Error Processing SHTML Includes

**html911rap** · 07-10-2009, 01:24 PM

Tried - no joy ... verified that changes for sol. #2 were not corrupting results.

Since solution 2 works - and Vet Doctor behind medical info has new material for me to include anyway - i won't try the temp fix (solution 1) but will include the new material/structure.

**html911rap** · 07-10-2009, 07:43 PM

Minor problem: created .php's as per solution 2 in a 'test' directory but the HTML 'anchor' function works differently than previously (ie before usage of .php's).

Have a 'TOP' linkage on most pages with the 'anchor' defined above the nav bar include ... but the link goes to the 'line' below the nav bar.

Tried moving the anchor immediately after the <body> tag but doesn't help.

EG Website: www.dvmvac.com/testsite ... click on "Vaccine Types" then scroll to bottom and click on "TOP". Moves to 'almost top'

Should I open a thread in the HTML Forum?

**hairygunther** · 07-11-2009, 06:32 AM

You haven't made it clear what your page suffix is - I am guessing it is a simple .shtml file, which it should be. i.e. the file on which the tag is, the file giving the processing error.

I think that if it was working fine and then suddenly stopped there is only one place to look - the configuration. In httpd.conf is where the server is instructed to treat .shtml (or whatever suffixes you/admin choose) as an executable.

If it suddenly stopped working after years of working fine and there were definitely no changes at your end it makes sense to go look at the configuration file. The only way I can think of that it would start serving that error message would be if the .shtml suffix has, for some reason, ceased being treated as an executable.

The support of your host are a bunch of talentless gits. You should push them harder, talk to the sales team and tell them that if this isn't resolved immediately you'll move to a better host. They are definitely to blame. Crazy excuses about caches are just some random rubbish. I remember some gits tried to rob me by taking 8 dollars from me to sell me 1000s of hits, but the hits never came and they sent me a stupid email saying that their delivery system was so fast that ordinary tracking systems would miss it!!!!! I swore at them quite a lot. Then I told paypal to give me my money back - after the briefest of investigations, paypal gave me my money back.

If it was working fine and then suddenly stopped, I reckon it must be the httpd.conf file. If that doesn't have .shtml set up properly, I don't know what does.

There is one thing that I find weird with your stuff - .shtml pages contain a tag like yours, but that tag should lead to a cgi script, not another .shtml. So what is the coding on your other .shtml files which is being called up? I think personally that's what I find very odd about your case. Maybe it is partly at your end - maybe you were getting away with bad programming and an update to their server has closed that hole. Maybe all you need is for your include tags to be pointing at backend scripts, since that is what you are supposed to do...

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/ssi.html

Quote:

Basic SSI directives

SSI directives have the following syntax:

It is formatted like an HTML comment, so if you don't have SSI correctly enabled, the browser will ignore it, but it will still be visible in the HTML source. If you have SSI correctly configured, the directive will be replaced with its results.
The element can be one of a number of things, and we'll talk some more about most of these in the next installment of this series. For now, here are some examples of what you can do with SSI
Today's date


The echo element just spits out the value of a variable. There are a number of standard variables, which include the whole set of environment variables that are available to CGI programs. Also, you can define your own variables with the set element.
If you don't like the format in which the date gets printed, you can use the config element, with a timefmt attribute, to modify that formatting.

Today is 
Modification date of the file

This document last modified 
This element is also subject to timefmt format configurations.
Including the results of a CGI program

This is one of the more common uses of SSI - to output the results of a CGI program, such as everybody's favorite, a ``hit counter.''

**hairygunther** · 07-11-2009, 06:42 AM

Quote:

Configuring your server to permit SSI

Quote:

To permit SSI on your server, you must have mod_include installed and enabled. Additionally, you must have the following directive either in your httpd.conf file, or in a .htaccess file:
Options +Includes

Looks like you can indeed configure ssi from a .htaccess file, so that's probably where the work should be done. I reckon. It just seems wrong to not figure out why it went wrong and to look to bypass the problem. A machine is a rational object, whose activities can always be explained.

If it was working and then it stopped, it is your duty (indeed) to figure out why it stopped and get it working the way it was working before! The reason I learned this thoroughly was because I had to deal with hackers, and that's a situation where in the end you just have to know exactly what went wrong, where and why. Until you do that, you have an open breach. It may seem less important with your problem, but what happens if whatever the problem is deepens and you can't run other stuff, later? Then what will B.H. tell you? That it must have been something you've done?

**html911rap** · 12:53 PM

Firstly, with the help of 'extended' BH support personnel found the 'include' being used was incorrect ... instead of:

it should be:

Quote:

Understand why this works but don't underastand why the old version used to work ... may be due to BH 'tightening' directory/configuration rules. Anyway, the current website is now 'error free'.

Secondly, understand why the 'top' anchor works differently ... so can continue testing new structure...

But have a question about where DOCTYPE,html, head, etc 'tags' should be in:

Quote:

<?php

include('overall_header.html');

include('index.html');

include('overall_footer.html');

?>