SSI

FAQ - Server Side Includes

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.

2. How do I use SSI?

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:

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.

include

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:

fsize

Syntax: fsize file="path"

The fsize directive inserts
the size of the file specified
by path, in bytes. For example:

This file is
 bytes.

flastmod

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 .

config

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:

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:

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"

printenv

Syntax: printenv

This directive prints a complete list
of all existing SSI variables and
their values. It has no attributes.
For example:

set

Syntax: set var="variable" value="value"

This directive sets the value of an environment variable. For example:

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:

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?

DOCUMENT_NAME

The filename of the current HTML
document. For example:

This file is called
.

DOCUMENT_URL

The URL of the current file. For example:

This document is located at
.

QUERY_STRING_UNESCAPED

An unencoded query string whose metacharacters are escaped with a backslash (\).

DATE_LOCAL

The local date and time. For example:

Here in San Diego, it is now .

DATE_GMT

The current Greenwich Mean Time. For example:

The current time is  GMT.

LAST_MODIFIED

The date and time when the current
file was last modified. For example:

I last modified this page on
.

6. What CGI environment variables can I use with SSI?

SERVER_SOFTWARE=Stronghold/2.0

The name and version number of the server software

SERVER_NAME=host

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_HOST=host

The same as SERVER_NAME

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

REMOTE_HOST=host

The hostname or IP number of the client host or proxy server that originated the request

REMOTE_PORT=port

The client-side port number that originated the request

REMOTE_ADDR=IP

The IP number of the client host

REMOTE_USER=username

The remote username, if the script is subject to basic authentication

REMOTE_IDENT=ident

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

REQUEST_METHOD=method

The method used in this request, such as GET or POST

AUTH_TYPE=method

The authentication method used in this request, if any

CONTENT_TYPE=MIME-type

The MIME type of any data attached to the request header

CONTENT_LENGTH=n

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

QUERY_STRING=string

The query-string for this transaction,
embedded in the requested URL

7. Where can I get more information about Server-Side Includes?

More information on Server-Side Includes can be found at http://hoohoo.ncsa.uiuc.edu/docs/tutorials/includes.html