[Xitami] SSI

[Paul Reid]

> I want to create a drop down list in a form from items in a database.  I can code the CGI portion (i.e. grab the data out of the database and format the proper form code for the drop-down menu) but I can't quite make the final link to get the .SSI page to include this part.

SSI seems like a good idea but I notice that almost nobody uses
it. Needs grow until you reach a point that SSI either can't do
the job or the overhead chokes your CPU. 

Don't forget you can put the cart before the horse. Instead of a
static page that calls a program, you can call a program that
outputs static text with dynamic inserts. A half-way trick is to
use a Filter. 

I have a filter that reads static HTML and looks for magic tags.
When it finds a magic tag it grabs the parameter, looks for a
matching tag in a database, and inserts the data. That lets me
change a professor's biography and phone number one place and
have it appear on many pages. 

PHP is great for this kind of stuff (I shudda done it that way). 

You can also call a program in cgi-bin that outputs the whole
page, a mix of static and dynamic. The static can be hard-coded
but obviously it may be easier to maintain if it pulls the static
text from a template file (so the HTML maintainer does not step
on any C/Perl/VB code and break it). 

Most on-line ordering systems seem to directly call a cgi-bin EXE
or equivalent. 

 -PRR