Genius Who Can Find The Solution To This

[Ms_Lamborghini]

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

I have a question almost impossible to accomplish what I need the way I WANT IT.

I am using a 3rd party to trace my IP visits to my site and I'm very happy with it as it tells me where my visitors are coming from, which pages each visitors views, which search words they used to find me, etc etc.. is AWESOME and free!

My question is, I have an ad on a site where I sell stuff but I don't host this site.
I want to keep track of visitors to that site as well as the one I host on my servers.
I don't have access to their servers to place the codes like I do with my pages, so how do I go by keeping track of my visitors on that site? I was thinking maybe a graphic that is hosted on MY server and place it on that site to keep track, but how would I place my code on a graphic?
Anyway, you'll be a genius if you can come up with a solution to my dilemma

All advice is welcome,
Thanks and Happy New Year's

Ms L

[Daniel_DBS]

Ok question... Why?

[Spathiphyllum]

I don't think you can do what you're trying to do. Well, not entirely.

If you host an image and link to it from your other site (like a single-pixel tracking *.gif), you'll be able to record standard HTTP log info... IP, date, client, etc. Some of that enhanced data acquisition you're accumulating via that code won't be possible.

Perhaps there's a flash programmer that could guide you to embedding flash code that could accomplish what you want, but since I don't use/code flash, I can only guess as to its viability as a tracking option for a single "image."

[Gwaihir]

Is the ad necessarily only a graphic (that you can host yourself)? If they make it an i-frame filled from your server, you can put in it whatever you like. That works like a small page shown to the user within the orignal page. As it is a normal page, you can put in both your tracking codes and a "page filling" graphic ad.

Note: results will depend somewhat on how aggressive your tracking system is. For example: a cookie that you send from such an i-frame is much more likely to be rejected by the users privacy settings than a cookie from the main site itself.

[Ron]

Something that has a .jpg graphic extension, but is rewritten to a .php program that logs the info (perhaps triggering the tracker code) then delivers a picture?

[Ms_Lamborghini]

Excellent suggestions, thanks!!
But not sure how to go about doing any of them.
If you need to know, I can host anything on my server not just graphic so if any of you wold be kind enuff to walk me through in doing what you believe is the best way of doing this, I'd appreciate it.

Note:

-The 3rd party I use to track my visitors has a code I need to add to the page I want to track

- The page I want to track (which I don't host) does not allow any type of script.

- I can use graphics or whatever else you think I can use to use to track this page.

If I can only have a step by step on doing this or point me to a site where it takes me by the hand in accomplishing whatever I need to do reach my goal :-)

Thanks Again!!!!

Ms L

[Ron]

Is it a requirement that the users be tracked by the same tracker? If so, does the tracker that you are using have a "hook" that you can call to tell it a page has been accessed? There must be some javascript or HTML that gets called when a visitor accesses a page.

Is this Sitemeter or UrchinTracker?

[Medhat]

it's easy my friend
create a new folder on your host called : "adv.jpg" (with out quotes of course)
then create a .php file called "index.php" and place your visitor tracking code into this file
after the code add

<img src="your ad image link">

upload "index.php" into the folder "adv.jpg"
make the website you're advertising on change your ad picture to : http://yourwebsite/adv.jpg
and the code will work also the picture will be shown I hope (Never tried it but give it a try)

[Ms_Lamborghini]

Medhat, that sounds like it just might work for me... it all makes sense, I'll try it as soon as possible and will report back with status on how it goes... If this does work out for me, you'll be my genius for sure!!!

Thanks a million!!
Ms L

[jason]

I'm brainstorming, so if this seems random, that's why. The most simple solution is probably at the end of the post.

With respect to Medhat, I don't think that will work. The reason being that the browser, when requesting an image, expects to get something back that is of one of the image types (generally image/jpeg, image/gif, or image/png). The php script, on the other hand, will return text/html by default and the payload of the response will be string data, not binary image data.

You can use PHP to serve up an image, but you have to do it a bit differently (this is also what Ron suggested doing):

<?php
    header('Content-type: image/jpeg');
    //open the image file and send contents directly to output
    readfile('/path/to/image/file.jpg');
?>

You won't be able to insert any javascript code in there, which I assume is what you are trying to do, but you can collect some info about the user as well as the URL of the page on which the ad is appearing and/or set cookies. This type of thing is exactly what the major web advertising agencies do to track their ads and to track you as your browse from site to site.

It might take a bit of work to figure out exactly how to pass the tracking data on to your tracking service, but you would start by collecting the values of certain $_SERVER variables, such as HTTP_REFERER (the page the on which the ad is displayed), REMOTE_ADDRESS (the user's IP address), and HTTP_USER_AGENT (the user's browser). The tracking service most likely collects this when a request is made for the URL in the "src" attribute of the <script> tag you add to your pages. You could replicate the request in the PHP script using curl (ignoring the data returned, which will be the actual JavaScript).

You mention that the third-party site on which the ad will display allows you to use "graphics or whatever else" for the ad. Does that mean that you full control over the HTML fragment that is your ad? If so then you should have no problem adding the <script> tag for your tracker as that code is not run on the page's server, but from the tracking service's. (Note that this could cause conflicts if page is also connecting to the same tracking service, depending on how the service does things.)

Finally the simplest solution, which I just thought up as I was writing this hense the disclaimer at the top of the post), if you really do have complete control over the HTML used to display your ad:

1. Create an HTML page on your site. Add all of the tracking code as your normally would.
2. Add the following CSS to your body tag to prevent any margins from appearing on the page:

<body style="margin: 0;">

3. Add only the link and ad image to the page's body.
4. Use the following as the HTML to display the ad (replace x and y with the actual dimensions of your ad):

<iframe src="http://www.yoursite.com/yourad.html" width="x" height="y"></iframe>

This will display what looks like a normal ad on the remote site, but it will actually load as a page on your site where it can be tracked without problem. The HTTP_REFERER will be the remote page and all of the other data your service collects should come through as it always does.

I hope you find *something* in this big long post helpful. Sorry for rambling.

--Jason

[Ms_Lamborghini]

Jason, you might be on to something here.
I will try the second half first and the your first suggestion.
One thing though....
The page where I have the ad DOES let me use HTML and <embed >, the only thing it will not allow me to use in it is "script" of any type.
My tracking codes all have scripts in them.
But I'll try it to see what happens :-)

If I could find (or you know of a place) a source that will accomplish this for me online (freebie) where I can just log in and check my stats, let me know as well. All I mainly need is to track IP mainly!
Although I prefer to be in control of it myself.
I'll try this as well for sure as soon as I get a chance.
This is very exciting. Keep brainstorming .

Thanks
Ms L

[XoK]

The way to gather more information possible if to have a remote Javascript with:

<script>
variables with info
document.write ('<img src="<page/image.png?variables with info>"');
</script>

Like google does.. it records the page you start, the history, the components you have installed on the browser etc ....

[XoK]

Geezzz.. it doesnt sound like English!

The way to gather more information possible if to have a remote Javascript with:

[Ms_Lamborghini]

Ok, I have tried 2 of the suggestions above, so far none has worked because I'm sure I am not doing it right haha! But I'll keep trying all of them and will come back with feedback..

For now I have another challenge which it seems very simple, yet, it may not be (for me anyway).

Q) How do I successfully put animated skin on my playlist?
I already have animated pictures (gif) but when I put it as skin on my playlist, nothing shows.
But when I put the same pic "non-animated" as skin it looks great on my playlist.... Is there a trick to have an animated skin on a playlist?

Thanks Again!!!
MS L