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The below notes will demonstrates how to enable SSI on your server using .htaccess.
If you are paying for hosting services you may need to get permission from your host to make sure you are not violating their Terms of Service which could result in you getting the boot! Every decent host supports SSI but double-check to make sure.
To enable SSI either create a file simple called .htaccess or edit your existing .htaccess file and place the following code in it:
AddType text/html .shtml
AddHandler server-parsed .shtml
Options Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes
Note: to enable SSI for your full web site place the .htaccess in the root directory of your site; to enable it for just a certain directory place the .htaccess file only in that particular directory.
The first line of the code above tells the server that .shtml is a valid extension. The second line adds a handler to all pages with the .shtml extension which tells the server to parse (process) the document for server side includes.
If you prefer you can use a different file extension for your files which you want parsed for server side includes. Simply change the .shtml to .shtm etc. If you also want your .htm documents parsed by the server (so you don't need to rename all your files) simply add the following after the first line of the code above:
AddHandler server-parsed .htm
If you want to use SSI in your default directory page, such as index.shtml you may (but normally won't) need to add the following to the .htaccess file:
DirectoryIndex index.shtml index.htm
This means that index.shtml can be your default page. If this page is not found the server will look for index.htm etc. More on this in the .htaccess guides section.
>>SSI Without .shtml
In order to understand what this use of htaccess can do for you, you have to understand what SSI directives are. (SSI directives are covered in the How To Use Your CGI-BIN page.) You can put an SSI directive tag in your Web page, but that doesn't mean the server will look for it. Looking through an html file for SSI directives is called "parsing", and by default a server doesn't parse every html file. It only parses pages that have a .shtml extension.
Dilemma:
You want to start using SSI directives in your Web pages to call a script or display certain things on the pages. Your host requires that pages with SSI directives have a .shtml extension. However, over time all of your pages have been linked to and indexed by search engines using their current .html extensions. If you change the extensions to comply with your host, a lot of people will start getting 404 errors.
htaccess to the rescue! Certain htaccess statements allow you to tell the server to parse certain pages that don't have a .shtml extension.
If you created the htaccess.txt file above, simply add the statements given below to it and re-ftp/rename it. If you didn't, here are the steps:
1. Use a text editor to create an htaccess.txt file and enter the following statements into it:
AddType text/html .html
AddHandler server-parsed .html
replacing .html with .htm if that's what you are using for your pages.
2. Save the file and ftp it (using ASCII mode) to your Web root directory (or whatever directory your index.html file is in).
3. Rename the htaccess.txt file on the server to .htaccess
4. Try it out by entering a URL for one of the pages that contains an SSI directive and see if it's working.
The above can be thought of as the "directory method" method for enabling SSI parsing because all files in the directory with the specified extension will be parsed, including files in any sub-directories. SSI parsing does have a small performance price due to all this parsing. If your site has a lot of traffic and a lot of pages that performance price could add up. What if you have a lot of traffic and a lot of pages but you only have a few files that you want parsed? Then you'd want to use XBitHack which is covered in the next section.
Not all hosts allow you to use a .htaccess file. They have to use an AllowOverride statement in one of the global configuration files. Ask your host, or a potential host, if they allow the use of .htaccess files. If so, also ask if they allow the use of XbitHack. If they so 'No' to the question of htaccess, pleading with them to enable it on your server may work, especially if you sound like you know what you're talking about (which this page will help you to do).
A .htaccess file is a very powerful tool. You can use it to set up password-protected directories, change the way Apache responds to certain events, etc. The flip side of that is that you can really hose things up or give unintended access to visitors if you're not careful. You may want to try out your attempts with .htaccess during low-traffic times on your Website so that any problems can be corrected without affecting too many visitors.
Note also that the very fact that this is a very powerful tool may be reason enough for some hosting services not to allow you to use it. A hosting service sets up multiple "virtual" Web servers so multiple domains can be hosting on a single system (each domain having it's own virtual Web server). They do this by adding statements (aka directives) to the main Apache configuration file (named httpd.conf). When they add these virtual server directives they must include the directive to enable htaccess functionality. If you try the above and it doesn't work, chances are good your host doesn't have the htaccess function enabled.
What is XBitHack
----------------
XBitHack (pronounced "X bit hack") is simply one of those htaccess configuration statements mentioned above. If you're not willing to put up with the performance costs of the "directory method" for enabling parsing of non-.shtml pages covered above, think of XBitHack as a "file method". This is because you can specify on a file-by-file basis which non-.shtml files get parsed.
Using XBitHack for this "file method" has two steps:
* turn on XBitHack by adding the statement to your .htaccess file
* "flag" the html pages you want parsed by changing their permissions to something a little out of the ordinary
If you created the htaccess.txt file above, simply add the statement given below to it and re-ftp/rename it to enable XBitHack. If your .htaccess file contains the AddType and AddHandler statements from above, REMOVE THEM. If you didn't create the file earlier, here are the steps to enabling XBitHack:
1. Use a text editor to create an htaccess.txt file and enter the following statement into it:
XBitHack on
2. Save the file and ftp it (using ASCII mode) to your Web root directory (or whatever directory your index.html file is in).
3. Rename the htaccess.txt file to .htaccess
4. CHMOD the page files, and only the page files, that you want parsed (i.e. that will contain SSI directives) to 744 (instead of 644). This is what tells the server to parse the page.
5. Try it out by entering a URL for one of the pages that contains an SSI directive and see if it's working.
If it doesn't work, check your error log for a message like
XBitHack not allowed here
It is possible that your host allows htaccess but not XBitHack. If you don't find the above error, you'll have to contact your host's technical support operation. However, by knowing what htaccess and XBitHack are, you can ask them intelligent questions regarding your problem. When they realize you know what you are talking about, they will be less likely to feed you a line of BS. Also, don't be surprised if the support person you speak to doesn't know what you are talking about. First-line technical support and sales people are usually entry-level jobs in an organization. If you get the sense they don't know what you are talking about, ask to speak to a more senior support person who does.
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