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Frequently Asked Questions - Server Side Includes (SSI)

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 useful.
2. How do I use SSI?
First you must create a page with a .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.
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:
<!--#include file="sample.html" -->
<!--#include virtual="/virtual/sample.html" -->
fsize
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
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 <!--#flastmod file="example.html" -->
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:
<!--#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:
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:
<!--#printenv -->
set
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 are available?
DOCUMENT_NAME
The filename of the current HTML document.  For example:
This file is called <!--#echo var="DOCUMENT_NAME" -->
DOCUMENT_URI
The URL of the current file.  For example:
This document is located at <!--#echo var="DOCUMENT_URI" -->
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 <!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL" -->
DATE_GMT
The current Greenwich Mean Time.  For example:
The current time is <!--#echo var="DATE_GMT" --> GMT
LAST_MODIFIED
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
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.
8. Can I use the exec directive to run scripts?
No, due to security reasons that directive is not available.  To run scripts use the include virtual directive.
<!--#include virtual="/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/yourname/yourscript.cgi" -->
   
 
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