Using Server-Side Include Commands for Subject Web-Page Management: An Alternative to Database-Driven Technologies for the Smaller Academic Library

Lori Northrup,Della Darby,Ed Cherry

doi:10.6017/ital.v23i4.9664

Abstract

Frustrated by the time-consuming process of updating subject Web pages, librarians at Samford University Library (SUL) developed a process for streamlining updates using Server-Side Include (SST) commands. They created text files on the library server that corresponded to each of 143 online resources. Include commands within the HTML document for each subject page refer to these text files, which are pulled into the page as it loads on the user's browser. For the user, the process is seamless. For librarians, time spent in updating Web pages is greatly reduced; changes to text files on the server result in simultaneous changes to the edited resources across the library's Web site. For small libraries with limited online resources, this process may provide an elegant solution to an ongoing problem.

Highlights

The evolution of this process for SUL moved rather quickly from inception to application, involving only slight changes to the library's normal processes for updating Web pages
SUL tested to see whether the use of SSI would result in longer page load times
SUL librarians feel that the user's connection speed has a larger effect on the page load time than the use of SSL

Summary

Include Commands

Include commands are a type of SSI code. Fagan explains that through using SSI codes, a Web author with no knowledge of programming can insert set groups of data into an HTML Web page. Constructed statements within the HTML page give the server a command to locate and insert a piece of information (a date, a text file, a program). The Web server executes SSI code before the Web page is transferred to the browser making the request. SSI directives work regardless of security or privacy controls in the browser, such as disabling JavaScript or cookies. Mach notes that this type of retrieval and substitution can be especially helpful for material that is used repeatedly on several library Web pages. There is a command that tells the server to locate the header and footer files and include them when the page is loaded on a browser. Changes appear on all pages that refer to the edited footer file

Library Literature on the Use of SSI

Later articles tend to mirror

Background

The Way SUL Does It Now

Findings

Conclusion