Server Side Includes

#1 (**permalink**) 08-28-2008, 07:16 PM

I am just starting to use SSIs and am having a hard time understanding them. I
was able to create one but one of the images doesn't show up.

The SSI is going to be the "header" with the websites main graphic. I have set
it up as a table with three rows. The first row contains the main graphic. I
simply did a drag and drop and it shows up. The second row contains a
background image with text over it. The third row contains a graphic which is
also a background image.

The images in the 2nd and 3rd row show up fine. However the main graphic in
the first row doesn't show up at all whether I do a drag and drop or set it up
as a background image.

I have said the file as a .shtml and then went to the page I wanted to include
it in and did the Edit>Insert>Server Side Include. I am using DreamWeaverCS3. I
also made sure that there was no head or body tags in the SSI file. So I'm sort
of at a loss here. I really want to use SSIs. I have built two websites using
templates and both sites have over 200 pages. I really need to get up to speed
on this and am having a hard time understanding it. Any help would be greatly
appreciated.

#2 (**permalink**) 08-28-2008, 07:30 PM

Are the included files located in the same directory as the parent file. One thing you must remember when using SSI is that resources are referenced from the point of view of the parent file.

#3 (**permalink**) 08-28-2008, 09:56 PM

I asked this already but did not get an answer. Are the included files located
in the same directory as the parent file? One thing you must remember when
using SSI is that resources are referenced from the point of view of the parent
file.

Looking at your code, I'm guessing the parent and included file are not in the
same directory. If your include file is not using root relative paths to the
image, you will have a problem.

#4 (**permalink**) 08-28-2008, 10:34 PM

Murray -

here is the code for the Header.shtml:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<table width="956" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td height="100"><img src="NewMasthead3.jpg" alt="MCC" width="960"
height="96" /></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td background="Graphics/BckBar.jpg"><table width="958" border="1"
cellpadding="0">
<tr background="../Graphics/BckBar.jpg">
<td width="96"><div align="center"><a href="http://www.mocatholic.org"
style="color:#FFFFFF">Home</a></div></td>
<td width="103"><div align="center"><a
href="http://www.mocatholic.org" style="color:#FFFFFF">About Us</a></div></td>
<td width="102"><div align="center"><a
href="http://www.mocatholic.org"
style="color:#FFFFFF">Legislative</a></div></td>
<td width="103"><div align="center"><a
href="http://www.mocatholic.org" style="color:#FFFFFF">Elections</a></div></td>
<td width="106"><div align="center"><a
href="http://www.mocatholic.org" style="color:#FFFFFF">Issue
Areas</a></div></td>
<td width="99"><div align="center"><a href="http://www.mocatholic.org"
style="color:#FFFFFF">News</a></div></td>
<td width="107"><div align="center"><a
href="http://www.mocatholic.org"
style="color:#FFFFFF">Publications</a></div></td>
<td width="101"><div align="center"><a
href="http://www.mocatholic.org" style="color:#FFFFFF">Bishops</a></div></td>
<td width="101"><div align="center"><a
href="http://www.mocatholic.org" style="color:#FFFFFF">Contact Us</a></div></td>
</tr>
</table></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td background="Graphics/BckBar.jpg"
class="BlueBar"> </td>
</tr>
</table>

I understand that foo.poo meant anything but figured that you meant this to
refer to another subfile and I wasn't sure where the subfile would come into
play.

Bregent:

Sorry I didn't respond but I don't understand the question. Like I said I'm
very dense when it comes to SSI for some reason. The way I have it set up on my
machine is everything is in the same root directory. That's the way I learned
it. I'm using DreamWeaver and am on XP Pro. Just to be clear when your refer to
"directory as the parent file" you are referring to the directory the entire
website is in and not to a file "folder" that I am saving files to?

Ugh, I don't mean to take up so much of everyone's time but this is making me
nuts!

#5 (**permalink**) 08-28-2008, 11:19 PM

>The way I have it set up on my machine is everything is in the same root
directory.

It doesn't look that way. It looks like your includes are in an SSI directory:

#6 (**permalink**) 08-28-2008, 11:38 PM

Bergent:

So, my SSI should not be in a separate file folder within the directory? It
should be in the main file folder? Just trying to make sure I understand.

Murray,

I'm double checking everything.

Thanks to both of you!

Kathleen

#7 (**permalink**) 08-28-2008, 11:45 PM

>So, my SSI should not be in a separate file folder within the directory?
>It should be in the main file folder?
>Just trying to make sure I understand.

You have a choice. You can keep it in a different folder but use root relative
paths, as Murray outlined for you. Or, you can keep it in the same root folder.
I would go with option #1.

#8 (**permalink**) 08-29-2008, 01:15 AM

Bregent:

Can you please define "root relative paths" or give me an example?

#9 (**permalink**) 08-29-2008, 01:28 AM

a href="../folder/file.html" is document relative
a href="/folder/file.html" is site root relative (always starts with a
leading /slash)
a href="http://example.com/folder/file.html" is an absolute path

In the bottom of the "browse to file" dialog box, there is a pulldown to
choose between "relative to document" and "relative to site root"

there are also some preferences for this in the Site Definition.
--
Alan
Adobe Community Expert, dreamweaver

http://www.adobe.com/communities/experts/

#10 (**permalink**) 08-29-2008, 05:07 PM

Thanks everyone for your help. This has been quite a learning experience for me! I think I understand this now. Hopefully I'll get everything to work this weekend. Thanks so much!

Kathleen

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