Server Side Include (SSI) commands are
executed by the server as it parses your HTML file. Server side
includes can be used to include the value of various server environment
variables within your HTML such as the local date and time. One
might use a server side include to add a signature file to an HTML
file or company logo.
HTML files containing SSI must be named with an shtml extension.
SSI commands are easy to add to your HTML, but you must follow
the syntax exactly:
<!--#command cmd_argument="argument_value" -->
Be sure to leave a space after the
ending quotation mark (")
of the argument variable.
Using the echo Command
The echo command can be used to display the content of the five server
side environment variables listed in the table below.
Variable
Description
Date_Local
Current date and time (determined by server location).
Date_GMT
Current date and time in Greenwich Mean Time.
Document_Name
File name of the main document.
Document_URI
Path and file name of the main document.
Last_Modified
Date and time the main document was last modified.
The config command can be used to configure the standard output of
various environment variables. In the following example, two SSI commands are
used in conjunction to produce an alternative date and time format:
Here is a breakdown date and time codes used in the example above:
%A Full weekday name
%B Full month name
%d Day of the month
%Y Year
%I Hour
%M Minutes
%p a.m. or p.m.
Other SSI Commands
The fsize command might be helpful if you were to include a thumbnail
image and want to display the actual file size of the original image.
eg. <!--#fsize file="image.gif" --> output: 10k
The include command can be used to include a signature file or company
logo within an HTML document. The added document or image will appear as if
it were part of the original document.
eg. <!--#include file="any.htm" -->
If the file to be included is in a different directory than the SHTML document.
use the virtual command argument instead. In the following example, the
SHTML document resides in a subdirectory but includes a file within account root
directory:
eg. <!--#include virtual="/any.htm" -->
The exec command can be used to execute a CGI script when the web
page is loading. In the following example, the script date.pl within the relative
path /cgi-local is executed.
eg. <!--#exec cgi="/cgi-local/date.pl" -->
This is more or less a get your feet wet page. To take the plunge,
check out these
sites.