How to graph specific page views in real-time?

Question

I'd like to link to three pages (a, b, c) in an email. When one of those pages are clicked/viewed, then I'd like for that page to display a thank you message and a chart that displays the actual page views to the moment for those three pages.

In essence, I'm trying to create a super-simple form-less poll.

It seems like vast overkill to create a mysql table, etc to record and display the comparative count.

What's the simplest, lightest way of accomplishing what I want to do?

Answer 1

So I figured out a method using PHP. Posting it here for others, and in case somebody can make it better.

You will need to create a file for tracking each vote. You will also need to create a landing page for each vote type.

So in the example -- landing on a.php causes a.txt to increment up by 1.

A cookie is set in order to limit duplicate votes that would otherwise happen if the page reloaded. (Recognized flaw = some people/browsers block cookies.)

At the top of the PHP page:

    <?php
    $cookie_name = "poll1234";   // a cookie is used to prevent duplicate votes
    $cookie_value = "completed"; 
    $myFile = "a.txt";   // you'll need to create this file & populate with a 0

    $voteA = file_get_contents($myFile);
    $voteB = file_get_contents("b.txt");
    $voteC = file_get_contents("c.txt");
    setcookie($cookie_name, $cookie_value, time() + 86400, "/"); // 86400 = 1 day
    if(!isset($_COOKIE[$cookie_name])) {
        $voteA += 1;
        $changedFile = fopen($myFile, "w") or die();
        fwrite($changedFile, $voteA);
        fclose($changedFile);
    }
    ?>

This is the code for a.php -- it would need to be tweaked for use on b.php or c.php

In the body of the PHP page:

Use the below code to display the vote count for option A -- change in order to display B or C.

    <?php echo $voteA; ?>