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Advertising on a Shoestring Budget When You Can't Afford the Shoe or the String
The best way to make money with your website, no matter what the business, is to get it noticed. To get it noticed, you need to advertise. But how do you do that when you're on a shoestring budget that's so tight you really can't afford the...
Ensure Open Communication Without Relying On E-Mail
Ensure Open Communication Without Relying On E-Mail (c)2003 Ginger Geracitano In these days of E-Mail filtering, we small business owners are hard pressed for effective ways to keep our clients and prospects informed. While an Opt-In list is still...
Interactive Features
If you really want people to be attracted to your web site time after time, you need to add interactivity. This can be as simple or as complicated as you want. It does not matter whether you are a beginner, an intermediate webmaster or the most...
Linux Web Hosting : The All you need to know
Linux web hosting is so named, based on the operating system on which the web server software, database, and coding conventions reside. The functionality and robust nature of Linux has definitely made it a very viable alternative to Microsoft and...
Web Host Ethics
Okay, I've had to change web hosts half a dozen times in the last year and I've noticed a pattern. It's a very clear and simple pattern, actually a series of behaviors on the part of web hosting companies. These behaviors cause these companies to...
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Website Updates are a SNAP With Server Side Includes
If you ever had to make a change to your website that needed
to be carried onto every page, you know what a tedious job it
is.Well, have I got news for you. It doesn't have to be. Welcome
to the world of Server Side Includes, also known as SSI. The
best part about SSI is that it will make your life as a site
owner 'oh so sweet.' You're going to want to kiss me after I
give you the lowdown on this little beauty.
Let me give you an example. Let's say you have a site with over
50 pages and you need to add another link to your navigation
bar. Can you imagine how long it would take you to open each
page and update it? By putting your navigation bar into an
SSI file, you would only open up that one file and update that
-- and the change to your navigation bar will show up site
wide. See how simple that was? By editing one file you have
updated your entire site instantly.
The most common use of an include file is for your top
navigation, your bottom text navigation, copyright, logo or
any other piece of info needed to appear on all pages of
your site.
So how do you create an SSI file? Glad you asked!
An include file can be an HTML file or a simple text file.
It should be whatever HTML coding you need for that element of
your site, minus the or tags which should remain
on your individual pages.
An easy way to make them is to design your web page and cut
and paste the code you want into individual files and name
them things like topnavigation.htm or bottomnav.htm. By
giving them descriptive names, you'll know at a glance which
file is which when it comes time to perform those updates.
After creating the files you plan on using as your includes,
you'll need to open your
web pages and insert a line of code
where you want the SSI information to show up in your documents.
The code looks like this:
If your includes are located at the root level on your
web server your path would look like this:
That's it. Pretty simple, really. After you get the hang of it
you'll wish you would have learned about them years ago. They
really do make global updating a snap.
Here are a couple of good sites to learn more about SSI:
Big Nose Bird-
http://www.bignosebird.com/ssi.shtml
CGI Resource-
http://cgi.resourceindex.com/Documentation/Server_Side_Includes/
New Breed Software
http://www.sonic.net/~nbs/unix/www/ssi/
Web Reference
http://www.webreference.com/programming/ssi/intro/
Before you start implementing SSI you need to ask your web host
if they support them (most do), and also if they will need to
be named with any special extensions. Some servers may require
you to give them specific extensions like .asp (if it's NT) or
.shtml (for many Unix servers). Although the majority won't, it's
always better to ask first. Better safe then sorry.
By designing your website with server side includes you'll save
yourself a ton of headaches when it comes time to updating your
site. SSI is a Webmaster's best friend, so I suggest you spend
some time getting acquainted.
About the Author
Merle http://www.EzineAdAuction.com
"Where some of the BEST Deals in Ezine Advertising are Made"
Buy & Sell Ezine Ads in a live auction setting!
Publishers sell off your excess inventory and Buyers
pick up some Fantastic bargains. Go now.
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