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What is SSI?
SSI is an abbreviation for Server Side Includes. They are special commands that can be
given to a suitable Web server by placing them inside HTML documents. You can, for instance,
include a standard navigation menu on every page of your site, and if you have to change it you
will only have to edit one file.
When a browser requests a file from your Web server, it can be configured to search for SSI
commands within HTML documents and execute them. Programs can be made to run via the
exec SSI command. The command code will be replaced by the results of the program - even
if the source is viewed using a browser it will look as if it is part of the document.
Server Side Includes have many advantages over client side technologies such as JavaScript as
they run on the server. This means that anyone who can view an HTML page can see the results
of SSI.
As only the command results are included in the source, they are also a lot more secure from
prying eyes.
What can SSI do?
SSI allows you to include information in a document that is re-generated every time it is
accessed.
Some of the things you can include are:-
- The current time and date
- The URL of the current document
- The size of a file on the system
- The text of another file
- The output from a CGI program
- The file name of the current document
- The last modification time and date of the current document
You can also execute certain system commands (depending on your user privileges).
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