Only Webquest servers support all of the tags outlined in these documents.
Note:

Server side includes (SSI)s applied to an HTML document, provide for interactive real-time features such as echoing current time, conditional execution based on logical comparisons, querying or updating a database, sending an email, etc., with no programming or CGI scripts. An SSI consists of a special sequence of characters(tokens) on an HTML page. As the page is sent from the HTTP server to the requesting client, the page is scanned by the server for these special tokens. When a token is found the server interprets the data in the token and performs an action based on the token data. The format of a SSI token is as follows :
<!--#'<tag><variable set> '--> where :

• <!--# is the opening identifier, a SSI token always starts with this.
• <tag> is one of the following: echo, include, fsize, flastmod, exec, config , odbc, email, if, goto, label, break
• <variable set> is a set of one or more variables and their values. The values allowed here and dependent on the tag and are listed below each tag listed below. The format of a variable set is as follows : <variable name> '=' '"' variable data '"' <variable name2> '=' '"' variable data2 '"' <variable name n> '=' '"' variable datan '"'
• "-->" is the closing identifier, a SSI token always ends with this.

SSI tokens may contain special tags (subtokens) which are dereferenced before evaluation of the SSI token takes place. Subtokens maybe inserted any place in the SSI token. Subtokens are especially useful when forming if, odbc, email, and exec tokens (described below) that are based on HTML form data returned from a remote client. The format of a subtoken is as follows: '&&'<subtokendata>'&&' where:

• '&&' is a reserved character sequence defining the beginning and end of the subtoken
• <subtokendata> is any value allowed in an echo token.

Include tag provides for inserting the contents of a file into the HTML page at the location of the include token.

Fsize tag provides for inserting the size of a given file into the HTML page at the location of the fsize token.

Flastmod tag provides for inserting the last modification date of a given file into the HTML page at the location of the flastmod token.

Exec tag provides for executing an external executable.

Config tag provides for setting certain HTML output options.

Odbc tag provides for querying and updating ODBC databases.

Email tag provides for sending an email whenever an HTML page is accessed or an HTML form is submitted.

If tag provides for conditional execution of SSI operations and conditional printing of HTML text based on logical comparisons.

Goto tag provides for jumping to a label token without executing any SSI code or printing any HTML text between the goto token and label token.

Label tag provides a place for a goto or if goto token to jump to.

Break tag provides for termination of HTML documents at any point.

Example:

The following document send an email. Suppose we have a form with datum : [First, Last, Middle Initial, Company, Address1, Address2, City, State, Zip, Country, Phone, Fax, Request, Urgency, ReplyMethod; Email, Subject, Message] we may post that form to an HTML document containing the following fragment to send an email.
<!--#email fromhost=""www.theworld.com"tohost="mailbox.theworld.com" message="First -&&First&&, Last - &&Last&&, MI- &&Middle Initial&&, Company - &&Company&&, Address - &&Address1&&, &&Address2&&, &&City&&, &&State&&, &&Zip&&, &&Country&&, Phone - &&Phone&&, Fax - &&Fax&&, Request &&Urgency &&via &&ReplyMethod&&, Message - &&Message&& "fromaddress="&&EMail&&" toaddress="markw@mailbox.theworld.com"subject="WebMan - &&Subject&&" sender="&&EMail&& "replyto="&&EMail&&" cc=" "inreplyto="A WebMan Automated E-Mail" id="WebManEMail" -->

The operands may be any string or number (integer or floating point). In the event that both operands are numbers the comparison will be based on the value of the numbers. In the event that one or both of the operands and not numbers, the comparison will be based on the alphabetic order of the operands.

