Templates VS Server Side Includes (SSI)

Hi everyone…

Yesterday I was thinking about how to save time when developing websites and I wanted to share my thoughts with you.

In order to save time when developing sites, one can use templates or server side inludes (SSI). But which is the best method??

Well, this is about what I am going to discuss in this post

To start, I will introduce these two terms, in case you don’t know what I am talking about.

Template : It is a common structure of a website that most of your pages uses. Usually web sites follow a standard structure, for e.g. you would have a header, a navigation bar and a footer that is common to all your pages

SSI : Server Side Includes allow you to write some commonly used code once and have the server insert it into the pages for you. In other words an include file has code that you would like to reuse.

Both of these method are good, but I think that in particular circumstances, one is better than the other…

Advantages of templates :

• Imagine that your site has 25 pages. If you need to make one small change, let’s say adding a new link, you would need to go to each of those 25 pages and change it manually. But using a template you only need to change it in the template and all the pages get updated automatically.
• While using softwares like Dreamveaver, Frontpage or Expression Web, you may find it easy to make changes with WYSIWYG.
• As not all pages of your site has the same structure, you may find it an easy practise to create 2 or more templates (it’s up to you)

Disdvantage of templates :

• Image you have a site of 50 pages. You need to perform a small change on the template…Now that the change is done, you need to upload the 50 pages…(not very pleasing when having low internet connecitons)

Advantages of SSI :

• SSI includes helps to make wide changes on a website easily
• It reduces FTP time up to 200% as you have no need to upload an entire site

Disdvantage of SSI :

• You have no visual aid when updating a site

Well, considering the advantages and disadvantages of each, I simply suggest to use template when creating small websites (<10 pages) and SSI for bigger websites !