Matt's Script Archive

Who says you can't get something for nothing anymore?

Frequently Asked Questions Updated: 07/11/96

The Frequently Asked Questions section of Matt's Script Archive contains answers to many questions you may be asking about CGI/Perl scripts and setting up specific MSA scripts. Answers found here will generally be faster and more complete than any other place, so check here first if you have any questions or run into problems.

Help Center

Check the MSA Help Center to find out how you can go about getting help to set up one of these scripts. Details on the MSA help team and the various other ways of getting help on-line can be found here.

Guestbook - Version 2.3.1 - Released: 10/29/95

Being the first program to be introduced on MSA, the Guestbook has undergone many changes. This version allows users who visit your site to add their name, email, url, location and comments to a single file. Newest entries will appear at the top of the Guestbook, making this script like a registry of those who have visited your site.

Free for All Link Page - Version: 2.2 - Released: 7/17/96

The Free For All Link Program allows visitors to your site to add their favorite site or their home page to your list of URLS. There are several categories, and you can feel free to change them or add new ones. Every time a URL is submitted, it is added to the top of the link list for that category.

WWWBoard - Version: 2.0 ALPHA 2 - Released: 11/25/95

Although WWWBoard is still in an ALPHA release stage, and may stay that way for a while, it is much more stable than version 1.0 of this message system. WWWBoard comes with a WWWAdmin program to allow for the easy removal of old posts. WWWBoard is a threaded message board which allows for in depth discussions.

Counter - Version: 1.1.1 - Released: 01/11/96

Odometer style graphical counters seem to be the newest craze on the web, or one of the most over-used, depending on how you look at it. This Counter program will allow you to use any set of digits on the net, provided they are all the same height and width. It comes with many features including transparent capabilities, color frame specification, interlaced image capability and a logging program to view who is visiting your page. Requires a compiled C program called Fly to correctly run.

TextCounter - Version: 1.2 - Released: 05/10/96

If you have Server Side Includes capability and are looking for an easy to use and simple to set-up text counter, MSA's TextCounter may be the solution for you. It can be set up to be used by an individual or a whole system, and the newest version allows for file locking and padded counts. Once the script is set-up, adding a text counter to a new page is as simple as placing the SSI call into your HTML page.

Simple Search - Version 1.0 - Released: 12/16/95

Even if Simple Search isn't the most efficient search tool on the internet, if you have a site consisting of only a few hundred documents it can get the job done. Simple Search allows for boolean and/or switches and case sensitive or insensitive searches, and will return a list of HTML pages which match the query supplied by a user.

FormMail - Version: 1.5 - Released: 02/5/96

Looking to set up a feedback form, but don't know where to begin? FormMail allows you to write any form, and as long as a few simple hidden configuration fields are added, the results of the form will be mailed back to you. This script can also be installed and used system wide or by a single user. You can have the form send the results to multiple recipients and specify how you want the information sorted as it comes into your mailbox.

HTTP Cookie Library - Version: 1.1.1 - Released: 07/15/96

HTTP Cookie Library is a Perl 4 and 5 compatible library which allows you to easily use Persistent Client State HTTP Cookies by allowing you to get the cookies from the environment, prepare cookies, set cookies, change the expiration date, domain and path all with easy subroutine calls.

Random Image Displayer - Version 1.2 - Released: 07/17/95

Tired of the same background or inlined images every time you load your web page? The Random Image Displayer allows you to specify certain images to be randomly displayed on your web page, either as a background image or an image inlined in your web page.

Server Side Includes Random Image Displayer - Version: 1.2 - Released: 11/04/95

The Server Side Includes Random Image Displayer is basically an extension of the Basic Random Image Displayer. Although it does require the use of Server Side Includes, this version of the Random Image Displayer allows you to have alt text displayed for each image and a link that corresponds to that image making it perfect for an advertisement rotation program.

Random Link Generator - Version: 1.0 - Released: 7/30/95

Want to let users visit a random web page on your site? Or one of your favorite web pages on the Internet? The Random Link Generator will take users of your web page to a random site on the internet, choosing from a list of URLs that you can define.

Random Text - Version: 1.0 - Released: 07/14/96

Wish to display random quotes, words, phrases or other snippets of text on your pages? If so, this script takes a plain text file and a specified delimiter and will randomly choose phrases out of it and put them on your web page. Requires Server Side Includes.

