Preinstalled Scripts

IHOT provides a number of program scripts which can be installed and used by your web hosting account. 

CGI Center

The CGI Script Center contains a number of useful pre-installed scripts which can easily be set up to run on your site...

Counters:

The Counter script makes it easy to create a hit counter to count and display on a web page how many visitors have been to your site. It allows you to set up a counter on any page(s) of your site which will automatically increment each time the page is viewed. You may start the count from any number you wish. It can also be used to display the time and/or date. The display is highly customisable and you may choose from over 30 very different digit styles. 

A large number of configuration options may easily be specified from within the Script Center by clicking the Counter link and adjusting the various settings... 

In order to create the code for a visitor counter you should check that the Counter radio button is selected at the top of the page (as opposed to the Clock or Date radio buttons). When creating a counter you should ignore the settings for Time Zone, Time Format and Date Format. The Counter Digits setting causes the visitor count to be padded with leading zeroes to make it contain at least the specified number of digits. For example, if your site has had 5,723 visitors and Counter Digits is set to 5 then the counter will display as 05723. The Counter Name setting is used to name the file where the count is to be stored in between hits to your site. There is normally no need to change this from your username, but it can sometimes be necessary to do so if you should want to have two or more separate counts kept for different pages or sections of your site. If you do change the Counter Name please use a name that starts with your username. This will ensure that your counter file doesn't get deleted or overwritten by mistake. 

You may adjust the starting point for a counter by keying the required figure into the New Count box in the Edit/Reset A Counter section. Again, the Counter Name should not normally need to be changed, but this can sometimes be necessary if you have set up multiple counters which are stored under different names. Simply click on Commit Changes to confirm the update. 

In order to create the code for a Clock you should select the Clock radio button at the top of the page. When creating a clock you should ignore the settings for Date Format, Counter Digits and Counter Name. The script will use the time according to the server (which will be set to UK time) adjusted as appropriate for the Time Zone setting. The Time Format setting may be used to specify either 24 hour clock (24) or AM/PM (12) format. Notice that this script differs from the Java Clock in that the time is taken from the server rather than from the visitors own computer, and also in that the time display is static and does not automatically update each second in real time. 

In order to create the code for a Date display you should select the Date radio button at the top of the page. When creating a Date display you should ignore the settings for Time Format, Counter Digits and Counter Name. The script will display today's date according to the web server. By default, the date will be displayed in the normal DD/MM/YY format, but you may change this if you wish, using the Date Format drop down box. 

You may adjust the colour and thickness of the frame surrounding the digits of the display, or set the frame thickness to zero to remove the border altogether. The border colour must be specified in red/green/blue format. The red, green and blue values for many colours are available here. You can check the colour you have specified by clicking on the small Preview button - the current border colour will be displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen. 

A large number of digit styles are available and you can see them all by clicking the See Styles link. All of the digit styles are suitable for use in a visitor Counter but some styles lack the : character which is used in the Clock display and/or the - character which is used in the Date display. When choosing a digit style for a Clock or Date display you can "play it safe" by using one of the styles A to E, or you can experiment with one of the other styles, bearing in mind that that they may not display perfectly, if at all. 

Once you believe that you have all the settings as you want them, you can check what the final display will actually look like by clicking the large Preview button. If you find that you need to make some adjustments, simply make your change in the top frame and click the Preview button again to refresh the sample display shown in the bottom frame. 

Once you are completely happy with the results, click the Make HTML button to have the system generate the necessary HTML code. You will need to copy the resulting code into the web page(s) where you would like the display to appear. In order to copy the code you will first need to select it by holding down your left mouse button and dragging your mouse across it. After making sure that all of the HTML code (and just the HTML code) is selected (the selected area should be highlighted in your browser) you should copy it to the clipboard by clicking Edit and then Copy in the menu at the top of your browser window (or you can use CTRL-C). You can then paste the code into your web page by opening the web page in a text editor such as Notepad and clicking Edit and then Paste (or you can use CTRL-V). 

