Hantsweb Technical Guidelines

Server Side Includes

To enable Hampshire County Council to maintain a single image for corporate web pages we have implemented the use of Server Side Includes (SSI).
A Server Side Include is a variable (for example, a file "Last modified" date) that a server can include in an HTML file before it sends it to the user's web browser.
In Hantsweb, SSIs automatically insert the header and footers with all the appropriate icons and links. The Hantsweb Team control the SSIs and their usage is mandatory.

The implementation of SSIs is beneficial for Hampshire County Council because:

• From a corporate point of view, SSIs enable us to maintain and control the header and footers on a page quickly, with the minimum of disruption to you.
• From an individual web page editor's perspective, the introduction of SSIs makes it easier to create and subsequently edit web pages. After a page has been changed, the SSI even updates the date on the bottom of the page for you!
• SSIs enable the Hantsweb Manager to control the look of the page leaving you free to concentrate on providing useful content for your web visitors.

To enable SSIs to operate effectively, a number of special HTML comments need to be inserted at a specific location in individual web pages. This is shown on the Hantsweb SSI Template.

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