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JimWorld Gazette Issue #46 03/27/1998
Gazette - Issue #46 - March 27, 1998
-- Forums Update-- Getting It Straight
-- Upcoming Series - eCommerce
-- Writing A Newsletter
-- Submit URL Update
-- Snippets
-- eCommerce Fraud. Is It Real?
-- Attention Newsletter Publishers
-- Adam's Toolbox - Part IV
Link to this issue of the Gazette as http://gazetteworld.com/go/to.cgi?l=g46
FORUMS UPDATE
I just don't know what to say about the Forums. They are taking on a life of their own.In the Search Engine Forums the activity level continues to escalate. A bunch of the people active in the HotBot Forum have formed a task-force to dig out every detail they can concerning the formula used by HotBot to rank sites. That will be worth seeing when they are done.
The Infoseek Forum group has decided to publish a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) data base of content from the Infoseek Forum. That way people will be able to get answers to common questions without waiting. The FAQ should launch sometime this week.
Over in the Get High Forums the activity is ramping up even faster than the Search Engine Forums did. The discussions are lively and I've already picked up several tips just from lurking there. As soon as version 4.0 of the Forum software is released in about two weeks, I already have many requests to add several more topics to the Get High Forums.
If you aren't participating in the Forums, you are missing some of the best promotion information available anywhere on the Web. You can get to the Forums at <http://searchengineforums.com/ and http://gethighforums.com.
PromoteCARDS, the digital postcards for the webmaster continues to grow in use. There are about 200 PromoteCards being sent each day, and interestingly enough, 99 percent are being read by the recipients. From the number of regular, repeat users I see using the free service, it must work. Have you tried it yet?
One of the most frequently used gadgets on the JimWorld site is the Site Search Engine. It is making the extensive content of JimWorld more easily accessed and consequently, more useful to the community.
Look this week for a new free service to launch.
Have you added any technological gadgets to your site? Why not?
GETTING IT STRAIGHT
A few of the recent emails that have come in to the Gazette staff have mentioned that something or other was 'advertised' in the Gazette, when in fact they were making reference to items that were mentioned in articles. So there must be some confusion as to what is content and what is advertising. Let's set the record straight because you need to know the difference so you can evaluate what you see in the Gazette.There is currently only one advertisement in each issue of the Gazette. It is clearly marked as 'A WORD FROM OUR SPONSOR'. In addition, at the end of the Gazette in the credits we give credit and thanks to those companies and people that make the Gazette possible. Companies like SmartDesk, our corporate sponsor. And RevNet, without whom I would have given up long ago. Their generous donation of list management and mailing services have saved my life. And short plugs for each of the unpaid staff that makes it possible for the Gazette to cover more ground than any other marketing newsletter.
At the end of articles by staff members there is sometimes a short plug for their businesses. This seems a small return for their tireless efforts in researching and writing the content you rely on for ideas and facts. Likewise, each person that contributes articles or tips to the Gazette gets a plug for their business. Again, that is a small 'fee' for the effort it takes to create a good article. Only about one out of five submitted articles makes it into the Gazette.
Everything else you see in the Gazette or on JimWorld, where the only advertising available is banner ads, is content and not advertising. If a writer raves about something they have found, that is content. If we feature a business site in an article, it is because it has something to offer you in the form of a product or site feature that can help you understand or conquer the web.
If we review and endorse a product it is because we really liked the product. The only thing we receive from the producers of those products is a Not For Resale copy of the software, book or product to use in our evaluation.
I hope this helps you understand what is, and isn't, advertising. It's important that you understand so that you know why a product is endorsed. Endorsements are not for sale. If we tell you that you should try something, it's because it is worth trying. It is a disservice to the producers of great products or services if you perceive our endorsement or review as something based on money instead of on merit.
I'm still looking for a way to get Not For Resale units of cars and air travel. Not much hope of ever figuring that one out.
The above information was presented for two reasons. One, for the obvious reasons mentioned in the article. Two, to let you see how we approach things so that you can address this same issue in your web efforts. Make sure your community understands your agenda and editorial policy. Nobody likes to think that they are being hustled, and if you aren't up-front with these policies, they could misinterpret what they see.