TextClock - Version: 1.0.2 - Released: 07/15/96

TextClock is a Perl CGI script which is meant to be run from Server Side Includes. When this script is implemented, it can be used to show browsers several variations of the current time and/or date.

Animation - Version: 1.2 - Released: 11/21/95

Animated gif capability in the newest browsers has made this Server Push Animation script almost obsolete. However, if you have a set of images, that you wish to animate on the web, simply download this program, plug in the names of the images and fire up Netscape to watch your images be animated on the screen!

Countdown - Version 1.2.1 - Released: 10/08/95

How long do we have to wait until the year 2,000? This countdown program will tell down to the second how long until a certain event will occur. This script can be implemented by a single user or system wide, and allows you to specify the date you wish to countdown to.

Credit Card Verifier - By Spider - Version 1.02 - Released 07/01/96

The Validator verifies all 13 and 16 digit Visa Cards, 16 digit MasterCards, 16 digit Novus (Discover) cards, and 15 digit American Express cards.

Book 'em Dan-O - By Spider - Version 1.01 - Released 07/10/96

Book 'em, Dan-O is a readily configurable, easy way to log the time of the visit, the visitor, where they came from (when used as a SSI), and what browser they were using. All great data to better refine your site! Configurable as a Server Side Include or as a "re-direct," while logging the visitor.

Matt's Scripts Archive EXTRAS!

The Extras section of Matt's Script Archive contains useful pieces of code which serve as add-ons or revisions to many of the scripts found on MSA. New items are being added all the time!

Snippets of Code!

Various scripts that do not warrant a full page description on Matt's Script Archive can be found here. Among the pieces of code here are: A Password Generator for WWWAdmin if your forget your password, a script to remove those pesky control M's from your documents, browser and remote host identification programs and a program to create a link back to the page the user was last at.

Scripts Around the World!

So is anyone atually using these scripts? Over 1,000 working examples and demonstrations of these scripts can be seen here, with more being sent to me each day!

Matt's Script Archive Mailing Lists

Several mailing lists are available for the avid users of Matt's Script Archive. Join the over 3,400 users of the lists by signing up for either the new-scripts or www-scripts list. New-scripts informs you of any new changes or updates to Matt's Script Archive or the scripts contained within and www-scripts is an unmoderated list pertaining to CGI scripts and perl. You can get help setting up your scripts and writing new ones on the www-scripts list. Links to the on-line archives of these mailing lists can be found here as well.

Upcoming Projects and CGI Scripts

If you are wondering what projects Matt is currently working on, or what revisions to his scripts may be released soon, check out the Upcoming Projects and CGI scripts to find out the latest info.

Get All of My Scripts

Here you can get all of Matt's Scripts in one big file so you don't have to visit every page and download each one individually. Choose from one large zipped, gzipped or unix compressed package.

Get Scripts by E-Mail

Having trouble downloading the scripts from the server? Visit this page and have the scripts e-mailed to your mailbox uuencoded as either zipped, gzipped, compressed or plain tarred packages. A fast way to download all of the scripts if you are having trouble getting the server to respond.

Registration/Comment Form

If you are using one of the scripts at Matt's Script Archive on your site somewhere, please go ahead and register it! The process is easy and free and helps me to know that people are actually using these programs. Once you have done this, I will list you in the Matt's Scripts Around the World page so others can come to your site and see the programs in use. You can also use this form just to send Matt questions or comments.

Matt's Script Archive Support Center

This collection of forums allows you to ask questions, help others and read information about many different topics covering Matt's Script Archive. Over 26 forums are present, covering topics from How to Make these scripts work on NT, Mac to discussions about each script itself.

Awards, Publications, News

In the over one year that Matt's Script Archive has been around, it has received recognition in many magazines, books, software tools and web pages on the Internet. This page lists several of the coolest places Matt's Script Archive, or the scripts contained within, have appeared.

Linking to Matt's Script Archive and MSA Images!

Wanna link to my site with a a graphic? Or just check out all of the images and logos that have been created for Matt's Script Archive? This is the page that will show them to you. Choose to look at either logos, banners or main graphics from this location. Included are instructions on how to link to Matt's Script Archive with one of these images.

Advertising with Matt's Script Archive!

Help support Matt's Script Archive and bring more users to your web site! Matt's Script Archive sells advertising at one of the lowest rates on the Internet. For as low as $12/1000 impressions, you can buy advertising space on MSA. Check out this page for more details and a way of signing up!