Also need help with drop-down menus

**joelwills** · May 1, 2001, 06:20

Hi all,

This is similar to the previous thread. I am trying to use an SSinclude to insert my menu information (not the .js file) in the head section. Again, this is so I don't have to update every page.

However I get an error at the body tag, where I need to do
OnLoad="init()"

If I copy and paste the contents of the include into the html it works fine. Theoretically, this is all that the SSI is doing and so it should work.

Does anybody know what I'm doing wrong? Thanks in advance!

**SLeon** · May 1, 2001, 06:28

I have done this exact thing that you are trying to do with no problem at all. You do have to put <body onload="init()"> into every page using the menu, do you have that? And the SSI for the menu is included inside the head tag? Can you give more details about exactly what you're doing and what might be causing it?

**joelwills** · May 1, 2001, 07:43

Thanks for your help Sarah.

Basically I am using a menu on my site www.joelwills.com which is from dynamic drive. The javascript controls are in a file called navcond.js which is called from the script. At the moment I have the script inside the <head> section. I have just cut this out (including the link to navcond.js) and put it into a text doc withthe extension .inc.
I have then replaced it with the <!-- #include file="menu.inc"> statement and it no longer works.

I am just testing it on one page at the moment. I hope that's clear, probably a simple mistake somewhere, but where!

Thanks again for all your help

**SLeon** · May 1, 2001, 11:34

Try using <!-- #include virtual="menu.inc"> instead. I have used that exact same script in that exact same way, but with the virtual include. Works for me. The only other difference that I can see is that you're using a .inc extension for the name of the file you want to include, while I used .html.

**creole** · May 1, 2001, 11:54

a few things to check

1) Upper/lower case. Are you using the right filename?

2) Are you referring to the right file?

3) Is the path to the included file correct?

4) SLeon's answer is probably the right one though.

It should be 

Make sure that there is NO space between the # and the word include.

**joelwills** · May 1, 2001, 11:55

Thanks (to both of you!) - that works now!!

**joelwills** · May 2, 2001, 10:05

HI - if you're still subscibed to this thread, maybe you can help with the next bit!

I am trying to use the same menu.html for all my pages, such as those within other directories. How do I write the include to look at the menu.html which is on the root?

 doesn't work, and neither does using virtual. Any ideas???

Thanks again!

**SLeon** · May 2, 2001, 12:40

OK. I'm just going to ask a couple of stupid questions, to make sure that something hasn't been totally overlooked.

Is the file that you're doing the include file from named with the .shtml extension?

Is SSI enabled on your server?

I'm really stumped as to what could be making this not work for you. You can use SSI to include a file that's anywhere on your server. I admit that the difference between "file" and "virtual" confuses me, so I tend to just use "virtual" and it works.

Also make sure that your syntax on the include command is exactly right, being careful of spaces and all that as creole mentioned earlier. Should be

**creole** · May 2, 2001, 13:05

a few things:

1) You may want to try renaming the included file to something ofther than .html. I seem to recall having difficulty including HTML files. Try .txt or .ssi.

2) Keep in mind that unless your shtml files are all on the same directory you can't use the identical include on every one of them.

for example:

/root/includes/file.ssi (this is the file to be included)

/index.html (the index file of the site)


/root/aboutus/index.html


/root/products/index.html


/root/products/widget/index.html


OK, this is a mock structure. If you had your site set up like this, then you would have to use 3 different include calls as listed.

Tell you what? Try these out, then if they don't work, give us the error message and I'll figure it out from there.

**joelwills** · May 3, 2001, 01:19

Thanks again.

I have done everything both of you have suggested and have solved it finally!

No idea what was causing my problem, but when I did it by hand (I was using Dreamweaver) it now works. Strange, but some things are best done in Notepad.
Also using 'virtual' doesn't work for me (I get an SSI error), but using 'file' does! I don't understand the difference either.

FYI I also needed the navcond.js file in every directory, but I already had that, so that wasn't causing the problem.

Thanks once again to both of you for your time, you've really helped me out

**creole** · May 3, 2001, 06:04

hehe...

Joel, this page looks like it might be the answer to your file vs virtual problem.

http://www.stars.com/Authoring/SSI/Intro/include.html

An excerpt from this page:
file gives a pathname relative to the current directory. ../ cannot be used in this pathname, nor can absolute paths be used.

and

virtual gives a virtual path to a document on the server.

So, basically, if you are trying to use file to go UP a directory it won't work. File starts from the current directory and ONLY allows you to go deeper.

Virtual, on the other hand, starts from the servers root meaning that you could go all the way to / and go down into another directory.

See if that works.

**shane** · May 4, 2001, 14:30

This is server type dependent somewhat, as MS IIS does support the use of :



If joel is using MS PWS for testing then that may explain some of his problems, as PWS doesn't support virtual includes.

**joelwills** · May 7, 2001, 10:09

Still not working!

I am using MS PWS which may be a problem when testing. SSI works fine either using file or virtual if the .shtml files are under the main public_html directory, however, not when located in any other directory. Let me give you an example. I have the structure:

public_html -
------------ includes
-------------------- include1.html
------------ directory
-------------------- example.shtml

I cannot seem to call include1.html from example.shtml

I am trying to use  as suggested on the page creole gave me the link to. According to that page:

Using this method, you can create all of your HTML pages with the same include, place them in various directories and sub-directories, and the server will be able to find your include; no error messages.

I don't get error messages (unless I'm trying to include the javascript menu), but no information either. Does anyone know where I'm going wrong? It's driving me crazy. SSI definitley work on my server, so that's not the problem!

**creole** · May 7, 2001, 12:59

so, when your included files don't appear you don't get a "directive not processed error?" It would appear right in the HTML itself, not as a popup.

**joelwills** · May 8, 2001, 01:15

That's right, I just get nothing. I get an error message using PWS, but as Shane mentions, that must be due to PWS not supporting virtual includes.

Good hey?

**Scot-Bot** · May 8, 2001, 02:47

Get rid of the space between the "<!--" and the "#". This causes problems on Unix servers.

**joelwills** · May 9, 2001, 09:45

Thanks - that's solved it (finally

)

Thanks to you all!!

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