HTML pre-processor

The HTML pre-processor is used to provide dynamic information inside of a standard HTML (HyperText Markup Language) document. The pre-processor is a script, run by the WWW server, which takes the requested document as input and returns a standard HTML document for the server to send to the client. The script scans the input document for special pre-processor directives, which are replaced by dynamic data based upon the particular directive.

Directive syntax

The syntax follows closely that used by the NCSA httpd WWW server, although not as many directives are supported (yet). The directive is enclosed within an HTML comment and takes the form:
<!--#command [[tag="value"] ...]-->
The command and tag keywords are case insensitive. The tag value may or may not be case sensitive, depending upon the command/tag. Generally the effect of a command is to produce additional text to be inserted in the document.

Directive commands

ECHO
The ECHO command inserts special variables in the stream.
ACCESSES[;#]
Number of times document accessed, the access count is saved in the file www_root:[000000]accesses.dat.

ACCESSES_ORDINAL[;#]
Number of times document accessed with suffix(e.g. 1st)

DATE_LOCAL[=fmt]
Current system time

DOCUMENT_NAME
Filename (sans path) of current document.

LAST_MODIFIED[=fmt]
Last-modified time of current document

FLASTMOD
The FLASTMOD command inserts the file modification date of a specified file at the current point in the document being pre-processed.

If the preprocessor executable was built using the DEC C compiler, you can follow the file="fname" or virtual="path" tag with and fmt="fmt-str" tag. If a format string is specified, the date is formatted using strftime() rather than ctime(). The specified format is used as the format string for a call to strftime()

FSIZE
The FSIZE command inserts the file size in bytes (as best as can be determined) of a specified file at the current point in the document being pre-processed.

INCLUDE
The INCLUDE command inserts the content of another document at the current point in the document being pre-processed.

Examples

Including a file
<!--#include file="open_hours.html"-->
<!--#include virtual="/www/admin/open_hours.html"-->
(file: This text is actually from a separate file. )
(virt: This text is actually from a separate file. )

File attributes
<!--#fsize file="portrait.gif"-->
<!--#flastmod virtual="/www/admin/open_hours.html" fmt="%I:%M:%S %p"-->
(Included size: 54, date: Thu Oct 6 23:42:39 1994)
(Alt. format lastmod: 11:42:39 PM)

Current document attributes
<!--#echo var="DOCUMENT_NAME"-->
<!--#echo var="LAST_MODIFIED[=fmt]"-->
<!--#echo var="ACCESSES"-->
<!--#echo var="ACCESSES_ORDINAL;5"-->
(document: preproc.htmlx, date: Tue Apr 25 15:54:15 1995, 1,217th access)
(document: preproc.htmlx, date: Tuesday, April 25, 1995 03:54:15 PM, 1,217 accesses)

Current time
<!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL"--> (28-APR-2000 10:51:01.00)
<!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL=%B %d, %Y %I:%M:%S %p"--> (alt format: April 28, 2000 10:51:01 AM)
David Jones, Ohio State University