The special case of the NULL operand is defined by two quotes with no characters between them. The NULL operand may used to check for the existence of form data from the remote client (see example below).
The operator defines what kind of comparison is performed on the operands:

• == The equalto operator evaluates to TRUE if the operands are equal to each other.
• != The notequalto operator evaluates to TRUE if the operands are not equal to each other.
• < The lessthan operator evaluates to TRUE if operand1 is less than operand2.
• > The greaterthan operator evaluates to TRUE if operand1 is greater than operand2
• !< The notlessthan operator evaluates to TRUE if operand1 is not less than operand2
• !> The notgreaterthan operator evaluates to TRUE if operand1 is not greater than operand2
• hasstring The hasstring operator returns TRUE is the text string in operand2 is found in the operand1 string.

In the event that the logical comparison evaluates to FALSE, nothing happens, If the logical comparison evaluates to TRUE then one of the following operations may be performed:
'goto ' causes a jump to a label token (see below).
The format of the goto tag is:
'goto ' <label >
where <label > is the name of a label defined in a subsequent label tag (see below).
'print' causes text to be printed. The format of the print tag is:
'print' <text>
where <text> is any HTML text or tag.
'error' causes the current config..error message to be printed.
'break ' causes termination of the HTML document transmission to the client.
'errorbreak' causes the current config ..error message to be printed, and then causes termination of the HTML document transmission to the client.
'printbreak' causes text to be printed, and then causes termination of the HTML document transmission to the client. The format of the printbreak tag is the same as the format of the print tag. Example:

The following document fragment compares two numbers, if the operands are not equal then a goto will jump to a label.
<!--#if "10" != "20" goto test label --> <p>This should not print <!--#label ="testlabel " --> <p>This should print

Example:

The following document fragment demonstrates conditional execution based on data delivered from an HTML form. Suppose we have two form datum called 'formdata1' and 'formdata2' and we wish to compare them. The following document fragment compares the two operands, if the operands are equal then a goto will jump to a label. Otherwise the next line will print and the document will terminate on a break token (see below).
<!--#if "&&formdata1&&" == "&&formdata2&&" goto testlabel --> <P>The operands are not equal. <!--#break --> <!--#label ="testlabel " --> <P>operands are equal.

Example:

The following document fragment prints two different statements depending on whether or not the client agent is NCSA Mosaic.
<!--#if "&&HTTP_USER_AGENT&&" hasstring "Mosaic" goto mosaiclabel --> <P>You are not using Mosaic <!--#goto ="defaultlabel" --> <!--#label ="mosaiclabel" --> <P>You are using Mosaic <!--#label ="defaultlabel" -->

Example:

Suppose we have a form with amongst other things a field named "BOO" and we wish to make sure that the remote client user enterted data into the "BOO" field before submitting the form. The following document fragment checks for the presence of data in the "BOO" field, if data exists then nothing happens, if data does not exist then a message will be displayed and the document will terminate.
<!--#if "BOO" == "" printbreak "<P>You must provide data for the BOO field, please resubmit." -->

The format of the debug variable is : 'debug='"<debugstring>"' where;
<debugstring> is any string and is reserved for future use.

CONNECT

The connect variable is used to connect to a pre-existing odbc data source, to allow for subsequent statement tag operations on that data source.

The format of the connect variable is

'connect="'<datasource>','<username>','<password>'"'where ;

• <datasource> is the name odbc data source as defined on the local system in the odbc configuration utility. CAUTION! the account under which the server is run must be granted permission to access the data source.
• <user name> is the name which to log into the data source.
• <password> is the password with which to access the data source.

Example:

To connect to a data source called 'odbcsht' as user 'dufus' and password 'dorkboy', one would use the following statement:

STATEMENT

The statement variable is used to submit a Transact SQL statement to the odbc data source. The format of a statement variable is as follows: 'statement="'<sqlstatement>'"',where:

• <SQL Statement> is any Transact SQL statement as defined in odbc and SQL reference text and help files.