If you are using the visitor counter then you will need to include the code in any pages for which you want the counter to be incremented. In most cases it is sufficient to include it just in the home page of your site, as this generally gives a good approximation of the true number of site visits. 

There are many more options which may be used with this script if you feel comfortable making changes to the HTML code itself. You will find the full manual for the Count.cgi script here. 

Random HTML

The Random HTML generator can be used to pick a text (or HTML) string out of a list of possibilities and insert it into an SSI enabled (.shtml) web page. This is useful for including random text or HTML code in pages so as to produce varied quotes, images or just about anything else.

Before using this script in your web pages you will first need to set it up by entering a number of lines of text. The script can then be used to pick one of these lines of text at random and include it in your web page(s). Begin by clicking the Random HTML link from within the Script Center in your Control Panel. You can then enter a number of sections of text in the box provided. Each section of text needs to go on its own line. You cannot include newline characters in the middle of a single piece of text as this will cause it to be treated as two separate sections of text. Of course, you can include the HTML <br> tag to represent a newline within a section of HTML code.

 When you have finished entering sections of text for the script to choose from, click on the Save button. You may return to this page at any time to add, delete or modify the sections of text you have entered. 

As mentioned above, the Random HTML feature makes use of Server Side Includes (SSI), so you will need to give any pages which are to use it an extension of .shtml instead of the normal .html or .htm web page extension. The following code should be included in your .shtml page(s) at the position in the page(s) where you want the random content to appear: 

<!--#exec cnd="cgi-bin/randhtml.cgi"-->

Your .shtml web pages must be placed in the top level public_html folder in order to successfully call the Random HTML generator. The script won't work if called from a web page in a sub folder. 

As an alternative to modifying your random sections of text through your Control Panel, you may instead prefer to create an ordinary text file containing your random lines of text. You can then upload this file using an FTP program (or the File Manager), in place of the existing random text file if it already exists. The random text file is called .randhtml and is located in the top level folder of your account space. As the .randhtml file name begins with a full stop character it is a hidden file and will normally be hidden from view. You will need to set up your FTP program to allow the viewing of hidden files in order to see it on the server. 

The Random HTML generator works by calling a file called randhtml.cgi which is automatically installed in your public_html/cgi-bin folder when you select the Random HTML option from the Preinstalled Script Center in your Control Panel.

Counter

The Counter script makes it easy to create a hit counter to count and display on a web page how many visitors have been to your site. It allows you to set up a counter on any page(s) of your site which will automatically increment each time the page is viewed. You may start the count from any number you wish. It can also be used to display the time and/or date. The display is highly customisable and you may choose from over 30 very different digit styles. 

A large number of configuration options may easily be specified from within the Script Center by clicking the Counter link and adjusting the various settings... 

In order to create the code for a visitor counter you should check that the Counter radio button is selected at the top of the page (as opposed to the Clock or Date radio buttons). When creating a counter you should ignore the settings for Time Zone, Time Format and Date Format. The Counter Digits setting causes the visitor count to be padded with leading zeroes to make it contain at least the specified number of digits. For example, if your site has had 5,723 visitors and Counter Digits is set to 5 then the counter will display as 05723. The Counter Name setting is used to name the file where the count is to be stored in between hits to your site. There is normally no need to change this from your username, but it can sometimes be necessary to do so if you should want to have two or more separate counts kept for different pages or sections of your site. If you do change the Counter Name please use a name that starts with your username. This will ensure that your counter file doesn't get deleted or overwritten by mistake. 

You may adjust the starting point for a counter by keying the required figure into the New Count box in the Edit/Reset A Counter section. Again, the Counter Name should not normally need to be changed, but this can sometimes be necessary if you have set up multiple counters which are stored under different names. Simply click on Commit Changes to confirm the update.  

