SSI for recip tables?

[Tekster]

Is it ok to use SSI for the recip tables, or anything else on a free site?
I think would be a lot easier to work with if you end up with a lot of free sites and say one LL goes under. If not, how do you manage the recip links?

[Licker4U]

Originally Posted by TekAngel

Is it ok to use SSI for the recip tables, or anything else on a free site?
I think would be a lot easier to work with if you end up with a lot of free sites and say one LL goes under. If not, how do you manage the recip links?

I use SSI to call my recip tables and it's been a BIG help. A few clicks and a dead link list is out all across the board. And, I know I'm a dumbass, but I submitted to a list for a year thinking I was getting listed. ( I didn't check like I should have) I had their recip on 100's of sites and would have taken forever to go find them and remove them. SSI did it in a few minutes.

[LowryBigwood]

Same as Licker4U, I use SSI for my recips as well.

[japamor]

You guys who use SSI, do you name your sites .shtml or do you alter your .htaccess to parse SSI?

[Licker4U]

Originally Posted by japamor

You guys who use SSI, do you name your sites .shtml or do you alter your .htaccess to parse SSI?

Man, you're talking Greek. Alter .htaccess? Parse SSI? My sites are /index.html. I use this for my "hairy" recip table and everything works fine:

<!--#include virtual="/recips/hairy01.txt" -->

I have a folder on my root domain, "recips" that has this in it:

hairy01txt.txt

[SheepGuy]

Agreed, it's not complicated at all and saves a ton of time when you need to change them.

[LowryBigwood]

Originally Posted by japamor

You guys who use SSI, do you name your sites .shtml or do you alter your .htaccess to parse SSI?

I have .htaccess setup to run ssi on .html using the following in my .htaccess file:

AddHandler server-parsed .htm .html

[MrYum]

Originally Posted by LowryBigwood

I have .htaccess setup to run ssi on .html using the following in my .htaccess file:

AddHandler server-parsed .htm .html

Yup, that's exactly what I used to do for recips too

[ponygirl]

ok, so SSI for idiots (me) lol

do a recip table, save it as a .txt file
put this in your htaccess: AddHandler server-parsed .htm .html (anywhere on a separate line?)
call the table using this: <!--#include virtual="/pathto/recips.txt" --> in your html

is that right? seems too easy

[MrYum]

Originally Posted by ponygirl

ok, so SSI for idiots (me) lol

do a recip table, save it as a .txt file
put this in your htaccess: AddHandler server-parsed .htm .html (anywhere on a separate line?)
call the table using this: <!--#include virtual="/pathto/recips.txt" --> in your html

is that right? seems too easy

Actually, it is really easy. I was intimidated at first too, but once you use it...you'll love it

The first 3 lines of my htaccess...
RewriteEngine on
AddHandler server-parsed .html
Options All -Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes

That third line tells the server it's ok to follow 'includes'...whether they be ssi or php.

You can save as either txt or html...doesn't matter a bit. Just be sure to use the right extension when including the file in your html.

<!--#include virtual="/pathto/recips.txt" -->

Yup, that looks right to me

[ponygirl]

Originally Posted by MrYum

Actually, it is really easy. I was intimidated at first too, but once you use it...you'll love it

The first 3 lines of my htaccess...
RewriteEngine on
AddHandler server-parsed .html
Options All -Indexes FollowSymLinks Includes

That third line tells the server it's ok to follow 'includes'...whether they be ssi or php.

You can save as either txt or html...doesn't matter a bit. Just be sure to use the right extension when including the file in your html.

<!--#include virtual="/pathto/recips.txt" -->

Yup, that looks right to me

thanks for the info, I'll give this a try

is there any reason other than organizational to use this for recip tables? I suppose it would lighten up the page a bit too. Any downsides to using it?

[Tekster]

Yes it is easy, and like Licker4U said, if you have any changes to make; it makes it really easy.

BTW the last site I submitted that is what I used.

I don't see any downsides, but again I am no expert, I just learned about this.

[MrYum]

Originally Posted by ponygirl

thanks for the info, I'll give this a try

is there any reason other than organizational to use this for recip tables? I suppose it would lighten up the page a bit too. Any downsides to using it?

Probably the biggest upside is when a link site vanishes, or you discover they've never listed your sites...

You literally change ONE file, upload...boom, all recips are changed on all sites...VERY handy

Potential downsides...

If your server is slow to respond...causing the ssi call to be delayed, it's possible for someone to not see the recips. It's not very likely, but could happen.

That said, out of the few hundred sites I did that way, I never had a single one declined for that reason.

Make sure your server is up to snuff, and you should be fine

[Licker4U]

Originally Posted by ponygirl

thanks for the info, I'll give this a try

is there any reason other than organizational to use this for recip tables? I suppose it would lighten up the page a bit too. Any downsides to using it?

