serversides

Saturday, 22-Nov-2008 00:32:26 GMT

SSI scripts and Commands

Server Side Includes are a way of to give interactivity via the web server. The web server places the information in SSI commands and scripts dynamically into your web pages.

This File below is fil included as an SSI is processed by the server when the page is accessed online.

Server-side includes are instructions to the server to include a specified file in the current document before sending the document to the user who requested it. (You can think of it as something like a library item that's provided by the server.) When you open a document that's on a server, the server processes the include instructions and creates a new document in which the include instructions are replaced by the contents of the included file. The server then sends this new document to your browser. When you open a local document in a browser, however, there's no server to process the include instructions in that document, so the browser opens the document without processing those instructions, and the file that's supposed to be included doesn't appear in the browser. It can thus be difficult, without using Dreamweaver, to look at local files and see them as they'll appear to visitors after you've put them on the server. With Dreamweaver, though, you can preview documents just as they'll appear after they're on the server, both in the Design view and when you preview in a browser. To display included files, Dreamweaver uses a translator to mimic the way a server would process the include instructions. Placing a server-side include in a document inserts a reference to an external file; it doesn't insert the contents of the specified file in the current document. Dreamweaver displays the contents of the external file in the Document window, making it easier to design pages, but you cannot edit the included file directly in a document. To edit the contents of a server-side include, you must directly edit the file that you're including. Any changes to the external file are automatically reflected in every document that includes it. There are two types of server-side includes: Virtual and File. Choose which to use depending on what type of Web server you use: If your server is an Apache Web server, choose Virtual. (This is the default choice in Dreamweaver.) In Apache, Virtual works in all cases, while File works only in some cases. If your server is a Microsoft IIS server, choose File. (Virtual works with IIS only in certain specific circumstances.) Unfortunately, IIS won't allow you to include a file in a folder above the current folder in the folder hierarchy, unless special software has been installed on the server. If you need to include a file from a folder higher in the folder hierarchy on an IIS server, ask your system administrator if the necessary software is installed.

The file is not actually included in the page code.

Dreamweaver simulates these files when viewing on a local network, if you load the page directly. If viewing live on the web you will only see them if the site's web server supports SSI's.

How to insert Severside Includes

Use the icon for 'Insert Serverside Include' in the Insert Bar - Script tab (Common Object of the Objects Panel in DW4) to insert a text file as a serverside include.
You can also insert via Insert Menu/Script Objects (Serverside Includes in DW4)

If you are using the config, echo, fsize, flastmod or exec commands you will need to swtich to the code view and type them in at the prompt where you want them to appear

You will need to save the file with the .shtml extension for the serverside includes to work on your server.

Examples

Last modified  Tuesday, 14-Feb-2006 12:18:44 GMT

Document Name: serversides.shtml

Document url: (none)

Date: Saturday, 22-Nov-2008 00:32:26 GMT

Server Name:  webdevonline.org.uk

You are using: CCBot/1.0 (+http://www.commoncrawl.org/bot.html)

Last Modified: Tuesday, 14-Feb-2006 12:18:44 GMT