Server Side Include (SSI)  commands are executed by the server as it parses your HTML file. Server side includes can be used to include the value of various server environment variables within your HTML such as the local date and time. One might use a server side include to add a signature file to an HTML file or company logo.

HTML files containing SSI must be named with an .shtml extension. (NT accounts can use .shtml, .shtm, and .stm)

SSI commands are easy to add to your HTML, but you must follow the syntax exactly:

• <!--#command cmd_argument="argument_value" -->

Be sure to leave a space after the ending quotation mark (") of the argument variable.

Using the echo  Command

The echo command can be used to display the content of the five server side environment variables listed in the table below.

Example:
Date and time determined by server location.

This code:   <!--#echo var="Date_Local" -->

will display:   Saturday, 02-Jun-2001 05:56:06 CST

On NT, the "echo" date commands do not include the time, unless #config timeframe="time options" is used first.

Using the config  Command

The config command can be used to configure the standard output of various environment variables. In the following example, two SSI commands are used in conjunction to produce an alternative date and time format:

This code:   <!--#config timefmt="%A, %B %d, %Y %I:%M%p" --> <!--#echo var="date_local" -->

will display:  Saturday, June 02, 2001 05:56AM

Here is a breakdown date and time codes used in the example above:

Other SSI Commands

The fsize command might be helpful if you were to include a thumbnail image and want to display the actual file size of the original image.

e.g.   <!--#fsize file="image.gif" -->   output: 10k

The include command can be used to include a signature file or company logo within an HTML document. The added document or image will appear as if it were part of the original document.

e.g.   <!--#include file="any.htm" -->

If the file to be included is in a different directory than the SHTML document. use the virtual command argument instead. In the following example, the SHTML document resides in a subdirectory but includes a file within account root directory:

eg.<!--#include virtual="/any.htm" -->

The exec command can be used to execute a CGI script when the web page is loading. In the following example, the script date.pl within the relative path /cgi-local is executed.

eg.<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-local/date.pl" -->

This is more or less a get your feet wet  page. To take the plunge, check out these sites.