Example:

Suppose one wanted to query the 'CUSTOMERS' table from the above connected 'odbcsht' database to return all rows and display each row on a separate line. One may use the following sequence of statements:

• Connect to the database with a connect token as described above.
• Setup the output format with a statement token as described below.
• Execute the query: <!--#odbc statement="SELECT NAME, AGE, VISCOSITY FROM CUSTOMERS ORDER BY 3, 2, 1" -->
• Each row of the database will the be inserted into the HTML page per the format statement as demonstrated below.

The format of the format variable is 'format="'<cprintfstatement>'"'where;
<cprintfstatement> is a standard C language printf format string with the restriction of only allowing string (%s) insertions. The user is referred to any C language text for a description of this format. The number of instances of %s must be equal to the number of fields selected in a the subsequent SQL SELECT statement token.
Example:

Suppose one wanted to query the 'CUSTOMERS' table from the above connected 'odbcsht' database to display the columns 'name', 'age', and 'viscosity' with each row on a separate line. One may use the following sequence of statements:

1. Connect to the database with a connect token as described above.
2. Setup the output format:
   <!--#obdc format="<P>Thecustomer's name is %s, and he is %s years old, he prefers a motor oil with SPF %s viscosity" -->.
3. Execute the query with a statement token as described above.
4. Each row of the database will the be inserted into the HTML page per the format statement. For example if the database has 3 rows the HTML output would look something like this:
   

1. Customer's name is Conan, and he is 29 years old, he prefers a motor oil with SPF 15 viscosity
   
   Customer's name is Kevin, and he is 45 years old, he prefers a motor oil with SPF 30 viscosity
   
   Customer's name is Alan, and he is 43 years old, he prefers a motor oil with SPF 50 viscosity

cgi The cgi variable is used to specify the name a CGI executable(script) relative to the base directory of the HTTP server.
The format is: 'cgi="'<exename>"' where <exename>is the path and name of the CGI executable relative to the base directory of the web space. The CGI will be executed and any cgi output will be inserted into the current HTML document at the location of the cgi token.

The Greenwich Mean Time is <!--#echo var="DATE_GMT"--> and I am so happy to be here.

would resolve at runtime into something like:
The Greenwich Mean Time is Fri Jul 21 21:24:48 1995 and I am so happy to be here.

The values allowed as variable data are available form two sources: Form fields and environment variables.

Form Fields are those datum which are available when a POST operation is performed on a SSI enabled HTML document from an HTML form. Each form field may be referenced by name. Example:

Suppose one has an HTML form with several fields defined, one of which is named 'First Name'. When an HTTP client POSTs the form to an SSI enabled HTML document with an echo token: <--#echo var="First Name" -->, the HTML document will then have the contents of the supplied 'First Name' field inserted upon transmission to the client. Environment variables are a set of datum defined by the local server and remote client and are defined below.