UPCOMING SERIES - E-COMMERCE
This seems like a good time to let you know about the next major series coming at the conclusion of the 'Publishing A Newsletter' series.The most common e-mail questions we get involve basic 'How to do business on the Net' and a series of basic information is called for. We will start right at the beginning with a general overview of e-commerce.
During the series we will talk about shopping carts, virtual catalogs, secure servers, accepting credit cards, virtual checks for payment, accepting credit cards without having a merchant account, avoiding rip-offs, setting prices, minimizing returns, fulfillment and several other topics.
E-commerce is a complex subject to deal with, and this should be an exciting series.
WRITING A NEWSLETTER
We're getting back to the last few articles about publishing a newsletter as part of your community building efforts. This week we'll look at the actual writing mechanics. After almost a year of publishing the Gazette I have tried lots of tools and techniques to get the Gazette out as easily as possible. It has been a long learning curve and continues every week. But I have found a basic set of tools and techniques that will point you in the right direction to hopefully let you avoid making many of the mistakes I have made. Make some new ones. Don't make mine. Mine are all patent pending. And I do enforce my patent rights.Gathering the information is the first landmine that you can avoid stepping on. As the information comes in by email (from where is a different article) you have to keep it organized. I have a folder in Eudora titled 'This Week's Issue' and every press release or submission that I get that I want to address goes into this folder.
There is another folder titled 'Future Article' where I store information about things I want to look into for future articles. Unfortunately, this folder just keeps growing. Seems that I'm never at a loss for new input each week to tell you about. But I keep it just in case. Makes me feel really prepared. I haven't had that feeling very often in my life, so anything that makes me feel that way is even worth adding another hard drive to my system.
If the information I want to capture for one of these folders is part of a long document of information that I don't want to sift through again looking for the information I want to use, such as a discussion group posting, I cut and paste the information I'm interested in into a new email message and mail it to myself. If it's for this week's issue, I put *-* into the beginning of the subject line, and if it is for future articles I put -*-. Eudora's filters automatically sort these messages into the appropriate folder so I don't have to process them again when they come into my in box.
I have a folder in my Eudora directory for each issue of the Gazette, and as I use material that was in one of these messages, I store the email in the appropriate Gazette issue folder. This allows me to recover from such boo-boos as forgetting to include a URL in the article.
In my browser I have a bookmark folder for the current issue of the Gazette. As I find pages that have information I will need for this week's article I store the bookmark into that folder. At the end of the week when the issue is put to bed, I dump the contents of that folder and get ready for the next issue.
Another tool that I use is the text editor I write with. After trying every text editor I could find, I settled on UltraEdit-32. Its features are perfectly aligned with the process of creating email newsletters. It has an extensive spell-checker with an easy to update user dictionary. It has the ability to add or remove line-feeds/returns at the end of lines. This allows me to set the width of the Gazette to 65 characters per line so that it doesn't run off of your screen in your mail reader. It also has some very powerful file format translation packages that make moving files from one server to another, or onto you desktop or into a database, easier that any other way I have found.
It allows me to keep an almost unlimited number of documents open at any time, each accessible by a tab across the top of the screen. It is also the program I use to write HTML code, so I don't have to switch back and forth between different editors. It understands HTML (plus about 30 other programming languages) so it is able to color-code my code making it easier to read. It has flexible search and replace functions.
And it runs 100% of the time. I've never had it blow up on me. Sorry folks. Windows only. The program also has an extensive library of macros that enhance its abilities to work in different environments. This program is a joy to use and Ian, the developer, keeps releasing a steady flow of updates. Ultra Edit has been a JimTool for a long time. Get it at <http://www.idmcomp.com/products/index.html> $30.00 US for license and one year of free updates. 16 or 32 bit versions. You can try it for 45 days before you have to decide to pay for it. By the end of that time you will be willing to pay Ian whatever he wants for an unlock code. But he'll settle for 30 bucks.
