Counter Application Components

Counters are quite simple application components. Usually a counter is incremented whenever it appears on a page. At the same time the counter displays its current value. So the simplest way to use a counter is to just put it on a page. (Tutorial)

Additionally you can use the CounterSummary component to show summary information about all the counters on your Web site. In this scenario you might want to hide the counters (by placing a check next to the Hidden checkbox of the counter component).

Note: If you don't like the layout of the CounterSummary component, you can create your own version. You can also use the counter component to display the current value of a counter (without incrementing) by placing a check next to the Frozen checkbox. Alternatively, using the database components, you can address the Webcounter relation in the database directly.

Each counter has a name. The name is shown in the summary display and it is used to identify the counter in the database. By default the name a counter is the URL of the current page, but it's better to specify a name that describes the counter's purpose. An advantage of specifying a name other than the URL is that you can use the name to place the same counter on different pages (e.g. if the pages in your Web site are available in more than one language).

Tip: You can also use counters to count certain events, by placing counters inside of conditional components or using counters in your heitml programs. In this case the counter increments only if certain conditions are met.

Reference

Component:CounterDetails
Display a Web counter. Normally the Web counter increments by one with every access of the page and the current counter value is shown. However the counter can be frozen or be hidden by giving several options.

Property Kind Description

Frozen Checkbox By checking this box the counter can be frozen. It will no longer increment.

Hidden Checkbox By checking this box the counter can be hidden. It still increments in the background, but does not show up.

Name String(15) This is normally empty. You can use it to place the same counter on two different pages, e.g. hidden and incrementing on one page and visible and frozen on another. In this case use the same counter name on all these pages.

Component:CounterSummaryDetails
Displays a table of all Web counters and their values. If no name is given all counters are displayed. If a name is given all counters that contain this name as a substring are shown. If name contains a "&" then the name is used as a like predicate (see SQL).

Property Kind Description

Name String(15) This is normally empty. You can use it to select which counters are shown.

Clearbuttons Checkbox Display buttons that can be used to clear the counters.

Property	Kind	Description
Frozen	Checkbox	By checking this box the counter can be frozen. It will no longer increment.
Hidden	Checkbox	By checking this box the counter can be hidden. It still increments in the background, but does not show up.
Name	String(15)	This is normally empty. You can use it to place the same counter on two different pages, e.g. hidden and incrementing on one page and visible and frozen on another. In this case use the same counter name on all these pages.