• DOCUMENT_NAME This variable is the complete local directory path of the current document.
• DOCUMENT_URI This variable is the local path of the current document referenced to the base directory of the webspace.
• QUERY_STRING_UNESCAPED This variable is the unescaped query string sent by the client browser, all shell-special characters escaped with \.
• DATE_LOCAL This variable is current local date and time.
• DATE_GMT This variable is the current Greenwich Mean date and time.
• LAST_MODIFIED This variable is the date and time of the last modification of the current document.
• REMOTE_ADDR This variable is the IP address of the remote client browser.
• QUERY_STRING This variable is the raw query string sent from the remote browser.
• SERVER_SOFTWARE This variable is the name of the HTTP server software.
• SERVER_NAME This variable is the local computer name of the HTTP server.
• GATEWAY_INTERFACE This variable is the name/version of the Common Gateway Interface served on this HTTP server.
• SERVER_PROTOCOL This variable is the name/version of HTTP served on this HTTP server
• SERVER_PORT This variable is the IP port the HTTP server is answering on.
• REQUEST_METHOD This variable is the method by which the current document was requested.
• PATH_INFO This variable is the extra path info that is sent. This information is regarded as virtual (the path is relative to the base directory of the HTTP server).
• PATH_TRANSLATED This variable is the 'PATH_INFO' variable translated from virtual to local (physical) disk location.
• SCRIPT_NAME This variable is the virtual path of the script being executed.
• REMOTE_HOST This variable is the host name of the remote client.
• AUTH_TYPE This variable is the authentication method used to validate the remote client.
• REMOTE_USER This variable is the user name used to validate authentication from the remote client.
• REMOTE_IDENT This variable is the remote user name if supporting RFC931 identification.
• CONTENT_TYPE This variable is the content type of the attached information in the case of a POST or PUT.
• CONTENT_LENGTH This variable is the length of the attached information in the case of a POST or PUT.
• HTTP_ACCEPT This variable is a comma separated list of mime types that are accepted by the remote browser.
• HTTP_USER_AGENT This variable is the name of the remote client browser software.
• REFERER This variable is the ULR of the HTML document which referred the remote client to this document.
• FROM This variable is the name (most likely the-mail address) of the remote client user.
• FORWARDED This variable is the name of the proxy server through which this document is being processed.
• ACCEPT_LANGUGE This variable lists the human languages that are acceptable to the remote client.
• HTTP_COOKIE This variable contains the cookie sent by the remote client, and is explained in detail below.

virtual The virtual variable is used to specify a file path/name relative to the base directory of the HTTP server. The format is: 'virtual="'<filename>'"' where <filename>a file path/name relative to the base directory of the HTTP server.

file The file variable is used to specify a file path/name relative to the directory of the current document. The format is: 'file="'<filename>'"' where <filename>a file path/name relative to the directory of the current document. Example:

The following token on an HTML document inserts all text and SSI+ tokens from the file <html base directory>'SSI\INSERT.SHT'into the current document before transmission back to the client browser:
<!--#include virtual="SSI\INSERT.SHT" -->

" -->
<!--#exec cmd="ping 204.96.64.171 -w 20000" -->
</UL> When the document is accessed by a remote browser the output would look something like this: Pinging 204.96.64.171 with 32 bytes of data: Reply from 204.96.64.171: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=32 Reply from 204.96.64.171: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=32 Reply from 204.96.64.171: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=32 Reply from 204.96.64.171: bytes=32 time<10ms TTL=32

Example. The following document fragment demonstrates a goto to a label.
<!--#goto ="testlabel" --> <P>This line will not print. <!--#label ="testlabel" --> <P>This line will print.

#exec

The #exec directive instructs the Web server to run the specified application or shell command and send the output (standard output or ISAPI WriteClient data) to the client browser. You must surround a directive with HTML comment delimiters.

This directive can be used only in HTML pages; it cannot be used in ASP pages.

Syntax

<!-- #exec CommandType = CommandDescription -->

Parameters

CommandType

Specifies the type of command. The command type can be one of the following:

Remarks

The file containing the #exec directives must use a file name extension that is mapped to the SSI interpreter; otherwise, the Web server will not process the directives. By default, the extensions .stm, .shtm, and .shtml are mapped to the interpreter (Ssinc.dll). If you have Internet Service Manager installed, you can modify the default extension mappings and add new mappings; see Setting Application Mappings.

Allowing #exec directives in HTML documents poses a security risk. You can disable the use of #exec statements while still allowing files to contain the other SSI directives, such as #include. To disable #exec, modify the SSIExecDisable metabase property (see File Properties). For general information on using the metabase, see Metabase.

Examples

<!-- The following line invokes a guestbook program. -->
<!-- #exec cgi="/scripts/guestbook.exe?firstname+lastname" -->

<!-- The following line invokes W3test.dll. -->
<!-- #exec cgi="/scripts/w3test.dll?SimulatePendingIO" -->

<!-- The following line invokes the DOS RM command. -->
<!-- #exec cmd="c:\tools\mstools\rm.exe -?" -->