If you get the impression that I really like this program, you are very perceptive. When I think back to the gyrations I went through to publish without it, I shudder. Next to getting a copy of WebSuite, it is the most important program for a newsletter publisher to own.
Now let's talk about the actual writing process. My style might not work for everybody, but it is the only way that I can keep up with the workload and get everything into the Gazette that needs to be there.
I start the next issue of the Gazette as soon as I finish the last one and get it into the mail. I start with just the standard parts in place like the standard opening, closing and the weekly column headers. I save it as the current issue number and keep it minimized on my desktop all of the time. It is always there and ready to type into.
All week long, as I process my email (about 300 per day) I go through the above mentioned sorting process. When I come across an item that really catches my attention, I go to the web site, or article, mentioned. If I think it belongs in the Gazette, I write the Snippet or article right then, while it is still fresh in my mind. If I just store it for later, I have to go through the entire process of reading and looking for inspiration all over again and the end of the week becomes a nightmare.
This trick of writing all week long in spurts is what makes the whole process work. Instead of trying to remember all of the ideas that are triggered daily, I write them while they are fresh. It makes the whole process take significantly less time and keeps me from getting burned out by having to face the dreaded writing day each week. All I have left at the end of the week is to paste and edit the articles from the other contributors, spell check everything and do a final read through to see what dumb things I have done.
Let me stress that last thought a bit more for you. Most of the new newsletters that come to me have one thing in common. Lots of mistakes and typos and incomplete sentences. You must run the newsletter through a spell checker. A good one. And you must relax and read every word carefully for mistakes and missing information. No matter how careful you are, you are going to miss a URL (sorry Hayden. Missed one of his last week.) but you will catch most of them with a careful reading. Don't rush this. Think and read. You have no idea of the impression a poorly edited newsletter makes on the readers. When I don't see quality progress in a newsletter, I know that this is one publication that won't last. There are no one year anniversaries for poorly edited newsletters. The subscribers just fade away.
When the writing and editing are all finished for the week, I use Ultra-Edit to set the line widths to 65 characters and it is ready to mail. We'll talk later about the actual mailing process and next week we'll talk about where to get the information for your newsletter.
For those of you that have been with the Gazette for a while, you probably remember how long it used to take for the HTML version to appear on the server each week. No longer. I have finally found the right tool for the job.
Before getting the right tool, I would sit with the Gazette text file and convert it into HTML by hand. Convert the ===== into heading tags. Convert every URL into an http://www.yrl.co.uk/~jaf/asc2html.html>
AscToHTM is a utility that converts text documents into one or more linked HTML pages. It recognizes the document's layout, including indentation, bullets, section headings, pre-formatted, and quoted text. It converts all URL's to hyperlinks, and can add hyperlinks to section numbers and user-specified keywords. It can generate one or many output pages and a hyperlinked contents list. It can add headers,footers, style sheets and javascript to each page generated.
Once I had AscToHTM set up, it takes the text file of the Gazette, pastes in all of the code at the beginning and the end that sets up the HTML format and the table that wraps the whole page. It puts in all of the line breaks and blank lines, bullet lists, URL tags and email tags. All I have to do is read through the page in my browser and tweak things here and there. 15 minutes. It is well worth the $35 US price for any publisher. No Mac version yet. 30-day free trail version available at the web site. Very regular upgrades and updates. Another JimTool that has earned an icon on my Windows desktop.
I tested over 25 different programs looking for the best text-to-html converter. This was the best I found. It saves me several hours each week. I know that many of the discussion list moderators and newsletter editors have stopped publishing HTML archive versions because of the amount of added work. I suggest they look at this program. It does a lot more than I use and I probably will spend some time writing a couple of macros for it to totally automate my conversion process. It has a macro system built in. BTW - AscToHTM is provided free to FAQ maintainers who register.
This is pretty much all there is to it. A good place to get some more ideas and moral support for newsletter publishers is in the Get High Forums <http://gethighforums.com/> It's a watering hole for experienced and would-be newsletter publishers and discussion list moderators.
SUBMIT URL UPDATE
<http://www.webthemes.com/submit.html>I have added a couple of items worth mentioning to the Submit URL pages since the last update.
