ASP including files

**Zvak** · 06-07-2005, 10:59 AM

Hi!
I'm trying to put to life my first more complex page. In it, I want to include a file in a div of my index.asp page. The problem is, that I want to put diferent inc files depending on the link that viewer choosed.

In W3school I found this:

The following script will not work because ASP executes the #include directive before it assigns a value to the variable:
<%
fname="header.inc"
%>


Now I know, what can't work. But what will? What would be the best solution to the problem?
I will apriciate the answer!
Zvak

**ExpressoDan** · 06-07-2005, 01:48 PM

The code you got from W3 by all acounts will work, best thing to do is learn by trial and error. Here are some more examples:

Virtual include (path relative to the site root)


File include: (path relative to the document)

**chrishirst** · 06-07-2005, 03:53 PM

ASP Includes

**Minaki** · 06-08-2005, 04:43 AM

Quote:

The code you got from W3 by all acounts will work

No it won't. He already explained why. Include's get included before any VBScript gets executed. Therefore, in the code above, the include will be looking for a file called "<%=fname%>" not "header.inc".
The reason it works this way is because one of the main uses of includes is to include files which contain functions shared by multiple ASP Pages.

Instead of using includes, provided the file you're including only contains static HTML and no ASP, you can write some code to read the contents of the file with ASP and write it back with Response.Write()

**chrishirst** · 06-08-2005, 05:05 AM

you can use conditionals. "if then " or "select case"

Code:

      <%
if CatID = 0 or isnull(CatID) then
%>
      <!--#include virtual="/include/page/inc_page_product_display.asp"-->
      <%
else
	if bUsePaging then  
%>
      <!--#include virtual="/include/page/inc_page_product_display_tn-paging.asp"-->
<%
	else
%>
      <!--#include virtual="/include/page/inc_page_product_display_tn.asp"-->
<%
	end if		  
end if
%>

Code:

<%
select case action
case "logon" 
%>
<!--#include virtual="/include/page/inc_page_logon.asp"-->
<%
case "reset" 
%>
<!--#include virtual="/include/page/inc_page_logon.asp"-->
<%
case "edit" 
%>
<!--#include virtual="/include/page/inc_page_edit.asp"-->
<%
case "update" 
%>
<!--#include virtual="/include/page/inc_page_updated.asp"-->
<%
case "new" 
%>
<!--#include virtual="/include/page/inc_page_added.asp"-->
<%
case "approve" 
%>
<!--#include virtual="/include/page/inc_page_confirm.asp"-->
<%
case "remove" 
%>
<!--#include virtual="/include/page/inc_page_leaving.asp"-->
<%
case else
%>
<!--#include virtual="/include/page/inc_page_register.asp"-->
<%
end select
%>

However all the includes will be parsed and included in the main file but only the one will be actioned.
Just be aware of variable names and scoping in the included files. use option explicit and ensure that anything common is declared in the parent page.

**ExpressoDan** · 06-08-2005, 08:50 AM

My sincerest apologize, it looked like a great idea to me but had never actually done that. I don’t mean to give false information, thank you for correcting me

D

**Zvak** · 06-14-2005, 06:08 AM

Thanks all of you. At the end I managed to find the solution by myself. I tried to do it with conditionals and it works... just like chrishirst sugested. The response.write solution seems like a good idea. I will try that next time.
Thanks anyway,
Zvak

**kline11** · 06-21-2005, 06:09 PM

So I guess a version using If Then statments won't be needed.