SSI Includes

How to embed CGI scripts in HTML files

In order to embed CGI scripts, first find if your web hosting company supports Server Side Include (SSI). Call or email your tech support to find this. [If you're hosting on Bluehost, yes they support SSI]

• Create a new .htaccess file or open the existing .htaccess file in the same directory where you want your SSI includes to exist
• Add these two lines

  AddType text/html .html
  AddHandler server-parsed .html

• You may want to add this line if you want to execute Perl scripts ending in .pl or .cgi

  AddHandler cgi-script pl cgi

Testing the SSI include

Lets create a file called ssi.html that embeds a Perl script date.pl. This Perl script outputs the current date and time when executed.

• Create ssi.html with these contents:

  <h1>SSI Test</h1>
  
  <!--#exec cmd="date.pl"-->
  

• Create date.pl in the same directory with these contents:

  #!/usr/bin/perl -w
  
  print `date`;
  

• If your CGI script is in another directory, you can call it from the HTML page using the include virtual directive

  <h1>SSI Test</h1>
  
  <!--#include virtual="/demo/date.pl"-->
  

• Make the script executable with by chmodding date.pl with +x or FTP client or whatever CP you use to access your files

Demo

Check out the working demo here.

Last Update: 2007