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B&T's Tips & Scripts is a collection of Tips & Scripts to help you build a better website. The Tips & Scripts are targeted towards the native Apache PHP MySQL environment. Check back frequently as there will be additions and modifications. Please check our terms of use.
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Using .htaccess 
- .htaccess Basics Mar 9, 2006
- Domain & subdomain pointing May 12, 2005
- Automatic subdomains Jun 17, 2007
- Undefined subdomains Jul 20, 2008
- Prevent direct access to a pointer or subdomain directory Aug 15, 2006
- Forcing or eliminating the WWW. Feb 9, 2005
- Fixing the trailing slash problem May 11, 2005
- Friendly URLs Mar 21, 2007
- Rewrites and https Dec 18, 2007
- Blocking traffic to your website Jan 2, 2005
- Anti-leech May 25, 2005
- Fancy default index page Jan 25, 2005
Using .htaccess/.htpasswd Password Protection 
- Setting up password protection Feb 9, 2005
- Encrypt your password for .htpasswd Dec 21, 2007
- Auto Password Change and Email Notification Dec 21, 2007
php5 - Auto generate .htpasswd file Dec 18, 2007 php5
- Passing user authentication information to PHP Jun 13, 2004
Coding Tips 
- HTML "One Liners" Nov 13, 2005
- PHP "One Liners" Apr 5, 2007
- JavaScript "One Liners" Aug 25, 2007
- CSS examples Sep 9, 2006
- SQL coding examples Aug 29, 2006
- AJAX example Sep 24, 2006
Uploads and Downloads 
- File Upload Script Dec 20, 2007 php5
- Custom Download Page Dec 14, 2007 php5
- Tracking and Securing Downloads Dec 20, 2007 php5
Mail 
- Form Mail Aug 19, 2007
- Obfuscate your email address Nov 12, 2006
- Read and auto-process mail Nov 12, 2004
- Auto-responder Dec 18, 2007 php5
- Display your email message count Jul 30, 2004
- Setting up SPF Records Jan 4, 2007
- Specify a return-path for generated mail Jul 18, 2006
Working with Images 
- Watermark images Jul 14, 2007
- Resize images (create thumbnails) Jul 14, 2007
Frequently Requested Website Functionality 
- Visitor Counter Dec 14, 2007 php5
- 404 Error Page (with reporting and logging) Dec 20, 2007 php5
- CAPTCHA Aug 19, 2006
- Poll (voting) Dec 17, 2007 php5 see it on this page
- Weather Jul 27, 2008 php5
- FAQ Page May 23, 2005
- Random/weighted banners, quotes & more Feb 9, 2005
- Load a random image (simple) Jan 20, 2004
- Image (banner) rotation Oct 15, 2007
- Simple "members only" pages May 13, 2005
- Replace banned words Apr 5, 2007
- Get the most recent file date Jan 30, 2006
- Moving (bouncing) Image Nov 10, 2005
- Sticky default values for an input Oct 22, 2006
Using PHP 
- Creating a custom php.ini file Dec 18, 2007 php5
- Copying the php.ini file Dec 18, 2007 php5
- Deleteing php.ini files Dec 18, 2007 php5
- Clean up your PHP scripts Nov 11, 2005
- Regular Expression Rules Mar 22, 2006
Website Managment 
- Tips for keeping your website secure Jan 24, 2006
- Using Cron Sep 13, 2005
- Website Monitoring Dec 19, 2007
- Automated Site Backups Dec 19, 2007
- Automated MySQL Backups Dec 19, 2007
- Server-to-server file transfer December 16, 2006
- MySQL Error Notification Dec 20, 2007
- Find File and Directory Sizes Dec 14, 2007 php5
- Deleting session files Aug 9, 2006
- FTP made easy Mar 1, 2006
- Search and Replace Dec 14, 2007 php5
Other Tips 
- URL Validation Feb 8, 2008
- Stop direct links to web pages Jan 22, 2004
- Ensure your page is not opened in a frame May 5, 2005
- Masking your URL in the Address Bar Jul 20, 2004
- Ban or allow IP Addresses (without using .htaccess) Jan 19, 20008
- Using Cookies Sep 24, 2006
- View your website in different resolutions Jan 2, 2005
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Tracking and Securing Downloads
If you want to track or secure downloads from your website, try this script. This script will send you an email, write to a log file, or both, every time you have a download. Now you can track what file was downloaded and who did the download.Instructions are included in the comments at the top of the script. Note the variable $directory is the directory where the download files are located. If you want the script in the same directory as the files then use "./" as the directory (you must always have the slash).
In your html page, use the following structure as your download link (where name.txt is the file name to download):
<a href="download.php?file=name.txt">download</a>
Then you use the following script (called download.php).
You can download this script as a .txt file. Remember to rename the file as a .php file.
- - Start Script Here - -
<?php
/*
This script can send an email and/or make an entry in a log file
There are two variables below - one for an email address and one for a log file
Set both vraiables to the values you want to use
If you do not want either an email or log entry, comment out the respective line
For example, if you do not want an email sent, put a // in front of the $emailAddress line - same for the $logFile line
*/
$emailAddress = "mail@yourdomain.com";
$logFile = "download.log";
$directory = "downloads/"; // the relative directory that has the downloads - can be ./ for the current directory
putenv('TZ=EST5EDT'); // eastern time
// change nothing below this line
$filename = $_GET['file'];
$path = "$directory$filename";
if(file_exists($path) AND substr_count($filename,"/") == "0") {
header("Content-type: application/octet-stream");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$filename");
header("Content-Length: ".filesize($path));
readfile("$path");
if (isset($emailAddress)) {
$message = "File name: " . $filename . "\n\n";
$message .= "Time of the download: " . date(" F d h:ia") . "\n\n";
$message .= "Browser: " . $_SERVER['HTTP_USER_AGENT'] . "\n\n";
$message .= "Page Requested: " . $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] . $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] . "\n\n";
$message .= "Referer: " . $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] . "\n\n";
$message .= "IP Address: ". $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] . "\n\n";
$message .= "Hostname: " . gethostbyaddr($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']) . "\n\n";
mail($emailAddress,"Download notification",$message,"From: Website <>");
}
if (isset($logFile)) {
$downloadLogRecord = $filename . "||" . $_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR'] . "||" . gethostbyaddr($_SERVER['REMOTE_ADDR']) . "||" . date('Y-m-d H:i:s') . "\r\n";
@file_put_contents($logFile,$downloadLogRecord,FILE_APPEND|LOCK_EX);
}
}
?>
- - End Script Here - -
You can then make the download files inaccessible from direct links if you put the following lines in a .htaccess file in the directory with the files:
RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule \.(txt|zip)$ /error.gif [L]
This example will redirect any attempt to directly access any .txt or .zip file in that directory to the error image specified.
Then if you want to stop direct linking to the script as well (this will pretty much secure the download from any hot-linking), add these two lines at the top of the script:
session_start();
if ($_SESSION['allowed'] != "yes") die('Inavlid download attempt');
And on the main page of your website you must set the session variable as follows:
session_start();
$_SESSION['allowed'] = yes;
Then anyone who has not been to your site during the current browser session will not be allowed to access the script either.
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