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Dreamweaver 4 and Server Side Includes

Problems Getting Them to Work

         

jimh009

6:41 am on Apr 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

10+ Year Member



Hello,

Thought I had server side includes figured out, but problems have arisen that I suspect is with Dreamweaver and have no idea how to fix it.

Here's what happens. I created a .txt file to hold menu items. Insert it as a file using Server Side Includes using the dreamweaver command. The SSI displays properly both in the work environment and then when displayed intially in IE, so nothing seems to be wrong with the actual .txt file. However, once a link is clicked on that links to another page that also uses Server Side Includes in the menu system, the SSI does not display on that page. Have tried a multitude of things to fix it but nothing seems to work.

OK, here's some more information. My Server Side Includes work properly when all the necessary pages/files have been uploaded to the actual web server. The pages with SSI in them are saved as .shtm files, by the way. Thus, the problem comes in the form of actually viewing the SSI's when previewing the pages before they are uploaded to the server (previewing the pages off my own home computer). The initial menu will appear, but once a link is clicked on that leads to another page with SSI's, the SSI is not included for some reason. Anyone have any ideas on how to configure dreamweaver to display the SSI's properly during this testing phase?

Any ideas what could be going on? Seems like one of those strange little things that is probably easy to fix once you know how to do it.

Thanks.

Jim

4eyes

11:36 am on Apr 30, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



It does the same for me.

I just assumed that DW worked that way and kind of assembled the SSI stuff as a one-off in the page preview process.

But I don't know for sure. Its not a major problem for me, so I never invesitgated further.

anyone?

caine

11:37 am on May 5, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



As far as i am aware DW 4 was never capable of this, regarding external files.

I believe this issue has been dealt with in DW MX, which has a far better, and more comprehensive interface for dealing with SSI's.

jamie

11:51 am on May 5, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



jim,

you might want to consider installing a mini webserver on your windows machine. that way you can preview your whole website looking exactly how it would online, without needing to fiddle with dreamweaver.

try foxserv.com

i've had it for two weeks and it has already saved me hours of work otherwise spent uploading and refreshing webpages.

you can test php and cgi and fiddle with apache settings - great fun :-)

caine

11:58 am on May 5, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member



never thought of that, an alternate idea, if your on a 98 box is to fire up the PWS, which is on the disk, or if your on a 2k box to fire up the IIS server which is also on the disk.

The PWS is also on the 2k, infitely easier to get going, though both the IIS and PWS will take a bit of leg work, more so with IIS, but once you've cracked it you can even host, or certianly have a local / remote testing environment for yourselve.

jamie

12:09 pm on May 5, 2003 (gmt 0)

WebmasterWorld Senior Member 10+ Year Member Top Contributors Of The Month



re the dreamweaver issue:

the problem is that the very first preview is a tmp file which is run through dreamweaver enabling the ssi to be shown.

once you click on a link you are taken to a normal version of your html page which has nothing to do with dreamweaver - i.e. it is the same as opening that file in any browser - which is why the ssi doesn't appear.

the only way to get round this afaik is to set up a server of sorts which has ssi enabled in the configuration settings.

caine - never thought of the personal web server - another one to investigate! cheers