Embedding SSI in your Web Page

It couldn't be easier to embed an SSI file into your Web page using Dreamweaver. Simply go the to Insert pull-down menu, select Server-Side Include, and navigate to your file. Once you have highlighted the file to be included, click the Select button.

Dreamweaver inserts the code to include the selected file. The HTML code will look something like this:

<!--#include virtual="/history/news/recent-news.ssi" -->
Virtual includes require you to specify the location of the included file relative to the site root.

<!--#include file="../recent-news.ssi"-->
File includes require you to specify the location of the included file relative to the document.

Both virtual and file includes work on the main BU Web servers. College and departmental servers may be configured differently, so check with your systems administrator to find out which method you should use with your server.

Saving your file with the .shtml extension

The final piece of the puzzle for putting together a page with a server-side include is saving your web page that contains the SSI code with a special file extension. Because SSIs are inserted into a page at the time it is retrieved by the server, a special file extension is required to indicate to the server that an SSI needs to be processed.

Files with server-side includes are typically given a .shtml extension. This works with all files on the main BU server. Some departmental servers may have other options and other requirements. If you are in doubt, check with your systems administrator or explore the help options in WebCentral.