Part 1 - What Are Server Side Includes?

You might not know, but you've almost definitely seen Server Side Includes (SSI) in action on dozens of websites - maybe even sites you visit frequently. "But," you counter, "I always look at the 'view source' and I've never seen anything about Includes." This is because by the time the page appears on your browser, the operation of SSI has already been performed. You are seeing what your browser sees - the additional HTML or code output seamlessly integrated into the original page. This is the beauty of SSI: it can allow you to take separate units (or modules, if you like) and combine and output them however you like.

This page without server include calls.

Take the page you are looking at right now, for example. If you look at the 'view source' you will find HTML for everything that appears on the page: headers, page content, footers, and even ad bar. Now, take a look at how this page would look without the server include calls...not much left, huh?

That's because all of the visual elements of the page are called from separate directories on the server. Why bother when we could just put that stuff right here? Think about it. Every page of the Radiation.com site has the same headers, navigation, footers, and ad bar placement. Why not put all of this information in one place and just call it from every page in the site? And just imagine the difference in doing a re-design with SSI, as opposed to without. In the first case, you re-design a few graphic elements, change the file in one place and you're done. In the second case, however, you have to do the same re-design, then open every single of what could be hundreds, even thousands, of pages and change every one! Do that once, and you'll be cured of it forever.