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SSI Directives: Overview

1. The SSI statement must be within the text of a web page.
2. An SSI looks a bit like an HTML comment:

    

   <!--#element attribute=value attribute=value ... -->

    

3. The web server must support SSI (Apache and IIS both do, to one extent or another)
4. Enabling server side includes increases the potential for security breaches on the server.
5. The web server must be configured to allow server side directives to run
6. The web server must be configured to recoginze a specific document type or extension (*.shtm, or *.shtml)

Enabling Server Side Includes (SSI) in Apache:

1. Open the httpd.conf file, or create/edit the .htaccess in the directory where want want to enable Server Side Includes (SSI).
2. Add the following server configuration directive:
   

    

   Options +Includes

   Options IncludesNOEXEC

   
   
3. Define a file type that will contain directives to reduce server workload:
   

    

   AddType text/html .shtm

   AddOutputFilter INCLUDES .shtm

   
   
4. Rename existing files to have a .shtm file extension (or whatever extension you used).
5. If you used a .htaccess file, be sure to reset the file permissions after editing it so that it is non-writeable again. A world-writeable .htaccess file is a security risk.

SSI Directives Cheatsheet