FP2000: Hit Counter Doesn't Work in Sub web on Netscape Servers

When you open a Web page that contains a hit counter, the counter does not increment past 1.

This behavior usually appears if the Web page is located in a subweb on a Windows NT Server and one of the following Netscape Web servers is running:

• Netscape Fasttrack (2.01 and prior)
• Netscape Enterprise (2.0 and prior)

This behavior occurs because of how the Netscape Web server determines the name (path) of a subweb passed to it. Specifically, the PATH_TRANSLATED parameter does not consistently include a trailing slash. For additional information, see the "More Information" section of this article.

To work around this behavior, follow these steps:

1. In FrontPage, create a new subweb in the Root Web. The URL should be similar to the following:
   HTTP://<Servername>/<Webname>
   where <Servername> is the name of your Web server, and <Webname> is the name of the new subweb.
2. Switch to Page view, and open the home page.
3. Insert a hit counter. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. On the Insert menu, point to Component, and click Hit Counter.
   2. In the Hit Counter Properties dialog box, select the counter style you want, and click OK.
4. On the File menu, click Save.
5. Look at the page in your Web browser. To do this, click Preview In Browser on the File menu.
   
   NOTE: You will see either of the following:
   • A broken image icon instead of the hit counter.
     
     -or-
   • The hit counter will display 1 hit.
   If you reload or revisit this Web page, the hit counter will not increment past 1.
6. Convert the subweb to the Root Web. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. On the Windows Start menu, point to Programs, and then click Windows NT Explorer.
   2. Expand the _Vti_pvt folder in the Web server's content root. By default, the content root folder is located in the C:\Netscape\Suitespot\docs folder.
   3. Double-click the Services.cnf file. It will open in Notepad.
   4. Find your Web name and delete it from the list. The entry will look similar to the following
      /<Webname>
      where <Webname> is the name you gave to your Web when you created it in Step 1.
   5. On the File menu, click Save.
   6. On the File menu, click Close.
      
      Your FrontPage Web has now been converted to a subfolder in the Root Web.
7. In FrontPage, open the Root Web, and then open the sub folder, <Webname>, that you created in Step 1.
8. In Page view, open the page that contains the hit counter and delete the hit counter. Reinsert the hit counter. To do this, follow these steps:
   1. On the Insert menu, point to Component, and click Hit Counter.
   2. In the Hit Counter Properties dialog box, select the counter style you want, and click OK.
9. Open the page in your Web browser, using the URL from step one. Note that when the page loads, the hit counter will be working correctly. If you reload or revisit the page, the hit counter will increment correctly.
10. In FrontPage, create a new Web. To do this, follow these steps:
    1. On the File menu, point to New, and then click FrontPage Web.
    2. Click From Wizard Or Template. In the list of templates, click Empty Web.
    3. In step two, type the title you want to use for your Web, and click OK.
    4. In the Choose a title for your FrontPage Web box, type the title you used in step one.
    5. Click OK.
    The content from the Web you created in step one will be imported automatically from the subfolder in the Root Web into the new subweb. The hit counter will continue to function correctly.

Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article.

The Netscape servers listed in the "Symptoms" section of this article intermittently change the query string that is constructed by the hit counter and passed to the hit counter executable file (Fpcount.exe).

The following are examples of query strings that are constructed by the hit counter and then passed to Fpcount.exe, and how the Netscape server determines the location of the file that contains the hit counter information.

For Hit Counters on Pages in the Root Web

If the hit counter is on a page in the Root Web, the hit counter constructs the following query string and passes this string to Fpcount.exe:

In this example, the Netscape Enterprise server correctly determines the location of the file that contains the hit counter information and constructs the path like this:

For Hit Counters on Pages in a Sub web

If the hit counter is on a page in a subweb, the hit counter constructs the following query string and passes this string to FPcount.exe: In this example, the query string is structured in such a way that the subweb is not included. As a result, the Netscape Enterprise server incorrectly determines the location of the file that contains the hit counter information and constructs the path like this: Because this path refers to a file that does not exist in the content root, the hit counter will not work in a subweb on a Netscape Enterprise NT.

In this example, the correct location for the file that contains the hit counter information should be: The third-party products discussed here are manufactured by vendors independent of Microsoft; we make no warranty, implied or otherwise, regarding these products' performance or reliability.