width and height of the counter image in the <img src= tag while calling the counter. The implication is, if the counter is the first thing in a large table, the browser will not have to wait to calculate the width and height of the counter image before loading the rest. The valid value for the parameter align is topleft, topcenter, topright, midleft, midright, midcenter, bottomleft, bottomcenter and bottomright. The parameter offset can be used to specify the offset in pixels from the edge of the base image. Note: xy parameter has higher precedence than align. Therefore, if both xy and align is specified xy will take the precedence. See also: xy. align=
bottomcenter
offset=N Offset of the counter image in pixels from the edge of the base image while compositing the counter with an image. The parameter offset is used with parameter align to specify the offset of the counter image in pixels from the edge of the base image while compositing the counter/clock image with an base image. If align=topleft, the the offset is counted from the top and left edge of the base image. If align=topcenter, the offset is counted from the top edge of the base image. If align=topright, the offset is counted from the top and right edge of the base image. If align=midleft, offset is counted from the left edge of the base image. If align=midcenter, offset is ignored. If align=midright, offset is counted from the right edge of the base image. If align=bottomleft, offset is counted from the left and bottom edge of the base image. If align=bottomcenter, offset is counted from bottom edge of the base image. If align=bottomright, offset is counted from the right and bottom edge of the base image. The valid value for the paramter N is a positive integer. See also: xy. offset=2
Counter Examples
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