php vs. ssi include

[downtroden]

can anyone offer an argument or opinion on which is faster/easier and why?

[downtroden]

p.s

not looking to be convinced, just ignorant of the different types of server side includes.

[FGTH]

SSI offers data / file display and cgi execution. Common commands/expressions are:
echo (print server environment variables such as DOCUMENT_URI, DATE_LOCAL)
include (virtual and file)
exec (cgi/perl)
if/else.
flastmod
fsize
tricks

<a href="<!--#echo var="HTTP_REFERER" -->">Back</a>

Works great when you have global components on your site. For instance, when you need to modify a global footer, all you need to do is change the include file for the global footer instead of having to change every footer on each page.

PHP offers everything SSI has in addition to practically anything you can do with perl including ODBC. The language is very similar to perl.

[imaginemn]

SSI's are pretty simple regardless of the programming language. Here are a few examples of the differences.

ASP and ASP.NET include (.asp/.aspx file)

<!--#include virtual="/whatever.asp"-->
<!--#include file="whatever.asp"-->

HTML (.htm/.html/.shtml file)

<!--#include virtual="/whatever.asp"-->
<!--#include file="whatever.asp"-->

Cold Fusion (.cfm file)

<cfinclude template="whatever.cfm">

PHP (.php file)

<? include("whatever.php") ?>

The only advantage of having SSI files is to seperate the code and make the code re-usable on multiple pages. Makes code updates easier. Most common use is header, footer, and navigation include files. It doesn't make the page load any faster or slower.

imaginemn