Quick Start
GUID.org is designed to be as simple as possible. You can get started with three quick steps:
1. Set up a CNAME from your domain to a GUID.org receiver, e.g. guid.yourdomain.com. CNAME set.guid.org.
2. Add the GUID pixel to every page on your site: <img height=1 width=1 src="http://g.guid.org">
3. Grab this test page and install it on your domain to make sure everything is working correctly.
Detailed Instructions
Calling GUID.org is easy - just put the pixel in each of your pages. The main challenge is setting up a "receiver" in your own domain, to receive the GUIDs you have requested.
There are two main options for the receiver: the CNAME receiver, and the script receiver.
CNAME receiver
The CNAME receiver enables GUID.org to function as a simple receiver on your behalf. To do this, we need a mapping from one of your servers to one of ours. You will need to edit the Domain Name System (DNS) records for your domain. In most cases, you do this with the same company who registered your domain originally. Look for an option to "Edit DNS" - it may be under "advanced options." Once you find it, you should create a CNAME to map 'guid.yourdomain.com' to 'set.guid.org'. When finished, the line will likely look something like this: guid.yourdomain.com. CNAME set.guid.org.
Once this is set up, it may take a few minutes or even hours to filter throughout the internet, so please be patient before asking for help. The GUID.org receiver sets the "GUID=" cookie in your domain, with a 30-day expiration.
Script receiver
If you would like to do more with the GUID when you receive it, you can write your own script receiver. We will have a few examples soon.
To enable GUID.org to call your receiver, you need to edit the pixel tag to include a redirect. For example, if your receiver is installed at "yourdomain.com/guidcatcher.php", then you would put the following code on your pages: <img height=1 width=1
src="http://g.guid.org?r=http://yourdomain.com/guidcatcher.php">
Your script will be called with the GUID in the query string, like this: yourdomain.com/guidcatcher.php?GUID=0123456789ABCDEF0123456789ABCDEF.
Note that the browser is expecting a 1x1 image as a response, so once your script has executed, it should return a small image file.
Advanced calling
GUID is designed to be fast and reliable, but you can optimize further by checking to see if you already have the GUID before you request it. This can be done on the server side, for example in PHP, or on the browser as well. Here is some sample Javascript to do this:
<script language=Javascript><!-- // check for GUID
i=document.cookie.indexOf("GUID="); if (i == null || i == -1)
document.write("<img height=1 width=1 src=\"http://g.guid.org/\">")
// --></script><noscript><!-- This part for non-JS browsers -->
<img height=1 width=1 src="http://g.guid.org/"></noscript>
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