In order to create the code for a Clock you should select the Clock radio button at the top of the page. When creating a clock you should ignore the settings for Date Format, Counter Digits and Counter Name. The script will use the time according to the server (which will be set to UK time) adjusted as appropriate for the Time Zone setting. The Time Format setting may be used to specify either 24 hour clock (24) or AM/PM (12) format. Notice that this script differs from the Java Clock in that the time is taken from the server rather than from the visitors own computer, and also in that the time display is static and does not automatically update each second in real time.

In order to create the code for a Date display you should select the Date radio button at the top of the page. When creating a Date display you should ignore the settings for Time Format, Counter Digits and Counter Name. The script will display today's date according to the web server. By default, the date will be displayed in the normal DD/MM/YY format, but you may change this if you wish, using the Date Format drop down box. 

You may adjust the colour and thickness of the frame surrounding the digits of the display, or set the frame thickness to zero to remove the border altogether. The border colour must be specified in red/green/blue format. The red, green and blue values for many colours are available here. You can check the colour you have specified by clicking on the small Preview button - the current border colour will be displayed in the bottom right corner of the screen.

A large number of digit styles are available and you can see them all by clicking the See Styles link. All of the digit styles are suitable for use in a visitor Counter but some styles lack the : character which is used in the Clock display and/or the - character which is used in the Date display. When choosing a digit style for a Clock or Date display you can "play it safe" by using one of the styles A to E, or you can experiment with one of the other styles, bearing in mind that that they may not display perfectly, if at all. 

Once you believe that you have all the settings as you want them, you can check what the final display will actually look like by clicking the large Preview button. If you find that you need to make some adjustments, simply make your change in the top frame and click the Preview button again to refresh the sample display shown in the bottom frame.

Once you are completely happy with the results, click the Make HTML button to have the system generate the necessary HTML code. You will need to copy the resulting code into the web page(s) where you would like the display to appear. In order to copy the code you will first need to select it by holding down your left mouse button and dragging your mouse across it. After making sure that all of the HTML code (and just the HTML code) is selected (the selected area should be highlighted in your browser) you should copy it to the clipboard by clicking Edit and then Copy in the menu at the top of your browser window (or you can use CTRL-C). You can then paste the code into your web page by opening the web page in a text editor such as Notepad and clicking Edit and then Paste (or you can use CTRL-V). 

If you are using the visitor counter then you will need to include the code in any pages for which you want the counter to be incremented. In most cases it is sufficient to include it just in the home page of your site, as this generally gives a good approximation of the true number of site visits.

There are many more options which may be used with this script if you feel comfortable making changes to the HTML code itself. You will find the full manual for the Count.cgi script here.

Clock

The Clock utility allows you to install a real time Java clock for your site, with optional date display. If you choose to display the date in addition to the time then the date of the month (but not the month itself) is shown beneath the seconds. 

You may customise the appearance of the display in a number of ways. You may specify whether or not the time should be displayed using 24 hour clock format, modify the colour of the clock digits and background, and choose whether or not to have the display surrounded by a border. The desired options may be easily specified from within the Script Center by clicking the Clock link and adjusting the various drop-down selection boxes appropriately. The necessary HTML code may then be automatically generated by clicking the Make HTML button. You will need to copy the resulting code into the webpage(s) where you would like the clock to appear.

You may specify a particular time zone (relative to GMT) or have the script use each visitor's own local time. The script works by reading the time (and date) from each visitor's own computer. If configured to display local time then it simply uses this time (and date) without adjustment. If configured to use a specific time zone then it makes the appropriate adjustment based on the number of hours difference between the visitor's local time zone (according to his/her own computer) and the desired time zone. This means that the accuracy of the times (and dates) displayed by the script are dependent on the accuracy of the time as set on each visitor's own computer. This differs from the time and date as displayed by the Counter script, which are taken from the web server on which your account is hosted. The script also differs from the Counter script in that it updates the time live on the webpage each second, whereas the time as displayed by the Counter script remains fixed at the time the web page was first downloaded.

Countdown

This option allows you to create a Countdown box, which will count down to a specified date. This is useful for counting down to important special events, for example. The Countdown Java applet may also be used to count up rather than down, giving the time elapsed since a date in the past. 