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With SSI this is all that's on the page:

<!--#include virtual="/recips/newlingerie08-1html.txt" -->

So it does lighten up the page but the main benefit for me is the ability to remove a link from all sites that have that recip table if the need arises. If I remove a recip and put another in it's place, the new recip will appear on all of the sites, with no benefit to me. In that case, I delete the recip that needs to be removed, make a duplicate recip table adding a new link to replace the one removed, and name it:

<!--#include virtual="/recips/newlingerie08-2html.txt" -->

I don't know of any down sides to it.

[japamor]

This looks really good. I'm going to start trying it.
Stand by for some pathetic 'What went wrong?' posts.

[Preacher]

Originally Posted by MrYum

Potential downsides...

If your server is slow to respond...causing the ssi call to be delayed, it's possible for someone to not see the recips. It's not very likely, but could happen.

That said, out of the few hundred sites I did that way, I never had a single one declined for that reason.

Make sure your server is up to snuff, and you should be fine

Yeah, that was the only thing I was thinking, but you'd have to be on a really cheap host to be effected by this.

Personally, to go against the crowd I'll say that while I do use ssi calls on my LL I don't on my recip tables. For my purposes I don't care for the limitations it would put on my design. I can't break up the table any differently, can't use 3 columns instead of five or drop some text in the middle.

Just thought I'd post that to let all builders know that ssi recip tables aren't a necessity, just something most of the cool kids do.

[ponygirl]

Originally Posted by Preacher

Personally, to go against the crowd I'll say that while I do use ssi calls on my LL I don't on my recip tables. For my purposes I don't care for the limitations it would put on my design. I can't break up the table any differently, can't use 3 columns instead of five or drop some text in the middle.

that's the only thing I don't like, I tend to make my recip tables different, shifting them around a bit & whatnot. It's useful to know though, I may use it for other things instead

[ladydesigner]

Originally Posted by Preacher

Personally, to go against the crowd I'll say that while I do use ssi calls on my LL I don't on my recip tables. For my purposes I don't care for the limitations it would put on my design. I can't break up the table any differently, can't use 3 columns instead of five or drop some text in the middle.

Same here. I think I'll just stick with regular html recip code on my free sites though I do use includes on my LL. Like Ponygirl said, it's good to have this info.

[Lemmy]

I'm looking forward to all the submits with messed up or no recip tables at all. From what I understand different server configs require different SSI include specification in the .htaccess file, so make sure you get it right.

What has been said about design limitations is also a very valid point. Varying your recip tables is one way of keeping your templates fresh looking.

[MrYum]

Those last posts above are very valid points about the limitations of using includes for recip tables

It is however an awesome tool to have in ones belt for so many other uses. I use them extensively on my link site...very handy for things like trades, static menus and the like

And Lemmy is right...IF you're going to use them for recips, be sure to double check those pages before submitting.

[ponygirl]

Originally Posted by Lemmy

I'm looking forward to all the submits with messed up or no recip tables at all.

it would certainly help if people remembered to check their work after uploading. I wonder how many submits that I get now with messed up tables are due to SSI.

Originally Posted by Lemmy

What has been said about design limitations is also a very valid point. Varying your recip tables is one way of keeping your templates fresh looking.

very true. I generally build fresh every time & don't use templates, so my recip tables could be any size depending on how it fits in. Plus, I switch around LLs a lot, which I wouldn't be able to do. It's a nifty little tool, no doubt, but I think I'll use it on more static things than my recip tables.

thanks for this thread, TekAngel - it's been very educational

[johnnybg]

Just for the record: since it doesn't require too much brain power to think of using SSI to change advertising on your free sites, it's NOT a good idea. You'll soon end up in "Possible Cheaters" section

[LowryBigwood]

Originally Posted by Preacher

Personally, to go against the crowd I'll say that while I do use ssi calls on my LL I don't on my recip tables. For my purposes I don't care for the limitations it would put on my design. I can't break up the table any differently, can't use 3 columns instead of five or drop some text in the middle.

You could make variations of the files easy enough and just save as a slightly different file name like amateur01-3col.txt, amateur01-5col.txt, or different colors, fonts, etc...

I'm not sure about this, but can you have 2 seperate ssi calls on a single page? If you could you could do files like amateur01-left, amateur01-right, and then put your text in between those using a table.

Of course the leg work setting all that up is a pita, but once they're done, they're done.

[SheepGuy]

Originally Posted by LowryBigwood

You could make variations of the files easy enough and just save as a slightly different file name like amateur01-3col.txt, amateur01-5col.txt, or different colors, fonts, etc...

I'm not sure about this, but can you have 2 seperate ssi calls on a single page? If you could you could do files like amateur01-left, amateur01-right, and then put your text in between those using a table.

Of course the leg work setting all that up is a pita, but once they're done, they're done.

Sure, I use two SSI's on quite a few of my AVS sites, one for the recip table, one for a blurb advertising the benefits of the AVS.

[Licker4U]

Originally Posted by LowryBigwood

Of course the leg work setting all that up is a pita, but once they're done, they're done.

That's I like about SSI. Once all the reicp tables are made I never have to "fiddle" with them any more. Doing recip tables manually for every site took me forrreeevvvveerrrrrrrrr.