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What Is It?

SSI, or Server Side Includes, is a language that enables a server to insert something into a web page before it is sent to the viewer. The insertion usually consists of a simple command easily inserted into SHTML or HTML pages to execute CGI programs, insert files or text, dates, time stamps and more. These “includes” can be nested to include up to sixteen levels of commands to the static page provided that ever file that needs to be parsed contains the correct extension.

Features

SSI commands are powerful tools for site management and especially useful for sites that require constant maintenance. All environment variables available to CGI programs can be used with SSIs, and a number of environment variables are exclusive to SSI. SSI is extremely useful for site management and can provide relief for a site that requires constant updates. Additionally, SSI provides a simple solution for Web site owners who wish to remove frames from a Web site. SSI can provide the commands that will replace frames.

On the down side, SSI makes the server work a bit harder because each page that contains an SSI command needs to execute that command before providing output to a browser. But, this demand on a server is no more than that caused by PHP commands which – basically – provide the same capabilities through that language usage. can be a powerful tool for site management, and are especially useful for sites which require frequent changes.

Who Is it For?

SSI provides Web masters and programmers with the means to implement commands on SSI-compatible servers for Web site functions.

Compatibility

Most servers, by default, are configured to search for and parse SSI calls only in files that use the .shtml extension. Some Web host providers may disable all SSI commands for server security or system overload reasons even though they might allow CGI. The most popular Web server to host SSI is the Apache, which as a development of the CNSA WWW server can be seen as the server for which SSIs and xSSIs were created.

Users who seek SSI-like functions but cannot use SSI on a server can use various Perl programs designed to emulate SSI. Finally, no all includes work across all servers in the same manner. For example, the #hide and #show includes are specific to WebStar. With Apache server software, you can achieve the same functions by using #if and #endif.

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