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, 257th access)

     (document: preproc.htmlx, date: Tuesday, April 25, 1995 03:54:15 PM,
     257 accesses)

Current time
     <!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL"--> ( 2-DEC-1998 21:05:51.56)
     <!--#echo var="DATE_LOCAL=%B %d, %Y %I:%M:%S %p"--> (alt format:
     December 02, 1998 09:05:51 PM)

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David Jones, Ohio State University