FP98: Hit Counter Doesn't Work in Subweb on Netscape Servers

• Microsoft FrontPage 98 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

When you open a Web page that contains a hit counter, the counter does not increment past 1.

This behavior usually appears if the Web page is located in a subweb on a Windows NT Server and one of the following Netscape Web servers is running:

   Netscape Fasttrack (All Versions)
   Netscape Enterprise (All Versions)

CAUSE

This behavior occurs because of how the Netscape Web server determines the name (path) of a subweb passed to it. Specifically, the PATH_TRANSLATED parameter does not consistently include a trailing slash. For additional information, see the "More Information" section of this article.

RESOLUTION

To work around this behavior, follow these steps:

1. In FrontPage Explorer, create a new subweb in the Root Web. The URL should be similar to this

         HTTP://<Servername>/<Webname>
   

   where <Servername> is the name of your Web server, and <Webname> is the name of the new subweb.

2. Start or switch to FrontPage Editor and open the home page.

3. Insert a hit counter, by following these steps:

       a. On the Insert menu, point to Active Element, and click Hit Counter.
   

       b. In the Hit Counter Properties dialog box, select the counter style
          you want, and click Ok.
   

4. On the File menu, click Save.

5. Look at the page in your Web browser. To do this, click Preview In Browser on the File menu.

   NOTE: You will see either of the following:

   - A broken image icon instead of the hit counter.

        -or-
   

   - The hit counter will display 1 hit.

   If you reload or revisit this Web page, the hit counter will not increment past 1.

6. Promote the subweb to the Root Web by following these steps:

       a. On the Windows Start menu, point to programs, and then click
          Windows NT Explorer.
   

       b. Expand the _Vti_pvt folder in the Web server's content root.
          By default, the content root folder is located in the
          C:\Netscape\Suitespot\docs folder.
   

       c. Double-click the Services.cnf file. It will open in Notepad.
   

       d. Find your Web name and delete it from the list. The entry will
          look similar to the following
   

             /<Webname>
   
          where <Webname> is the name you gave to your Web when you
          created it in Step 1.
   
       e. On the File menu, click Save.
   
       f. On the File menu, click Close.
   
      Your FrontPage Web has now been promoted to a subfolder in the Root Web.
   
   

7. Switch to FrontPage Explorer. Open the Root Web and then open the sub folder, <Webname>, that you created in Step 1.

8. In FrontPage Editor, open the page that contains the hit counter and delete the hit counter. Reinsert the hit counter, by following these steps:

       a. On the Insert menu, point to Active Element, and click Hit Counter.
   

       b. In the Hit Counter Properties dialog box, select the counter style
          you want, and click Ok.
   

9. Open the page in your Web browser, using the URL from Step 1. Note that when the page loads, the hit counter will be working correctly. If you reload or revisit the page, the hit counter will increment correctly.

10. In FrontPage Explorer, create a new Web by following these steps:

        a. On the File menu, point to New, and then click FrontPage Web.
    

        b. Click From Wizard Or Template. In the list of templates,
           click Empty Web.
    

        c. In step 2, type the title you want to use for your Web and click OK.
    

        d. In the Choose a title for your FrontPage Web box, type the title
           you used in step 1.
    

        e. Click OK.
    

        The content from the Web you created in Step 1 will be imported
        automatically from the subfolder in the Root Web into the new
        subweb. The hit counter will continue to function correctly.
    

STATUS

Microsoft has confirmed this to be a problem in the Microsoft products listed at the beginning of this article.

MORE INFORMATION

The Netscape servers listed in the "Symptoms" section of this article intermittently change the query string that is constructed by the hit counter and passed to Fpcount.exe.

Following are examples of query strings that are constructed by the hit counter and then passed to Fpcount.exe, and how the Netscape server determines the location of the file that contains the hit counter information.

For Hit Counters on Pages in the Root Web

If the hit counter is on a page in the Root Web, the hit counter constructs the following query string and passes this string to Fpcount.exe:

   _vti_bin/fpcount.exe/?Page=hitcounttest.htm|Image=4

   C:/Netscape/Server/docs/_private/hitcounttest.htm.cnt

For Hit Counters on Pages in a Subweb

If the hit counter is on a page in a subweb, the hit counter constructs the following query string and passes this string to FPcount.exe:

   _vti_bin/fpcount.exe/myweb/?Page=hitcounttest.htm|Image=4

   C:/Netscape/Server/docs/myweb_private/hitcounttest.htm.cnt

In this example, the correct location for the file that contains the hit counter information should be:

   C:/Netscape/Server/docs/myweb/_private/hitcounttest.htm.cnt