Goodies to Go ™
August 5, 2002–Newsletter #192
This newsletter is part of the internet.com network.
http://www.internet.com
Goodies Announcement
The new Beyond HTML Goodies book has just been released!
Go beyond the basics and learn how the pros add and use dynamic HTML features
and advanced JavaScript techniques. Beyond HTML Goodies demonstrates dozens of
new and different features readers can add to their existing Web pages using
HTML and JavaScript. The book starts with simple text and image tips, such as
adding a clock to a Web page or causing text to appear when the mouse moves over
an image. It gradually builds to more complex tricks, including manipulating
forms or working with cookies behind the scenes. Throughout the book, readers
enjoy Joe’s snappy style and "to the point" discussion of each "goody" in the
book.
http://books.internet.com/books/0789727803
Goodies Thoughts – Web Statistics
People are naturally statistic
junkies. Some of us are more addicted than others but we all are interested in
statistics just the same. You see statistics every day on television, at work
and in the newspapers. How many people are injured in drunk driving accidents,
what is the percentage of unemployed, how many people visit Washington D.C. each
year, who leads the American League in RBI’s this year; they are all part of our
statistical obsessions.
So, then why shouldn’t we be curious
about web statistics? It’s natural. Even if you only develop sites for yourself
and family, you are probably still interested to see how many people visit your
site, when they visit, what browser they use, etc. So, for all you statistical
junkies out there, this week we will take a look at some of the most common
statistics and how they can help you analyze your website.
There are literally hundreds of
software packages out there that you can install to analyze your website
visitors. Since there are so many, I’m not going to take the time to discuss the
different software packages. Odds are you are on a hosted server of some kind
anyway and you already have some sort of statistical software available to you.
If you have your own server(s), though, and are looking for some good web
software you might want to check out
WebTrends
or
LiveStats.
There are several terms used in web
statistical analysis that, at first glance, would make you think they are pretty
much the same thing. The total hits, sessions and page views might sound like
they are almost the same but in fact they are quite different.
Hits – This refers to the
number of requests made to the server. What that means is that each time
anything is requested from your server, it counts as a hit. This includes
graphics, files, CGI scripts and pretty much any kind of request that you can
think of. For example, if you have a page that has 30 different graphics on it,
its hit count will total 31 which is 1 for the initial page call and 1 for each
of the 30 graphics that are requested within the page. There is a lot of debate
as to the usefulness of this particular statistic.
Sessions – This particular
type if statistic is often much more telling than the hits statistic. It counts
the number of visitors rather than the number of requests to the server. It does
this by tracking IP addresses. Each visitor will have their own unique IP
address when they visit your site.
Page Views – This is kind of
the in between statistic. It counts the number page requests for your web. It
doesn’t care whether the same person is making multiple requests or whether the
page itself is making several requests for graphics. It just counts each time a
page is requested.
There are also some other very useful
statistics that you may be interested in. The ones that I look at frequently are
the browser statistics. I like to know what percentage of my viewers are looking
at the site in Internet Explorer vs. Netscape, how new the browsers are, and
what type of operating system they are using.
By knowing what type of browsers are
being used I can better determine where to put my energies. For example, if 99%
of my web’s viewers are Internet Explorer users, I may choose to use some
"Internet Explorer only" tags in my HTML. By knowing how new the average user’s
browser is I can determine whether or not to use some advanced DHTML or
JavaScript. By knowing the most common platform, I can gear advertising and
links toward those types of users.
Search engine statistics are another
useful statistic that you will find on most statistical software packages. This
can be very useful if you are relying on search engines to drive traffic to your
site. You should be able to view statistics on not just what search engine sent
you a referral but what keyword was used to find you on that search engine. If
you are advertising on any search engines, this type of analysis is a must.
Those are the basic elements for most
web statistical software. With those basic elements, most packages will allow
you to create different reports that will help you paint a very accurate picture
of your viewers. Over a period of time you should be able to determine things
like your peak traffic day, what page(s) your visitors tend to go to
first and even how long they stay at your site.
All of the statistics together will
give you a good idea of what is and is not working for you. See if your web host
has any statistical analysis software available to you.
Thanks for reading!
Quiz Goodies
In the world of web and
software development, you will probably hear the term "work-around" tossed about
frequently. What is a work-around?
Read answer below.
Q & A Goodies
Questions are taken from
submissions to our Community Mentors. You can ask a Mentor a question by going
to
https://www.htmlgoodies.com/mentors/.
Q. I am wondering
how to make a link that links further down to a certain spot on the page. Like
say it is a lyrics page and you are at the top, you click number 7 and it brings
you right down to number 7. How would I go about doing this?