The first on the list is a new list of places where you can track down sites that will give you a reciprocal link.
If you have been reading the Gazette for any length of time, you know the staff's opinion of reciprocal links. The fact is if you want to build a business on the Web, part of the process must be developing links to your site at other pages. Statistics still show that most people get around the web by following links they bump into while surfing, as opposed to looking up something to find it. This process of navigation means the more links you have the better.
EXPOSE Reciprocal Links Directory can be found on the reciprocal link and Free for All page <http://www.webthemes.com/submit5.html>
I have added a couple of new banner exchanges on the banner exchange page. Hot Banners is offering 1,000 free exposures to new members. This might be a good one for new sites. The second is Banner Exchange, a cookie free banner server for the misinformed who think cookies are a bad thing or an invasion of privacy. Find these additions on the Banners page, <http://www.webthemes.com/submit7.html>
There is an addition to the Traffic Control section as well. eXTReMe Tracking is another good, free page statistics provider. This one displays only a small button size image for those who hate the idea of another banner on their page. <http://www.webthemes.com/submit6.html#2>
Sorry I have no Hitman article this week gang. I will be back in force next week. A group of Gazetteers in the Hot Bot Forum has formed an alliance via the Forum. They are using the strength of numbers to do a research project on Hot Bot positioning at the 99% relevancy range that makes up page one or search results as a rule. This study could not be more timely as it appears that Hot Bot may have undergone a major redo of the site ranking algorithm since the last weekend. If you had a good high position at Hot Bot it is likely long gone.
This project is a good example of what using the resources that Jim (he who never sleeps) has put out there for your use and your success. There are no rules at the Forums that restrict creative thinking. This is just one example of how you can tap into the knowledge base that is the readers of the Gazette. This kind of cooperation is the end result of great resources creating opportunities that simply did not exist before now. Use the Forums, tell your friends.
Hayden Mitchell
Web Themes <http://www.webthemes.com>
--- Jim ---
The Gazette is the official newsletter for Submit URL. This frees up some time for Hayden to devote to his pressing Gazette and Search Engine Forum duties.
SNIPPETS
Looking for a computer job? Wanta live in Chicago, Atlanta, Carolina or Texas. Promise to keep your Gazette subscription if you land a new job? OK. Haul yourself over to The Computer Jobs Store <http://www.computerjobs.com/>. You can browse through thousands (yes, I said thousands) of jobs for everything from computer marketing and sales to traditional programmers to webmasters. Lots of web related jobs. You can contact them, or enter your profile on-line and just sit back on the porch and decide which offer to take. If you live in one of the areas covered, there are a lot of contract jobs listed as well. Add a little to your work load. And to your income. Usual rules apply about sending me my 10% agent fee.----------
Activism by Gazeteers does work. According to a letter from a Gazeteer (who shall remain nameless) she wrote a letter to Infoseek asking them why they were advertising on the Solid Oak web site. You remember Solid Oak. The Site Blockers that we took to task a few weeks ago. One of the things we wondered was why Infoseek was running banner ads on the Solid Oak web site when Solid Oak had just announced a product that let users eliminate all banner ads from the web sites they visit. BTW - they also block access by users to the Infoseek search engine, among others.
Well, according to the folks at Infoseek, they have pulled their ad from the Solid Oak site. I guess you guys wrote some pretty good letters to Infoseek. Well done.
----------
<HUMOR BREAK>
Whoever lives at the email address of
----
Dear
Your name has been removed from the Gazette subscription list.
It is normal courtesy where I live to simply ask to be removed from a list. Apparently this level of common courtesy does not exist in the oxygen-thin mountains where you live.
Obviously, RevNet will not be paying your humorous 'invoice'. They are only the processor of our list and in no way involved with its distribution.
I suggest that in the future you not register for a newsletter like the Gazette unless you are equipped to either make use of it or learn basic communication skills. Too bad you won't be getting a copy of the Gazette so you can read about yourself. It's your 15 minutes.
