iframes vs. SSI

want to do one or the other, whats best option

[will1480]

I want to get away from DW template, but want to have consistant left nav, header, and footer. SSI seems decent, but putting load on server, and have to worry about .shtml vs. .html and not having all pages parsed by server. Seems like a pain if I am doing tons of pages. Would using iframe to make all headers, footers, left nave, and right banner be bad? What are advantages of this vs. not doing SSI. Really want to get away from DW templates (too many stupid problems over the years). Any advice would be helpful :)

[sonjay]

iframes put just as much load on the server as SSIs.... Meaning, for each iframe or SSI you use, there is an additional call to the server for the external file that needs to be loaded within the page. Okay, SSIs may put a slightly higher load on the server, since the page first has to be parsed for SSIs, but the whole thing, in either case, is minuscule. If your server is slowed down by either one, you need to upgrade your server, IMO.

SSIs are completely cross-platform cross-browser compatible and display in the browser completely seamlessly. They're probably more accessible than iframes, although off the top of my head I can't give any reasons why.

When I've had to use iframes, I've had issues with the width and height displaying differently across different browsers, and no matter what html or css declarations I used I simply could not get them to display properly in all the browsers I test in.

You can use SSIs in .html pages if your host allows it, or if your host allows you to put options directives in your .htaccess file.

I use SSIs for the top nav, left nav, footers, etc. (in conjunction with DW templates) on every site I work on. I can't even imagine trying to use iframes for that purpose.

[will1480]

well, I would use DW template with iframes. My site doesnt support NS4 anyway ( anyone viewing my site in NS4 need be shot! Those people have made the last couple years a pain in my a**).

Also, Im not sure I want/need all html files to be parsed, so creating the SSI directive for the htaccess file would require me naming every page. Also, I have tried playing around with htaccess files on my host...dont seem to always work, but I have little expierience with them to tell the truth. But seems that is the way to go. Thanks for the insight.

Although I would to never use templates at all, but they have their uses as a starting point for pages. As my web carreer expands, DW consistantly lacks what I want or need.

[tedster]

There's one major difference between iframes and SSI. Content in an iframe is not part of the HTML document - it is its own HTML document. That has implications for search engine indexing and for traffic that they might send directly to an iframed document -- you'll want to think through if you use the iframe route.

I also think iframes would be a poor choice for this use.

[will1480]

That is a great point. On that note alone I believe I should use SSI then. Thanks for the input.