Dreamweaver MX Server-Side Includes (SSI) Tutorial
Server-Side Includes or SSIs are like books in a library. These are parts of an HTML code that is included in a document. An SSI makes your web pages much easier to maintain and update. All the web pages having the included file are synchronized when updating. But what sets this apart from others is that the included files are processed by the web server. The web documents are being assessed by the server and sees to it that they contain included files. Then it recreates the files with the included contents at the right page of the appropriate URL .After that it feeds the new file to the browser. This process is termed as parsing.
Here are some simple instructions that will show you how to use SSI in Dreamweaver MX.
· First, download any zip file from the net and then extract it.
· Create a new folder for Include. Open the file to view the codes and make sure the files must end with the .shtml extension
· Select all the codes within these comment tags that starts from <td id="navbar"> and ends in </td>. Then select Edit from the menu bar and choose Cut.
· Create a new file. Select File from the menu bar and then choose New. A toolbar will pop up. From the tabs, click General. There are 2 configurations in the tab. Under Category choose Other and from there choose text. When finished with these, click the Create button.
· From the menu bar, select Edit then choose Paste. Then save the document as leftnav.html in the Include folder you created earlier.
· You then go back to the original zip file and make sure that you are in Code View and the cursor is at the spot where you cut the navigation code. Then from the menu bar, choose Insert and opt for script objects and then click Server –Side Include
· After that, another pop up window (Select File) will appear .Select the leftnav.html file from your folder. Then click Ok.
· Then save the file and click on the comment code for the SSI : <!--#include file="includes/leftnav.html" -->.
· Try to browse through the Property Inspector, and be sure that Virtual is selected.
· The following SSI comment code should appear:
<!--#include virtual="includes/leftnav.html" -->
Now you know how to use Dreamweaver MX SSI.
Original Authors: Roz
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 27/04/2009
