I got in touch with my website host and resolved this issue and will
document it below. -- BT

----- Original Message -----
From: "BT" <no@xnono.com>
Newsgroups: alt.apache.configuration
Sent: 02/16/2007 6:22 PM
Subject: Configuring Apache for SSI


>I support a website and I am trying to clean up my pages with some simple
>Server Side Includes to handle sections of content that are common to all
>pages like headers, footers, links, etc. Based on some research, this
>should
>be about the simplest application of SSI.
>
>The html aspect of this seems very straightforward. I have a file called
>leftinclude.htm that has a simple list of links bracketed by <div></div>
>tags. This file is in a folder in the root directory called /includes .
>The in my web page(s) I have added a line
>
> <!--#include file="includes/leftinclude.htm" -->
>
>where I want the include file info to appear.


The HTML in the page file and in the Include as shown above work fine.


>Now I just need to figure out how to configure the server to do the
>includes and I'm very confused. I went thru the SSI tutorial at apache.org
>and found things like mod_include and XBitHack, but I'm afraid I just
>don't get it.

>I will be most appreciative if someone can walk me through this process. I
>have some specific questions that I THINK I need to know, but I'm not even
>sure about that. If I'm way off-track, ignore my questions and point me in
>the right direction. Anyway here is what I think I need to know:
>
>1)Apache tutorial says ... "you must have mod_include installed and
>enabled". How can I tell if this is installed and enabled? How do I
>install and enable it if it isn't?



My hosting company tells me that the site is enabled up for SSI. I can't
confirm this by finding mod_include, but it sounds like it goes in an
Admin area I don't have access to.


>2)Apache tutorial says ... "you must have the following directive either in
>your httpd.conf file, or in a .htaccess file: Options +Includes ..." I
>don't find a file named httpd.conf and I have a file called .htaccess in
>the root directory, but it is an empty, 0 bit size file. Do I just type:
>
>Options +Includes
>
>into .httpd and forget about httpd.conf ?


I typed two lines into .htaccess ...
XbitHack on
Options +Includes
.... I don't know if both lines are needed, but it's working. It looks like
the
other file, httpd.cong is unavailable to me and is also set up by the host.
I couldn't find it and didn't do anything to it.


>3)Apache tutorial says ... "to add SSI directives to an existing page,
>rather than having to
>change the file name, you would just need to make the file executable using
>chmod
>
>chmod +x pagename.html
>
>Since I want to keep my file extensions, it seems that I will need to use
>XBitHack. Where do I put the directive "XBitHack on" and how do I "make the
>file executable using chmod"?


I set the file permissions of the page file to User, Group and World
by checking Read, Write and Execute in the cpanel File Manager
using the 'Change Permissions' option. SmartFTP can also change
these permissions, so the UNIX chmod isn't required. I also set the
permission of .htaccess the same way, but I doubt that this is necessary.


>Here is some possibly relevant info:
>
>Our site is hosted on Apache version 1.3.37 (Unix).
>
>My page extensions are htm and I hope not to have to change them to shtm
>or shtml.
>
>Apache tutorial - http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/ssi.html
>
>Module mod_include - http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/mod/mod_include.html
>
>
>many, many thanks, BT
>