Re: no SSI/ASP/FP/ any other extensions - is there a way?

by "Ted Temer" <temer(at)c-zone.net>

 Date:  Fri, 1 Oct 1999 19:44:07 -0700
 To:  <hwg-basics(at)hwg.org>
  todo: View Thread, Original
Ben:

I hope I understand you correctly. Shaun replied to you in a
manner different than I understood your question to be. So--I
could be way off base here.

So -- If you are asking for a method to include one or more
objects/elements in a page similar to FrontPage's IncludeBot but
using HTML without FP Extensions, then:

What you want is SSI, (Server Side Includes) This can be done on
any server but true, you may run into some ISP's that are too
scared to allow it to be used on their server. Just change ISP's
quickly.

The Code for this is:
<!--#include virtual="/directory/filename.txt"-->

Note that the file can be almost anything the browser is capable
of displaying. It does not have to be just .txt. Many use the
extension .inc to designate an include file. It could also be
.htm or .html, etc. etc.

The browser will add in the file at the spot of the command.

The ISP's server will have an .htaccess file that recites the
types of HTML files it will parse or scan to look for these
#include commands. (Here I am talking about the pages--not the
files to be included.)

To keep the server from having to scan EVERY  HTML file, the
accepted (??) "Standard" is to name your pages that contain
#includes as .html and those not containing #includes as .htm

All well and good but this is one of those little rules made up
by those using SSI and some, (many) ISP's don't or won't follow
that rule. Many of them require you to use an .shtml extension
instead.

The only downside to this is the fact that, FrontPage,
Dreamweaver, Drumbeat and many other editors will not save a file
as .shtml which forces you to change it while uploading via an
FTP program or go into the server and rename the files. This
obviously would mess up the automatic links using FrontPage and
others.

But the bottom line is that once past the problem of file
extension, the SSI business works super slick and you can have
several includes on a page or all through your site. Just make
one change in the #include file and it is reflected everywhere it
is called. Great for links, menu items and any other thing that
needs to be repeatedly inserted throughout your site.

SSI is a very broad subject and you can learn more by searching
for SSI at www.builder.com/ or the Microsoft site at:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/workshop/?

There are also web sites devoted to SSI as well.

Hope this is what you were looking for.
Best wishes
Ted Temer
Temercraft Designs Redding, CA
temer(at)c-zone.net
http://www.temercraft.com
http://www.newsredding.com/



>I am creating a site for a client (http://www.news-uk.co.uk) and
I use
>tables. Each page displays the same table set with the same
content in each.
>Is there a way, when the user clicks on a link, instead of the
browser
>loading the text in the middle. So basically, the tablesets in
one html
>file, then each other has the text to display in the update
section, then
>each link loads the tableset from one, and the relevant text
from another
>file. Similar to an FP
>include webbot, but I can't do it without FP support.
>
>I've got no specialist sever supports - includes/asp/fp nowt
like that.
>
>Basically, you just edit one document, and it makes global
changes to the
>all the other pages. A bit like CSS, change the style sheet,
then it changes
>the style of all the 'child' pages. Hopefully making design
updates, loads
>easier over a large site, which this becomes every extra week.
I've been
>using NoteTab's replace function, but it's hard to keep track of
where
>you've made changes.
>
>Also, what are all these other html:
>shtml
>ihtml
>...
>and how do they differ from usual html?
>would they be of any help to me?
>
>Thankyou in advance.
>
>Cheers :~]
>
>Ben Bradley UK
>
>"If it's not enough then it's too much for us to lose" - Dodgy
>Get Paid To Surf The Web!
>
>Look At Some Of My Websites:
>http://bat.jx.nu
>http://www.news-uk.co.uk
>
>

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