In order to use the Countdown feature you will first need to generate the necessary HTML code to include in your web page(s). To do this, begin by clicking the Cowntdown link in the Script Center within your Control Panel. Use the drop-down boxes on the Cowntdown set up screen to select the year, month, date of month and hour that you wish to either count down to or count up from. Click the Make HTML button and the necessary HTML code will appear in the bottom section of the screen, together with a preview of how the counter will appear when installed in your web page(s). You will need to copy this HTML code, from the opening Applet tag (<applet...) to the closing Applet tag (</applet), into the web page(s) where you would like the counter to appear. In order to copy the code you will first need to select it by holding down your left mouse button and dragging your mouse across it. After making sure that all of the HTML code (and just the HTML code) is selected (the selected area should be highlighted in your browser) you should copy it to the clipboard by clicking Edit and then Copy in the menu at the top of your browser window (or you can use CTRL-C). You can then paste the code into your web page by opening the web page in a text editor such as Notepad and clicking Edit and then Paste (or you can use CTRL-V). 

Please be aware that the script works by reading the time (and date) from each visitor's own computer, which means that the accuracy of the count down displayed by the script is dependent on the accuracy of the time as set on each visitor's own computer.

CGI-EMail

FormMail Clone

The FormMail.cgi script allows you to have the contents of a form sent to an e-mail address of your choice on completion. This is an easy way to retrieve the information from a form which your visitors are asked to fill out. The script is located in the (shared) global "CGI-Bin" folder (cgi-sys) and full instructions on its use are available here.  

You can use the sample HTML code given below as a starting point when creating a form for your site. This sample code includes all the most common kinds of form input. Of course, you will need to customise this code to meet your exact needs.

You will probably want to create a page (called thankyou.html in the example below) which confirms to your visitors that the form contents have been sent. Or you can drop the name="redirect" line altogether and just have the default page appear.

<form method="POST" action="/cgi-sys/FormMail.cgi">

<h3>Sample Form<h3>

<input type="hidden" name="recipient" value="forminput@yourdomain.com">

<input type="hidden" name="subject" value="Subject Line of E-Mail">

<input type="hidden" name="redirect" value="thankyou.html">
Name: <input type="text" name="realname" size="30" maxlength="40"> <br>

Email Address: <input type="text" name="email" size="30" maxlength="80"> <br><br>

Sample TEXT input:<br>
<input type="="text" name="textinput" size="30" maxlength="40:><br><br>
Sample hidden text(PASSWORD) input:<br>
input type="password" name="hiddeninput" size="30" maxlength="40"<br><br>

Sample RADIO button input:<br>
Option 1: <input type="radio" name="radioinput" value="option1"<br>
Option 2: <input type="radio" name="radioinput" value="option2" checked<br>
Option 3: <input type="radio" name="radioinput" value="option3"<br>

Sample SELECT box input:<br>
<Select size="3" name="selectinput2:>
<option value="option1">Description of Option 1
<option value="option2" selected>Description of Option 2 
<option value="option3">Description of Option 3
</select><br><br>

Sample TEXT AREA input:<br>
<textarea name="textareainput" row="10" cols="30"></textarea><br><br>

<input type="submit" value="Click to submit:><br>
input type="reset" value="Click to reset form:>

</form>
 

The pre-installed script is based on the popular FormMail.pl script by Matt Wright but, as this is a shared script, it has been rewritten to be less flexible than the original, partly for security reasons. For example, in order to prevent third parties sending out "spam" e-mail, the pre-installed version of this script will only allow mail to be sent to e-mail addresses at your own Internet Hotline, IHOT WebHosting domain(s). If you prefer the e-mails to be sent to another address (eg your ISP e-mail address) then you can set up an e-mail Forwarder to divert the form results to an external address. 

Alternatively, we will be happy to install a stand alone copy of the latest version of Matt Wright's original FormMail script in your own account space. This will make all of the features of the very latest FormMail script available to you, including the ability to send e-mail directly to an off network e-mail address.   

