Server Side Includes (SSI) is a basic server-side language, which lets you include text from a specified source within a web page. In the most widespread scenario, the text from a single file is incorporated in a different one, providing a site the sense that it's dynamic. For example, in case your site is made of 10 web pages, five of them can contain the content of some file, such as horoscope.txt. As soon as you alter this text file, the updated content will come up on all of the five pages, which shall enable you to bring up to date your website faster and easier than if you had to change part of all five web pages. Server Side Includes is at times used to contain the output of basic commands, scripts or functions as well - a hit counter that's shown on the website, the current time and date or the visitor's IP address. Every web page that utilizes SSI must have a particular extension - .shtml.

Server Side Includes in Website Hosting

All of the Linux website hosting we provide support Server Side Includes, so you're able to bring in dynamic elements to your static site that you host on our cloud system. By setting up a clear .htaccess file and typing in a couple of lines of code in it, you'll be able to enable SSI for a domain or a subdomain. The file involved needs to be within the particular folder where you will use SSI and you will get the code in our Frequently Asked Questions section, so you do not need any coding expertise. The 24/7 tech support team shall also be able to assist you with activating Server Side Includes if you are not absolutely sure how to proceed. You should additionally remember to change the extension of all files that will utilize SSI from .html to .shtml and ensure that the links on your site point to the right files.