In this article I describe how to use PHP and MySQL to produce a simple counter that can be placed on a web page. PHP and MySQL work very well together, and this article shows, hopefully, how easy they are to use to produce a useful little utility.

In order for the counter to work, the web server you upload the files to needs to support PHP and MySQL. Most good hosting solutions do.

The counter needs a database called ‘counter’, a table in that database called ‘countertable’, and a field in the table called ‘count’. If you want to use a different database, table, or field name, make sure you change the appropriate references to these names in the scripts. Read the rest of this entry »