SSI with .shtml

[flatlander]

Hi,
I'm developing a website with a couple hundred pages and want to use SSI with .shtml extensions to include my header, footer and leftnav on all pages.

Question: Will using .shtml pages slow my server down enough that people will notice? I've read in some places that it will and others that it won't. Any suggestions?

Thanx,
Jill

[CyCo]

Question: Will using .shtml pages slow my server down enough that people will notice? I've read in some places that it will and others that it won't. Any suggestions?

Thanx,
Jill
I've used the same scenario you describe for years. I have never experienced any noticeable difference in performance. The key to seamless integration is to only include simple HTML/text files and let the server parse only .shtml files for the SSI's.

[flatlander]

Thanks Cyco,
Yeah - that's what I'll be doing. Probably have a few hundred .shtml pages that parse .html pages for a header (images and rollover links), left nav (text links) and footer (text links). I only want to design it once!

Have you tried or heard about "html file preprocessors"?
http://software.rosenlundnielsen.dk/software/product_includehtml.php
http://dorward.me.uk/software/dolt/

Wondering if that's a better option to take or if I should just stick with the .shtml includes.

Thanks,
Jill

[felgall]

I use SSI includes on most of my web pages and have the pages using the .htm suffix so that it is not obvious to visitors that they use includes.

[CyCo]

Wondering if that's a better option to take or if I should just stick with the .shtml includes.
I have "toyed" with the other options you listed, but since I have always used Apache webservers, SSI has been the easiest all-around method for me. To each his/her own... ;)