LevelTen Hit Counter Help Installation

2. File upload: Create a new directory on your web server called "L10Apps". Use your FTP program to upload all the files from the Zip archive to this new directory. Important! Load all files that end with .swf or .gif in binary mode. All other files can be loaded in ASCII mode.

3. Setting File Permissions (Unix servers only): If you have a Unix server you will need to set the file permissions for the new "L10Apps" directory so that the PHP scripts can read and write to files in that directory. If you have a Windows server you can skip to step 4.

You will need a FTP program capable of changing file permissions or a Telnet program to complete this step. (More on file permissions)

Set the directory permissions to 0777. To do this in an FTP program select the "L10Apps" directory, then locate the "set permissions" or "chomd" option, in most FTP apps this can be found by right clicking a file on your server. In most FTP programs a dialogue box will pop up allowing you to enter "777" (or "0777") or will have checkboxes. If you FTP has checkboxes; set the owner, group and other permissions to read, write, execute.

If you do not have access to a chmod capable FTP program you can use Telnet. Use your telnet program to navigate to the directory containing the L10Apps directory and issue the command "chmod 777 L10Apps". You can set the directory permissions by backing up one level to the directory that holds the LevelTen Hit Counter scripts and typing the command "chmod 777 L10Apps"

Note that some servers do not allow directory permissions of "777". If yours has this limit try using "751". If that does not work, contact your hosting company or server admin for a suitable alternative.

4. Testing PHP Scripts: Open a browser and point it to the L10HC_Admin.php. It will be a URL web address such as: "http://www.yourdomain.com/L10Apps/L10HC_Admin.php" (replace "yourdomain.com" with your actual web address).

If you get a "Script Install Form" your script is installed properly and your directory permissions are set correctly, continue to step 5. If you do not get the install form go to L10HC_Admin.php installation errors to troubleshoot.

5. Creating the Database: You will need to create the database where the LevelTen Hit Counter will store its data. You can create a database using whatever name you like, we recommend "L10HC".

Different hosting companies/server admins will give you a preferred method for creating databases. If you are not sure how to create a database contact your hosting company or server admin.

6. Completing Script configuration: You need to verify 8 pieces of information on the Initialization Form.

A. The database host. Most servers will use a local installation of MySQL. For MySQL running on the same machine as the web pages, use the default of "localhost". If you need to connect to a database on another server you will need to get the database host information from your hosting company/server admin.

B. Enter the username for connecting to the database engine.

C. Enter the password for connecting to the database engine.

D. Enter the name of the database you created in step 4. e.g. "L10HC".

E. The "L10HC_Admin.php" field should already be filled out, just verify that it is the correct address to the L10HC_Admin.php script

F. This field needs the full URL address of the L10HC_Reporter.html.

G. The Hit Counter filters any hits not coming from your domain. This will keep your counter free from miscellaneous external page hits. Most sites have one domain which should already be filled in the field. If you have other domains that point to your domain enter them in as a comma separated list. e.g. mydomain.com,mydomain.org,myotherdomain.com

H. Put the page name that your server uses for a default or index page here. The most commonly used names are index.html, index.htm, default.htm,and home.htm. This is so the Hit Counter can associate www.mydomain.com/ as the same as www.mydomain.com/index.html. You can verify what your server uses as an index page by typing your domain, e.g. www.mydomain.com and then trying some possible page names such as www.mydomain.com/index.html as checking if the to URLs show the same Web page. After all fields are correct click the "Initialize" button. You should get back a success message.

7. Verifying the Counter Script Now test the counter script by running L10HC_Counter.php. The easiest way to do this is to use the L10HC_Admin.php address and type over "Admin" with "Counter" so that you are calling the L10HC_Counter.php script.

If you get back a small blue target graphic then the Counter script is working, continue to step 8. If not then review "counter not working" troubleshooting.

8. Logging into Flash Reporter: Use a browser to navigate to the L10HC_Reporter.html page. When the password dialogue box pops up, enter the default password of "password" (all lower case). After a few moments you will be forwarded to the Summary Report.

Select the Options tab at the top of the Flash admin. The first thing you will want to do is change your password from the default. Just type the password you want into the Password box under "Security:", type it again in the confirm box and press "Save". Your scripts and Flash admin are now correctly configured.

You will also want to adjust your hit counter for your local time if it is not the same as your server's time. Use the local time adjust section to make this change.

9. Adding Tracking Tags to Web Site: The last thing you need to do is to Add the HTML Tag to each web page you want the system to track. In the Flash Reporter review the settings under "Hit Counter Display Options". Once you have the options set the way you want click the "Page Tracking Code". Another window will pop-up with the tag you need to add to your web pages.

Use an HTML or text editor to add the HTML Tag from the pop-up to each page you want to track on your site. Hint: Most likely you will add it to the bottom of each page. Some HTML/text editors have a multi-page search and replace feature. If yours does, you can add tracking to all pages by searching for the "</body>" tag and replacing it with the HTML Tag followed by a "</body>" tag.

Upload the HTML pages you have just changed to your web server. Your installation is now complete. The system will automatically track your visitors and hits. Visit your Flash Reporter after a few hours to view the reports of your site's traffic.

You should review the Getting Started file for a few quick hints about your LevelTen Hit Counter.

If you have any additional question or comments about the LevelTen Hit Counter or Web metrics visit our support forum.

Terms

Setting File Permissions - Changing of file permissions is commonly called "chmoding" a file. This is because the UNIX command for setting file permissions is "chmod". If you FTP program supports chmod you can typically tell by right clicking on a file on the web server and the chmod option will be in the pop-up menu. You can also perform a chmod with a Telnet program. The syntax for Telnet is chmod [permissions] [file], e.g. chmod 755 L10HC_Admin.php. This sets the L10HC_Admin.php to read, write, and execute.