The Perl scripts (programs) below are all freeware, distributed under the same terms as Perl itself. They can all be used, modified and/or distributed freely – but please be so kind to link back to us, if you use one of our products.

WebAdverts
WebAdverts is a comprehensive system for maintaining a set of rotating banner ads on your site or for setting up a “banner exchange” between your site and others. Banners can be displayed on your pages via JavaScript, IFRAME, IMG or SSI tags. (Banners may also easily be included on CGI-generated pages.) Multiple “zones” can be established, allowing certain banners to appear only on certain pages. WebAdverts keeps track of exposures and click-thrus for each banner, as well as of the average total number of exposures per day. Individual passwords allow each of your advertisers to view their own advert stats (overall and daily) without viewing anyone else’s. Banners can be “weighted” to control how often they are displayed, and can automatically be expired from the rotation after a designated number of exposures, click-thrus or days.

WebCal
WebCal allows you to create and maintain an interactive events calendar or scheduling system on your Web site. The script can create calendars for any desired month from 1601 to 2899 A.D.; events to be displayed are stored in an easily-maintained data file. The data file can include singular, weekly, monthly and annual events, and those events can be linked to outside URLs for additional information. Calendars can be viewed in several different table grid formats or as simple text listings.

WebHints
WebHints allows you to easily set up and maintain a “Hint (Quote/Tip/Joke/Whatever) of the Day” page. Addition of new entries is simple, and the script automatically “turns over” the display the first time it is referenced each day. Old entries are kept on file and may be searched and displayed, as well.

WebLibs
WebLibs is the Webified version of the old “Mad Libs” party game. It will allow you to set up “stories” on your Web site which visitors can complete by “filling in the blanks.” Of course, the catch is, they don’t actually see what the story is, until after they’ve already completed it. That’s what makes it fun!

WebSearch
WebSearch allows users to search for key words in documents located on your Web site. It searches the basic text of the documents, as well as ALT text and any information contained in META “keywords” and “description” tags. The script scores the match URLs based upon the frequency with which the requested key terms appear in the documents, and also lists the date on which each file was last modified. You can easily configure the number of matches which will be displayed on each results page.

WebBBS
WebBBS is, as the name implies, a Web-based bulletin board. Unlike most other such boards, though, WebBBS stores messages as simple text files and creates HTML pages “on the fly.” This means that the message index can be tailored by the user based on date and/or subject (via built-in keyword search capability), and can be viewed as threaded, chronological or “guestbook-style” lists. A wide variety of options are available both to the administrator and to the users, and “behind-the scenes” administrative tasks (editing and deleting of messages, etc.) are a breeze! WebBBS supports automatic quoting of message text and e-mail notification of those who want to know immediately when a new message has been posted. It also offers an archive-only option, the ability to run moderated boards, and “cookie” support!

WebLog
WebLog is a comprehensive access log analysis tool. It allows you to keep track of activity on your site by month, week, day and hour, to monitor total hits, bytes transferred and page views, and to keep track of your most popular pages. It can also print out secondary reports to track “user sessions,” showing the paths taken through your site by your visitors and giving you a rough idea of how long they spent looking at your pages, and to provide you with information on referring sites, the search engine keywords which brought your visitors and the agents and platforms they used while visiting. It can read NCSA common or combined log files, as well as Microsoft extended format log files.

Log Tools
CounterLog, AgentLog and RefLog are designed to let you create (if necessary) and analyze NCSA-format agent and referer logs, so you can easily keep track of what browsers and operating systems your visitors are using and what pages are directing them to yours. CounterLog also allows you to put text-based access counters on some or all of your pages.

WebTester
WebTester is a handy site management tool, the primary purpose of which is to check your site for broken links. It will report both on missing files and on those which exist but aren’t referenced. It can also check the validity of your external links. (That way, if someone moves or removes a page to which you’ve linked, you’ll know that the link needs to be updated!) The script is fairly robust; in addition to following “straight” links, it will also parse and follow links in image maps, in text embedded via SSIs, and (optionally) in CGI-generated pages. It will let you know the effective “download” file size of your pages, and will provide estimates of how long they’ll take to download at various connection speeds. Finally, it can create for you a simple “site map” showing, in outline format, all of your site’s pages. (The site map can be included via SSIs on other pages.)

Scripts from the WebScripts collection have appeared on several CD-ROMs, including those bundled with The CGI/Perl Cookbook by Craig Patchett and Matthew Wright (John Wiley & Sons, 1997) and The FrontPage 98 Bible by David Elderbrock and Paul Bodensiek (IDG Books Worldwide, 1998). They’ve also been favorably mentioned in a number of other volumes, including 101 Ways to Boost Your Web Traffic by Thomas Wong (Intesync, 2000) and Perl and CGI for the World-Wide Web: The Visual Quickstart Guide by Elizabeth Castro (Addison-Wesley, 1999), in which this site is said to host “the best documented and easiest to implement collection of Perl CGI scripts.” I just thought you’d like to know.

The CGI and other scripts available from the WebScripts site are provided “as is” and without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. Neither Darryl Burgdorf nor Affordable Web Space Design shall be liable for any direct, consequential, indirect, incidental, or special damages whatsoever, including without limitations, damages for loss of business profits, business interruption, loss of business information, and the like, arising out of the use of or the inability to use any script provided here. The WebScripts site and scripts are copyright (c) 2001, AWSD.com.

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