Sams Teach Yourself CGI in 24 Hours, Second Edition

Hour 24. Server Side Includes

Server Side Includes (SSI) are a kind of shortcut around CGI. As you know, a CGI program is external to your HTML page and can generate complex content, which is provided to the Web browser. A Server Side Include, on the other hand, is a simple command you place within an HTML page that adds functionality—such as reading an external file, inserting the current date or last file-modification date, or executing a program and inserting that program’s output into your page. It’s true that SSI doesn’t provide nearly the same level of interaction for your users as CGI does. However, the number one advantage of SSI is that it saves you lots of work when you need the same HTML code snippet in many pages. Like CGI programs, ...