Server Side Includes

Use of Server Side Includes (SSI)

• Placing elements you use over and over again -- advantages are similar to use of subroutines, in particular easier to maintain since you only make change in one place

• Show the current date, or the date the page was last updated

• Serve an appropriate web page, based on the browser making the request

The use of server side includes is transparent to the user -- when one views the source HTML on the server using a browser, one sees the effect of the SSI, not the SSI statements themselves.  Thus the prevalence of SSI in web sites is difficult to determine.

Syntax: 

<!--#element attribute="value" -->

Examples

Virtual includes: <!--#include virtual="navtable.html" -->

Date and time: <!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL" -->

Setting format of date and time: <!--#config timefmt="%a, %b, etc." -->

The exact syntax of server side includes and whether they are permitted at all depends on the particular server.  Naming the file with the extension .shtml is important on some servers, such as the NOVA student server.

An example that works on NVCC student server (Ou Chen's account)

Same code but on Bill Pegram's account on student server - works

June 6, 2000; comments to William Pegram, wpegram@nvcc.edu