Jim Wilson
Publisher
----
I just received a response to my message to
</HUMOR BREAK>
----------
The Site Success Station <http://www.etemp.com/station> features free services, courses, and tools such as FREE site submissions to 200+ sources, FREE interactive online CGI course, and much more! The site is very nicely done and the material I saw was worthwhile. The site is structured around a robust free area with content on a broad range of webmastery subjects, and an additional area for fee-based members only. Lots of tools for webmasters are included with your membership. I'm just waiting for my membership number so I can let you know more about what's behind curtain number one.
E-COMMERCE FRAUD - IS IT REAL?
In my previous articles I have discussed the alarming increase in the amount of online credit card fraud we have seen over the last 8 months or so. I have also outlined specific steps you can take to eliminate a lot of this fraud. My previous articles are archived on the Virtual Promote website and also on our <http://antifraud.com> site under the "Prevention Tips" page.After my previous articles I received numerous messages from many Gazeteers stating how the information I presented had saved them a lot of money due to fraudulent orders they would have otherwise processed. Now, I need a favor.
My company recently applied for the Better Business Bureau's Online program. They easily approved two of our domains but would not approve antifraud.com for the following reason: They do not believe that online credit card fraud committed against merchants is really a problem or, more specifically, is on the increase. They believe the claim that such is true is exaggerated and misleading. They said they would reconsider their position if I could provide statements confirming this problem other than my own. So, here is the favor I ask -
If any of you are so inclined, would you please email me at
Now, let me bring you up to speed on the current trends we are seeing regarding this type of online fraud.
In my last article I described 3 types of criminals with one of those types being the rank amateur. This month I have seen a big increase in orders being placed with stolen credit cards by rank amateurs - especially from Europe and Australia. Perhaps this new "fad" is just now arriving in those countries with many not understanding how easy it is to track them down.
Regardless, it makes it a little more difficult for merchants as you have to pay very close attention to every order to look for indications of fraud. In brief, I have received several orders from Denmark and Australia from standard ISP issued Email addresses (usually a good sign because the more experienced criminal would either use a free, non-traceable Email address or the real pros actually establish a domain on the net for the sole purpose of committing fraud).
Following my standard procedure, I went to a browser and put a 'www.' in front of the Email domain. Sure enough, they all came up as legitimate ISPs - so far, so good. But wait, what's this?
An order from cbm@popx.dk (Denmark) using a credit card from someone in Richmond, VA? A quick call to our credit card processor with a "code 10" gave us the name and phone number of the issuing bank. A quick call to the issuing bank confirmed this card was just reported stolen. A quick WhoIS of popx.dk and the IP number this individual was using <http://antifraud.com/ipcheck.htm> put us in Email contact with the ISP. Within hours, the issuing bank was in contact with the ISP. I think one particular, not so honest individual is in for a little surprise.
Then, just a few days ago we received two separate orders from a how888@ozemail.com.au (OzEmail is a very large ISP in Australia). Both orders contained the same name and address. However, the orders were for different software products and each order used a different credit card. Why would someone place two orders only hours apart using two different credit cards? Possible? Yes. Suspicious? Definitely!
I sent an Email to my Australian contact who is the Internet Fraud Control Coordinator that works with all Australian credit card issuers. Within 24 hours he had replied. One of the cards was definitely stolen and he was waiting to hear from the issuing bank on the other. Good enough for me - both orders went into the trash. Again, I sent a message to OzEmail alerting them to the illegal activity of one of their members. I put them in touch with my contact.
I just love the joy of giving. It those little, unexpected surprises that mean so much! Until next time -
T.J. Walker
SoftwareSolutions.Net <http://softwaresolutions.net>
The Best in Web Software and Services
--- Jim's .02 --- I would ask all of you with any information about credit card fraud, or personal experience with it, to reply to TJ's request. The fact that an organization like the Better Business Bureau, which has in the past been in the forefront of merchant rights, can have fallen so far out of touch with the realities of virtual business does not bode well for the future of many of our old line organizations. If we want them to survive we have to let them in on what is happening in the real world of business. If they don't catch up they will remain a company that sells placques for your wall and nothing more. ---
ATTENTION NEWSLETTER PUBLISHERS
This just came in and it was so well presented I decided to run their entire message. Not only does represent another good resource for promoting your newsletters and discussion groups, but shows how a little planning and effort can really catch the eye of even the most hardened editor. Not me, of course. But some editors are hardened. I'm still as lovable as ever.ISafari Mall--- free listing for publications--- no catch.
