How Does this .gif file function as a countdown timer?

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If you go to the url below you'll see that the company Onnit has this cool countdown timer, they place it in their emails for offers and such. I am trying to figure out how it works so I can make one. I noticed I can save it to my computer as a gif which I found to be interesting, how the heck do you make something like this? Is it really just a gif? I also noticed that if I modify the url it changes the the countdown date.

Thanks for your time?

https://www.onnit.com/emails/_module...0:00:00&dark=1
#programming #countdown #file #function #gif #timer
  • Hi,

    That is a pretty cool feature you have found. I was interested so did a little digging...

    I used builtwith.com to see the technology the site is using (ASP.NET or PHP?). It said PHP.

    Checked over the php docs and there is functionality to do this. Check out function.imagegif.

    Searching for 'php dynamically generate gif' brings back plenty of info to get started. Including stack.

    I would say to a programmer: you would need to start with some kind of template code (font colours, sizes, positions, etc), read the query string parameters (?end=2013-01-05+00:00:00&dark=1), do some programming (insert values into positions and generate next X images in sequence), and finally send result to browser.

    Hope that helps,
    Mike
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
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    How Does this .gif file function as a countdown timer?

    If you go to the url below you'll see that the company Onnit has this cool countdown timer, they place it in their emails for offers and such. I am trying to figure out how it works so I can make one. I noticed I can save it to my computer as a gif which I found to be interesting, how the heck do you make something like this? Is it really just a gif? I also noticed that if I modify the url it changes the the countdown date. Thanks for your time?