Note: Ideas in this article describe a method of embedding obtaining limited tracking information from E-Books that you create. This potentially allows you to collect some information (example: IP address) about your users. It is generally considered good practice to disclose your privacy and data-collection policies.
In some countries, this type of disclosure may be required by law.
We are not attorneys or lawyers, so can not offer you legal advice (and nothing in this article is, nor should be construed as, legal advice). If you need legal advice, please consult with a lawyer.
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Track E-Book Circulation Using ASP + Access
Overview
This is a demonstration web server script for web hosts that support ASP scripting and Access databases. The script demonstrates how to use ASP to track E-Book circulation and expands on the ideas in the article, "Track E-Book Circulation" and "Track E-Book Circulation Using ASP".
Requirements - Activ E-Book Compiler, version 3.00 or later (see notes below)
- Web host which supports ASP scripting and Access Databases.
Instructions - This code is more advanced than the previous example but if you follow the instructions it should work for you.
- This code uses an image tag and an ASP page on the server which updates a database. With this one ASP page you can track multiple e-books in the database.
- Example image tags: (to be inserted in the e-book's HTML pages, see script below for info)
<img src="http://yourwebsite/imagedb.asp?e=ebooksample" width="1" height="1">
<img src="http://yourwebsite/imagedb.asp?e=sampleebook" width="1" height="1">
<img src="http://yourwebsite/imagedb.asp?e=anotherebook" width="1" height="1">
- The script writes the image requests to a database on the server. This is the advantage of this script over the previous one. You can create custom reports from the database. (see "Basic Report Page" below)
- Download ebookTrack.zip to your computer, and unpack it using a program such as WinZip to obtain the ebookTrack.mdb file. ebookTrack.mdb contains the Access database that this script uses.
- Copy the database (ebookTrack.mdb) to your web site. Make a note of where you have it saved. (If you have not set up a database on your web site before please refer to your web site provider for instructions on setting it up properly).
- Copy the following script to a file called imagedb.asp in the root directory of the web site.
Please note: If using Notepad on a version of Windows prior to Windows XP, when you save in Notepad, be sure to place the file name in quotes on the Save As dialog box, i.e. "imagedb.asp" otherwise Notepad will add .txt to the end of the name (giving a file name of imagedb.asp.txt). If using Notepad on Windows XP, this workaround is not necessary.
The Script contains notes on how to use it and what changes need to be made to customize it.
- Basic Report Page:
Now that you are collecting this data to a database, you can create custom reports based on that data. The following is a basic E-Book Report that will tell you how many times each ebook is used.
Copy the script to a file called imagedbreport.asp in the root directory of the web site.
Please note: If using Notepad on a version of Windows prior to Windows XP, when you save in Notepad, be sure to place the file name in quotes on the Save As dialog box, i.e. "imagedbreport.asp" otherwise Notepad will add .txt to the end of the name (giving a file name of imagedbreport.asp.txt). If using Notepad on Windows XP, this workaround is not necessary.
Notes - This script should function with Activ E-Book Compiler versions 3.00, 3.01, 3.02, 4.00, 4.01, 4.20, 4.21 and 4.22 (4.22 is the latest version at the time of writing). It is possible that changes might be required for e-books made with subsequent versions.
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