We are not selling anything. We offer FREE listings, a service to publications. We don't sell listings. So, stop worrying, please. This is simply a request for information. ISafari Mall is looking for sights (spelled that way on purpose) that meet our guidelines. For publications, that's easy.
Go to: <http://www.isafarimall.com/add/publication_village_add.html>, fill in your information (please be as specific as possible) and we will do the rest.
The Publication Village is located at: <http://www.isafarimall.com/village/publication_village.shtml>
There are thousands of publications on the Internet and, eventually--- maybe in the next eighteen to twenty-four months--- we would get around to finding, viewing, and sending you a personalized invitation but we are relatively sure you don't want to wait to be found. Frankly, we don't enjoy the prospect of that either. So, instead, we concentrated on gathering E-mail address' for publications--- not randomly by any means. This does, however, leave open certain possibilities and assumptions. First, you may no longer publish anything, making this Junk Mail. This we regret. We hate Junk Mail, to receive it and to send it. Second, this may have been received by more than one person in your organization (you can chastise us for this over lunch). Third, you may be the wrong person to contact. Sorry, will you please pass this on to the appropriate person or persons. We do the best we can and apologize for exhausting your time unnecessarily.
Now for some refreshing honesty--- at least we hope it will be refreshing. More than likely, we have not read your publication and have not gathered much, if any, information about it. We probably have no correlating record between your E-mail address and publication title or web address. With your help we can rectify this. Listings at ISafari Mall include Title, Description and Link to web address. We do not publish E-mail address' or any other business type information. Okay, that should cover most everything.
Now, visit ISafari Mall, look around, supply us with your information. Tell us what you think, if you have a moment. Any constructive criticism would be helpful. Here are some important address':
ISafari Mall Entrance:
<http://www.isafarimall.com>
The Publication Village:
<http://www.isafarimall.com/village/publication_village.shtml>
Information Form:
<http://www.isafarimall.com/add/publication_village_add.html>
ADAM'S TOOLBOX - PART IV
This week I will continue building the web application I started in the last column. Last week I demonstrated a simple method for tracking the source of your visitors by using JavaScript and cookies. By using this system, you can offer other sites a commission for linking to you. The two disadvantages of this system are that not all browsers accept JavaScript and that among browsers that can handle cookies, most allow the user to reject them. In this installment, I will remove one of these problems by using a server side program instead of JavaScript to generate and read the cookies.Perl is one of the easiest to learn, most powerful programming languages ever developed. Although it was originally created for Unix, it has since been converted to run on Windows computers, Macs, and even the Commodore Amiga. Because of its power and ease of use, Perl has become almost a universal programming language for creating CGI programs. Perl doesn't require any special programs to create but because it is a scripting language an interpreter must be installed on the server. If your server allows you to run CGI programs, you probably have a Perl interpreter installed.
Just like the pure JavaScript solution presented last week, this week's application will read the id code tacked on to your URL by the affiliate, convert it to a cookie, and store that information in the user's browser. When your customer fills out an online form to contact you or input their credit card information, the cookie will be read from the browser and the id code will be written out along with the rest of the form output.
This application will require a little more setup on your end, but with the help of some decent tech support from your ISP, even someone with no programming knowledge will have no trouble getting this up and running. If your ISP isn't willing to help you out, it's time to shop for a new ISP, but that's a subject for a different column.
There are many ways to cause a program to run on the server. The most common is by calling the program in a URL just like requesting a web page. You see this in use all the time on the web. <http://www.mysite.com/bin/program.cgi> This application will invoke CGIs by another common method--Server Side Includes (SSI).
SSIs are commands placed in your HTML code. Before your server sends the page to the browser, it checks for and executes SSI commands. Not all ISPs have their servers configured to allow SSIs, so you will need to check with your server administrator to see if you can do this.