Of course, you may install Matt Wright's original FormMail script yourself, if you prefer. The pre-installed FormMail.cgi script is well protected from spammers as it will not send e-mail off-network, but if you install a stand-alone FormMail script in your own account space there is a high risk of third parties sending "spam" e-mail through the script unless you take the following important precautions... Firstly, when installing and configuring FormMail it is essential that you make full use of the most up to date anti-spam measures built into the latest version of the script, through proper setting of the @referers and @recipients arrays at the top of the script. The @referers array lists the domains on which you wish to be able to place forms which make use of your FormMail script. This would normally just be the master domain of your Internet Hotline, IHOT WebHosting account but you may also need to list any parked of pointed domains. Your @referers line should look something like this: @referers = ('yourdomain.com'); or, if you have some parked/pointed domains, something like this: @referers = ('master.com','parked1.net','parked2.com','pointed.com'); The @recipients array is by far the most important one for blocking spammers as the @referers test relies on checking the referrer information sent by the browser, which is easy to fake. The @recipients array specifies which domains and specific e-mail addresses you wish to allow the form results to be sent to. For example, if you wanted to be able to send form results to any e-mail addresses at the domains yourdomain1.com and yourdomain2.com, and to the specific email addresses name1@hotmail.com and name2@hotmail.com, then you should set the @recipients array as follows: @recipients = (&fill_recipients('yourdomain1.com','yourdomain2.com'),'^name1@hotmail\.com','^name2@hotmail\.com'); Be sure to apply the &fill_recipients function to any domains you list and to include the ^ character at the start of any specific e-mail addresses you list as otherwise the @recipients test will not work properly and spammers will be able to send mail to e-mail addresses you didn't intend. Also, please be careful not to allow mail to be sent to any e-mail address at a domain if you really only need to allow mail to a specific e-mail address at this domain. For example, if you had used @recipients = (&fill_recipients('yourdomain1.com', 'yourdomain2.com', 'hotmail.com'); in the above example then spammers would be able to use your script to send e-mail to any of the thousands of addresses at hotmail.com, which is unnecessary and very dangerous. A more detailed explanation of the correct use of the @referers and @recipients arrays is given towards the top of the official FormMail documentation. Secondly, as an additional precaution, we require that any FormMail scripts installed anywhere on our servers (with the exception of the pre-installed FormMail.cgi, which is well protected) are renamed to something other than FormMail.pl. In fact, we ask that you avoid using either of the words form or mail anywhere in the filename. Please be warned that there is a server-wide filter in place which will cause any scripts named FormMail.pl (or some variant of this) to become inaccessible. So, in addition to the serious security issues mentioned above, naming your script FormMail (or something very similar) may also result in the script not working at all.

Entropy Search

The Entropy Search Engine allows visitors to perform internal searches for content within your site. The output produced by the script may be customised by setting up one or more HTML "templates". 

In order to install the Entropy Search Engine for your site you will first need to have the system create a searchable index of all your web pages. You can do this by clicking the Rebuild Search Index link in the Script Center. The next step is to copy the following HTML code (substituting your own User Name and domain name where appropriate) into the web page where you would like your search box to appear: 

<form action="/cgi-sys/entropysearch.cgi" target=searchwindow> 
Search Query <input type="text" name="query"value""
<input type="hidden" name="user" value="username"
<input type="hidden" name="basehref" value=http://yourdomain.com
<input type="hidden" name="template" value="default"
<input type="submit" value="Search"
</form> 

You can also find this HTML code (with your own User Name and domain name automatically filled in) by clicking the Setup Search Engine link in the Script Center. The Setup Search Engine page also provides a sample search box which allows you to try out the Entropy Search Engine before you actually install the code in one of your webpages. 

By default, the search results will appear in a new window. If you prefer the results to appear in the original window simply leave out target=searchwindow from the above code.

