HTML Help

tanvi · Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Posts: 2

Hi Folks,
I am a designer so i dont have pretty much idea of coding but recently while surfing, i read about .shtml.
So can u guys tell me wht is .shtml?
How is it different from html and dhtml?
How much would a .shtml site will cost?
I will be glad with your responses.
Thank You
Tanvi

Corey Bryant · Posted: Thu Jun 30, 2005 4:18 am

SHTML is HTML that is basically processed on the server prior to it being served in the browser. You can use it to include files to help you wiht easy changes.

For example, you can create a nav.html file to be included into an SHTML file. And then, when you add a new page, instead of changing ten pages, you only need to change one page. And then your nav will be updated on all pages. As far as building a site with SHTML - it is still HTML, but it is parsed on the server.

Some more information:
.shtml extensions
Server Side Includes (SSI) Tutorial
What is SSI?
Server Side Includes (SSI)

For DHTML, a great reference can be found here.

tanvi · Joined: 30 Jun 2005 Posts: 2

hi corey,
thanks for your information.
It was a great help.
Thanks again
But to the square one again, does anyone have slightest idea that how much will a .shtml site cost? I want to make one thats why i want to know

Corey Bryant · Posted: Fri Jul 01, 2005 4:12 am

Well how many pages? What do you charge per hour? How long does it take you take make each page? Or do you charge per page? How long does it take you to do a page? You are using SHTML to include the nav, footer, header? This is the advantage to using SHTML but remember - the reast of the coding is HTML / XHTML

adalea · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4

I am a web designer and just came across someone asking about shtml. I tried pulling it into dreamweaver but it looked as though the page would pull from another source to show content.

Can you please explain shtml and how to set up a common shtml scenario to give me a better idea on how to create an shtml environment or at least how to edit one?

Thanks. -A

sticks464 · Joined: 31 Dec 2006 Posts: 2627

shtml is a short term that means 'server html' or SSI (server side includes). It means one file is calling another file on the server to be disp;layed within another file. A good short example would be a website that has 40 pages. If you delete one or more pages and they were linked to from each page, you would have to edit the menu for the remaining 38 pages. A simple way would be to use SSI and have the menu on a separate page being called from each of the 38 pages. Then you only edit one age, the menu page.
This is a shtml page. It get the doctype, head section, body and ending tags.
Code: <!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/html4/strict.dtd">
<html>
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
<title>Page Title here</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Language" content="en-us" />
</head>
<body>

</body>
</html>

This is the menu page. This content is all it gets.
Code: <ul>
<li><a href="#">Link 1</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link 2</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link 3</a></li>
<li><a href="#">Link 4</a></li>
</ul>

Once the statement  is put on the first page, it is no longer an html file, it is shtml. All that has to be done is change the file extention.
The second page (menu.html) remains the same with an html extention.

This technique is good for making changes that effect more than one or two pages to reduce edit time and the change is sitewide. Changes are made only to the html page and not the shtml pages.

adalea · Joined: 23 Nov 2007 Posts: 4

So then in the .shtml file it will list what html file is the source to edit? If so, then once you edit that html file, and upload it to the server... it automatically makes the changes?

Thanks for your help! Great explanation.
-A

Corey Bryant · Posted: Sat Nov 24, 2007 7:46 am

Basically, SSI works similar to frames - but much better. There is also an FAQ included content besides the links above (if they even still work.

The server parses the file on the server, includes the content before it is rendered on the browser. Some WYSIWYG editors will show the included content for you as well.

_________________
Corey
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