The generally accepted naming convention for web pages that contain SSI commands is to end them with a '.SHTML' extension. Your server administrator will be able to tell you if you need to do anything special to your web pages to use SSI commands in them. A SSI command looks a lot like an HTML comment. The format is The spacing is crucial in making the command work. A large number of problems that occur with SSIs are caused by placing a space before or after the '#' symbol.
Armed with the knowledge of what SSIs are and how they are used, it is time to start building the CGI program that will be called by the SSI. Later I'll go into more detail about the actual SSI commands that you will be using.
For the sake of simplicity, this application will be contained in a single Perl script. If the cookie exists, the program will print a hidden form field that contains the id value from the cookie. If it doesn't exist, a cookie will be created. The ReadParse subroutine is lifted directly from the public domain cgi -lib.pl by Steven E. Brenner. It is included here so that there is no need to link to outside files. The program follows.
#!/usr/local/bin/perl
# Copyright 1998 Jim Wilson Adam Kalsey
#
&ReadParse;
print "Content-type: text/html\n\n";
if (defined($ENV{'HTTP_COOKIE'}))
{
%cookies = &getCookies;
print "\n value=\"$cookies{'source'}
\">\n";
}
else {
&setCookie("source", "$in{'source'}");
print " \n";
}
sub SetCookie {
local($name, $value) = @_;
print "Set-Cookie: $name=$value\n";
}
sub GetCookie {
local(@browserCookies) =
split (/; /,$ENV{'HTTP_COOKIE'});
local(%cookies);
foreach(@browserCookies){
($key, $val) = split (/=/,$_);
$cookies{$key} = $val;
}
return %cookies;
}
sub ReadParse {
if (@_) {
local (*in) = @_;
}
local ($i, $loc, $key, $val);
# Read in text
if ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "GET") {
$in = $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'};
} elsif ($ENV{'REQUEST_METHOD'} eq "POST") {
for ($i = 0; $i < $ENV{'CONTENT_LENGTH'}; $i++) {
$in .= getc;
}
}
@in = split(/&/,$in);
foreach $i (0 .. $#in) {
# Convert plus's to spaces
$in[$i] =~ s/\+/ /g;
# Convert %XX from hex numbers to alphanumeric
$in[$i] =~ s/%(..)/pack("c",hex($1))/ge;
# Split into key and value.
$loc = index($in[$i],"=");
$key = substr($in[$i],0,$loc);
$val = substr($in[$i],$loc+1);
$in{$key} .= '\0' if (defined($in{$key}));
# \0 is the multiple separator
$in{$key} .= $val;
}
return 1; # just for fun
}
A text file of this script is available at <http://www.jimworld.com/adam.txt>
To install this script, you will need to make certain that the first line
reflects where Perl is located on your system.
- The location listed is the most common, so you will most likely not need to change this.
- Place the script in your cgi-bin directory, and set the permissions to world-executable (CHMOD 755).
- If you are using NT, make the directory executable.
Just like in part one of this series, create an id for each of your partners.
Instruct the partners to use the id in each of their links to you.
If their id is 123, any links to you would use the URL <http://www.yoursite.com/partner.shtml?source=123>. Our application is going to use this as the value of a cookie named 'source.'
At the top of the destination page (the page your partners are linking to),
place the code
The part in quotes should be changed to a path relative to the html file that the include statement is in.
In your page that contains the form your customers fill out, place that include statement right after the FORM tag.
The beauty of this system is that the code that creates and reads the cookies is never visible to the user. Any browser that supports cookies will be able to handle this. And you don't need to re-write your entire site to take advantage of this program.
Over the next few parts of this series, I will demonstrate more ways to track which partner referred a customer to you. In the last part, we will combine the best parts from all the methods we have learned to help you build the best solution for your needs.
Fine print: This code is provided free of charge and without warranty. Feel free to use, modify and distribute this code, but please leave the copyright information intact. I would also appreciate if you would drop me a note and let me know where and how you are using the code.
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Adam Kalsey, Technical Director
the marketing store! - <http://tmsonline.com>
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