SSI

WebSTAR SSI provides a great deal of power and flexibility to your web site. You can use these commands to include header or footer files, to show dates and page access counters, to show and hide parts of web pages based on the date or the browser's IP address, to launch CGIs or call Plug-Ins, and more. For complete information, see WebSTAR SSI .

This panel allows you to set certain SSI options in the WebSTAR Admin application.

In the Browser Admin, use the WebSTAR SSI Plug-In Page to set these options.

Default Character Set

When WebSTAR SSI processes HTML text that uses special characters (not in the simple HTML character set), WebSTAR SSI must encode them for transmission to browsers.

Normal (no character translation)

Does no translation or encoding, so characters may not be represented correctly in the client browser. You should only select this option if your site is set up this way (for Kanji or other characters which should not be encoded again) and browsers are properly configured.

Latin 1 (ISO - 8859 - 1)

Encodes according to the ISO specification. This should work correctly for most browsers and other clients. This is the default setting.

7-bit ASCII

Converts special characters by removing the "8th bit".

Data Caching

WebSTAR SSI can take advantage of the WebSTAR Data Cache . This means that the data processed by the WebSTAR SSI, such as modification dates, text included from other files, and text created by CGIs, will be stored in the Data Cache for future use. This allows SSI to reuse data rather than regenerate it every time.

The default for SSI Data Caching is On . If you have dynamic data that should always be generated on-the-fly, set this option to Off .

#Exec and #Include Command Security

While WebSTAR SSI is extremely powerful, it has some security implications. The #exec and #include commands let include other files and run scripts, CGIs and applications. However, if you allow other people to upload files to your server, they could then use these commands to act without your knowledge. These security options help you restrict access and limit your vulnerability.

See also: SSI Command List .

Disable commands

Disallows #exec and #include commands--they are not processed, and an error is inserted into the HTML comment, so you can see it if you view the source.

This is the default setting.

Restrict use of commands to /CGI-BIN/SSI/

The WebSTAR SSI Plug-In will only allow these commands if the files to be executed are included are in the cgi-bin folder's ssi subfolder. As long as you limit access to that folder, no one can use these commands to change your site.

To avoid complicating your site organization, you can put the files in the normal folders, and place aliases to them in the cgi-bin:ssi folder.

Allow unrestricted use of commands

If you are the only person with upload access to your server, you may want to remove all restrictions and use the commands freely throughout the server. With this option checked, WebSTAR SSI can include the contents of files from anywhere on your hard drive, or on any mounted volume.