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Taming the
Update Monster
by Steve
Wood
Have you ever
spent two hours changing just one word that recurs on
each page of
your website? Anyone who
has
maintained a web site with many pages for an extended
period of time
knows the nightmare of having to edit a word or date that
recurs on each page, such as copyright information.
Having to edit
every single page can be very time-consuming and tedious
and
often gets avoided for as long as possible (usually too
long). But it
doesn't have to be that way. There are good
programs
now that allow us to perform “search &
replace” on
multiple files, but there is an even better way to
accomplish this
task,
and you won’t have to worry about inadvertently
“replacing”
something by mistake. By using simple Server Side
Includes (SSI),
you can streamline and simplify the maintenance of your
site.
SSI can be used to accomplish a variety of things on your
web site
including running CGI scripts and posting
the
results on the web page (as in polls), posting the
current time and
date on the page, posting the date of the last update,
etc.
However, in this article, we’ll just talk about the
simplest use
of SSI, the "Include" command. Before you can
implement this SSI strategy, make sure you know whether
your web site
host allows
the use of SSI. If it doesn't, find a host that
does.
The "Include" command allows you to create
a text file with your common information, and then place
a directive
(tag)
in your HTML file that "points" to the text
file. When
you view the web page, the server places the contents of
the text file
where the tag is in the HTML file. You can use this trick
for
anything that recurs on each page of your website. For
instance,
you can put a header and footer on each page. The header
and
footer would be contained in text files called
"header.txt"
and "footer.txt".These files would contain the
html that
recurs on
each page, such as text links, contact information,
copyright
information, etc.
In place of this html on each page, you would place these
tags:
<!--#include file="header.txt" -->
<!--#include file="footer.txt" -->
Now, whenever anyone views the pages containing those
tags, the server
will place the contents of the
text files in
the appropriate place and the viewer will see the header
and footer. Whenever a change is needed within the header
or
footer, only ONE file needs to be edited -- the text
file. All of the
pages using that file will be "automatically"
updated.
Changing the copyright date or address or phone number on
every page
of
your web site will now take only 30 seconds because only
one file
has to be changed!
The easiest way to do this is to create a web page
with everything you'd like to have on it. Those parts
that will recur on every other page are where you will
use SSI. All
you have to do is "cut & paste" all of the
html
that will be used on each page, pasting it into a text
file. Where you
"cut" the html, replace it with the tag, such
as:
<!--#include file="header.txt" -->
Do the same thing for the footer, if needed. Save
the HTML files using SSI with the extension
".shtml".
Also, depending on how your server is set up with your
host, you may
have
to make sure the text file is in the same directory as
the .shtml
file.
This also makes the initial design and development
of web sites go much smoother. You can now have a
"template"
for each page
using the header and footer directives, and then
simply add the content in between for each page.
I guarantee that this little trick will save you
hours and hours of tedious work. As I stated at the
beginning, if
you've been
through these "simple" edits before, you
will need very little convincing! Don’t let that
ugly monster
ever rear
its head again!
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The author, Steve Wood, designs & hosts small
business websites.He owns & runs Wood Interactive http://woodinteractive.com
and RedHotHosting.com http://redhothosting.com.
RedHotHosting.com provides the best hosting services and
most generous
Reseller Program around. Check it out today for a free
trial! You can
contact Steve at
mailto:swood@woodinteract
ive.com
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