1. What are server
side includes?
Server-side includes (SSIs) are simple,
HTML-embedded directives that instruct the web server to include data in the HTML
document. As a shorthand alternative to CGI, server-side includes can be handy.
First you must create a page with a .shtm
or .shtml extention! Then SSI is easily implemented into your web page by
using the following syntax or directives:
<!--#directive
parameter="value"-->
Directives can have more than one parameter, and multiple parameters are separated by
white space.
3. What directives
are available?
The valid SSI directives are as follows:
echo
Syntax:
echo var="environment-variable"
Echo inserts the value of one or more SSI
environment variables.
Syntax:
include file|virtual="path"
The include directive inserts the
text of another document, specified either as a file or a virtual file. Path must be
relative to the current document in the case of a file, or it can be a virtual path. For
example:
<!--#include
file="sample.html"-->
<!--#include virtual="/virtual/sample.html"-->
Syntax:
fsize file="path"
The fsize directive inserts the size
of the file specified by path, in bytes. For example:
This file is <!--#fsize
file="example.ps"--> bytes.
Syntax:
flastmod file="path"
Similar to fsize, flastmod inserts
the modification date for the file specified by path. For example:
This file was last modified on
<!--#flastmod file="example.html"-->.
Syntax:
config errmsg|sizefmt|timefmt="string"
You can use the config directive to
modify the default SSI behavior. The parameters are as follows:
errmsg: Sets the
default error message. For example:
<!--#config errmsg="Error:
Try again."-->
sizefmt: Sets the
format for file size data returned by the fsize directive. The string for this parameter
is either "bytes" for file sizes in bytes, or "abbrev" for file sizes
rounded to the nearest kilobyte. For example:
<!--#config sizefmt="abbrev"-->
timefmt:
Sets the format for dates and times returned by the flastmod directive and the DATE_LOCAL
and DATE_GMT variables.
The possible values for this
parameter are as follows:
| Format
Code |
Description |
| %a |
Abbreviated day of the week,
such as "Sun" for Sunday |
| %A |
Unabbreviated day of the week |
| %b |
Abbreviated month, such as
"Jan" for January |
| %B |
Unabbreviated month |
| %d |
Two-digit, numerical day of
the month, such as "01" . |
| %D |
Numerical month, day, and
year, such as "01/24/97" |
| %e |
Numerical day, such as
"1" |
| %H |
24-hour clock hour, such as
"17" |
| %I |
12-hour clock hour, such as
"11" |
| %j |
Numerical day of the year,
such as "278" |
| %m |
Numerical month, such as
"11" |
| %M |
Minutes, such as
"08" |
| %p |
am or pm |
| %r |
Time, such as "08:23:17
am" |
| %S |
Seconds, such as
"56" |
| %T |
24-hour time, such as
"23:54:56" |
| %U |
Week of the year, such as
"47" |
| %w |
Numerical day of the week,
such as "0" for Sunday and "7" for Saturday |
| %y |
Year of the current century,
such as "97" |
| %z |
Abbreviated time zone, such as
"PST" |
| skip=n |
Skips the next n
rules in a sequence if the current rule matches |
| S=n |
Same as "skip" |
| env=VARIABLE:VALUE |
Sets the environment variable VARIABLE
to the value VALUE |
| E=VARIABLE:VALUE |
Same as "env" |
This directive prints a complete list
of all existing SSI variables and their values. It has no attributes. For example:
Syntax:
set var="variable" value="value"
This directive sets the value of an
environment variable. For example:
<!--#set var="country"
value="United States"-->
4. What extended
SSI elements are available?
Our server implements Extended SSI, which
includes flow control elements much like the ones used in
programming languages. With flow control, you can create more sophisticated SSI scripts.
There are four flow control elements:
<!--#if expr="test-condition"-->
<!--#elif expr="test-condition"-->
<!--#else-->
<!--#endif-->
The test-condition is one of the
following:
| Test
Condition |
Description |
| string |
True if the string is not
empty |
| sring1=string2 |
True if string1
matches string2 |
| string1!=string2
|
True if string1 does
not match string2 |
| (test-condition) |
True if test-condition is true |
| !test-condition |
True if test-condition is
false |
| test-condition1
&& test-condition2 |
True if both test-condition1
and test-condition2 are true |
| test-condition1 || test-condition2 |
True if either
test-condition1 or test-condition2 is true |
5. What SSI
environment variables available?
The filename of the current HTML
document. For example:
This file is called <!--#echo
var="DOCUMENT_NAME"-->.
The URL of the current file. For
example:
This document is located at <!--#echo
var="DOCUMENT_URL"-->.
An unencoded query string whose
metacharacters are escaped with a backslash (\).
The local date and time. For example:
Here in San Diego, it is now <!--#echo
var="DATE_LOCAL"-->.
The current Greenwich Mean Time. For
example:
The current time is <!--#echo
var="DATE_GMT"--> GMT.
The date and time when the current
file was last modified. For example:
I last modified this page on <!--#echo
var="LAST_MODIFIED"-->.
6. What CGI
environment variables can I use with SSI?
SERVER_SOFTWARE=Stronghold/2.0
The name and version number of the server
software
The host being addressed in this request,
which may be the main host or a virtual host, either as a fully-qualified domain name or
an IP address
HTTP_ACCEPT=MIME-type[,
MIME-type, MIME-type . . .]
One or more MIME types that the client can
accept
HTTP_USER_AGENT=name/version
(platform)
The name, version number, and platform of
the client software
The hostname or IP number of the client
host or proxy server that originated the request
The client-side port number that originated
the request
The IP number of the client host
The remote username, if the script is
subject to basic authentication
The remote username as supplied by identd,
if available
SERVER_PROTOCOL=protocol/version
The protocol and version number used to
send the request, which Stronghold also uses in its response in order to ensure
compatibility with the client
The method used in this request, such as
GET or POST
The authentication method used in this
request, if any
The MIME type of any data attached to the
request header
The size, in bytes, of any data attached to
the request header
SCRIPT_NAME=path/to/script
The URI of the requested script
SCRIPT_FILENAME=absolute/path/to/script
The absolute path to the requested script
SCRIPT_URI=method://host/path/to/script
The URI of the requested script
SCRIPT_URL=path/to/script
The URL of the requested script
The query-string for this transaction,
embedded in the requested URL
7. Where can I get
more information about Server-Side Includes?
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