A. To create an
anchor, first you must create the link, just as you would create any other link.
Only instead of placing a URL or page name in the HREF part, you would use the #
sign, followed by the name of the anchor. Then create the link and close the
tag. Like so:
<A HREF="#seven">Number 7</A>
Once you have created a link to the anchor, you must define the anchor itself.
This must be done where you want the link to go to. You define the anchor simply
by giving it a name. In this case that name would be seven.
This is number <A NAME="seven">seven.</A>
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community. The answer was provided
by Marty Bozeman, one of our HTML Mentors.
Q. I purchased a
domain name through internet solutions and my server is through CWI hosting. I
have uploaded all my info to their server but am told that my domain name is
still pointing to the DNS. Can you please refer me to a site that has directions
on how to do this. I have been unable to find anything.
A. It sounds as
though your Domain Name Server (DNS) is pointing to the place where you
registered your domain name. You have to point them to CWI’s DNS. According to
the CWI web site their DNS is:
PRIMARY
NS17.CWIHOSTING.COM
SECONDARY
NS18.CWIHOSTING.COM
You have to go to Internet Solutions at
http://www.internetsolutions.com and log into your account. There should be
a link to designate the DNS. They will ask for the primary and secondary DNS.
Place the information above in the proper places and you should be set to go. It
could take up to 48 hours for this to resolve itself after you change the DNS.
Also, according to CWI, their DNS changes from time to time. They suggest you
call and get the up to date DNS from them before making the changes.
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community. The answer was provided
by Bob Conley, one of our Web Design Mentors.
Q. I’m getting
frustrated with the difference between IE and Netscape.
What I’m trying to do is:
Place an image exactly where I want it in the page, either by position, or
layers and change its SRC by clicking a link.
I can change the image if its not positioned where I want it but as soon as I
put it in a layer or div, I cant.
The above works with IE but not with Netscape.
A. With Netscape
4 version browsers if you place something within a div and you want to change it
you have to also specify the div name. It would go something like this:
document.div_name.document.Image_name.src=image.gif
Below is an example that will work in Netscape 4, Netscape 6+ and IE5+ browsers.
The script was configured so that you can use it for more than one image change
in a div.
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Change Image In Div</TITLE>
<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
function chgimg(divname,imgname,image)
{
if(document.layers)
{
eval("document."+divname+".document."+imgname+".src=image")
}
if(document.getElementById)
{
eval("document."+imgname+".src=image")
}
}
</SCRIPT>
</HEAD>
<BODY>
<DIV ID="div1" STYLE="position:absolute; top:185px; left:15px">
<img src="0.gif" name=img1 width=180>
</DIV>
<A HREF="#" onClick="chgimg(‘div1′,’img1′,’1.gif’)">Welcome</A><BR>
</BODY>
</HTML>
*** This question was submitted to our Mentor Community. The answer was provided
by Jim Young, one of our JavaScript Mentors.
News Goodies
UWB (Ultra Wide Band), wireless with
some serious attitude?
Click here to read the article
Announcements of security bugs are
being put on a strict need-to-know basis.
Click here to read the article
The W3C is still hard at work ironing
out XHTML standards, the future fusion of HTML and XML.
Click here to read the article
Quiz Answer
If you have been doing much software
development at all, you will quickly realize that just because the documentation
says that some code will behave a certain way doesn’t always mean that it
necessarily will in real life. A work-around is what a developer does to "get
around" problems in his code.
There are a few different reasons a
developer will have to create a work-around:
Bad Code – We mentioned above
that things don’t always work as they are intended. That is most certainly the
case in any kind of software development. When a certain piece of code doesn’t
work as it is supposed to, often developers will be forced to come up with
alternative solutions to reach their goals. This usually involves more code than
would have otherwise been required.
Compatibility Issue – This is
the instance that web developers come across most often. With people using all
different kinds of browsers, it can be very difficult to get code to work in all
situations, especially in JavaScript. Coming up with work-arounds for older
browsers is a common task for JavaScript and other developers.
Special Situations – On
occasion, developers will find that their code may work in most instances but
will fail under certain circumstances, even though it shouldn’t. When this
occurs, developers will often try to account for those special situations and
build a work-around that avoids generating an error.
And Remember This . . .
Today marks the 45th anniversary of
American Bandstand. It was in 1957 that Dick Clark introduced Rock and Roll to
teenagers in the relatively new medium of television. Every week the show
offered live bands and the newest dance steps and quickly became one of the
hottest shows on television.
Thanks for reading Goodies to Go!