Whenever you make significant changes to your site, you will want to use the Rebuild Search Index link again to regenerate the searchable index of your site. This will ensure that the search engine will find up to date information about your web pages. 

The output from the search script may be customised by modifying the template file specified in the "template" hidden form tag. The script uses the HTML code stored in the specified template to produce the search results page, replacing the tag with the actual results of the search. You can update the default Entropy Search template from within the Script Center by clicking on the Setup Search Engine link and then on the Edit Search Results Template link. After making any required changes, click Save to update the template. 

As an alternative to modifying the template file through your Control Panel, you may instead prefer to create a template off-line (as an ordinary HTML web page, but containing the tag where you wish the search results to appear). You can then upload your template page using an FTP program (or the File Manager). The file should be uploaded to the .htmltemplates folder in your account space, either in place of the existing file, which is called default, or under a different name. If you use a different name, you will need to use the appropriate file name in the "template" hidden form tag when you install the script in your web page(s). As the .htmltemplates folder name begins with a full stop character it is a hidden folder and will normally be hidden from view. You will need to set up your FTP program to allow the viewing of hidden files in order to access it. 

Normally both the Guest Book and Search Engine scripts make use of the same template file, which is located at .htmltemplates/default. If you wish to use both scripts but with different templates, we recommend that you reserve the default template for your guest book layout. You can then use the method given in the paragraph above to upload a template of a different name for your search engine layout. 

If you should need an even more flexible and customisable internal search engine for your site, we can highly recommend the third party Atomz Search script.

Entropy Banner

Entropy Banner is a banner management system which allows you to include randomly "rotating" clickable images in your web pages. This is particularly useful for "rotating" banner adverts. Each time a visitor views a page containing the Entropy Banner code, a banner will be selected at random from the banners you have uploaded to the system. Each banner is associated with its own linking code which will take visitors to the appropriate site when the banner is clicked. Banners can also be assigned a priority level (low, medium or high). For example, a banner of priority "high" will tend to appear more frequently than one of priority "low". 

Entropy Banner makes use of Server Side Includes (SSI) so you will need to give any pages which are to use it an extension of .shtml instead of the normal .html or .htm web page extension. The following tag should be included in your .shtml page(s) at the position in the page(s) where you want the random banners to appear: 

<!--#exec cmd="cgi-bin/entropybanner.cgi"-->

Your .shtml web pages must be placed in the top level public_html folder in order to successfully call the Entropy Banner script. The script won't work if called from a web page in a sub folder. 

You may upload and configure your banners using the Entropy Banner Manager, which may be accessed by entering the Script Center option of your Control Panel and clicking the Entropy Banner link. Click the Add Banners button to enter the Upload Banner Files screen where you can upload your banner image files. You may upload a number of banners at a time. Use one of the boxes on the Upload Banner Files screen to locate each banner by clicking the Browse... button next to each box. Click the Overwrite existing files check box if you wish to overwrite any existing banners which have the same file name as any of the banners being uploaded. If this check box is not used, new banners with matching names will not be uploaded. Finally, click the Upload button to upload the banner files to the server.

Once you have uploaded your banner images you will need to configure them. You will want to at least specify a target URL for when each banner is clicked. You may also wish to adjust the relative priorities of the banners to make some banners show up more frequently than others. 

After clicking the Modify Banners button you will see a table containing all the banners you have uploaded. To the right of each banner you will see a Linked to: box where you may enter (and later modify) the target URL for the banner. You will also see radio buttons to the right of each banner which may be used to adjust each banner's priority, the options being high, medium or low. After changing any settings you will need to click the appropriate Save button to confirm the update. You will need to click the Save button separately for each item (priority level or target URL) and for each banner you wish to update. 

If you should need to delete a banner at any time, simply click the Delete button next to the relevant banner in the Modify Banners screen. 

Entropy Banner works by calling a file called entropybanner.cgi which is automatically installed in your public_html/cgi-bin folder when you select the Entropy Banner option from the Script Center in your Control Panel.

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