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
Overview
This is a demonstration web server script for web hosts that support ASP scripting. The script demonstrates how to use ASP to track E-Book circulation and expands on the ideas in the article, "Track E-Book Circulation"
Lane has also written a more sophisticated version of this script that utilizes ASP with an access database for tracking, and this is described in his follow-up article "Track E-Book Circulation Using ASP + Access".
Requirements
Instructions - This code uses an image tag and an ASP page on the server. With this one ASP page you can track multiple e-books.
- Example image tags: (to be inserted in the e-book's HTML pages, see script below for info)
<img src="http://yourwebsite/image.asp?img=01" width="1" height="1">
<img src="http://yourwebsite/image.asp?img=aa" width="1" height="1">
<img src="http://yourwebsite/image.asp?img=2G" width="1" height="1">
- The script writes the image requests to a text file on the server. The file can then be read at any time to see how many image requests have been made.
- Copy the script to a file called image.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. "image.asp" otherwise Notepad will add .txt to the end of the name (giving a file name of image.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.
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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