In this chapter, we'll discuss two ways to generate dynamic content on your site without getting fully into CGI scripting (covered in Chapter 14). Directory browsing displays the files that are currently present or some subset and different views may be available. Server-Side Includes (SSI) allow highly variable content presentation with a wide variety of techniques.

13.1 Directory browsing

In general, if the URL path translates to a directory name (without a "/"), the server automatically issues a redirect to the path with a "/" appended. If it's a directory with a "/" but no file name, the server looks for files matching the defined names of "Welcome" or "Index" files, and, if it finds one, serves it. If no Welcome file is found, servers will (if permitted to do so), dynamically generate a directory listing as an HTML document with clickable file names that will enable downloading the files, and serve that document out. The form of this document varies from server to server and may include icons representing the filetypes. You have some ability to configure the format in which file information is presented, the order the files are presented in, whether the listing is generated at all (either serverwide or for the particular directory), and whether the directory listing includes a prologue from a particular file.

A caveat: Users who know about directory browsing typically expect their actual file list to be completely hidden if a welcome file is present. WASD can be configured to allow directory browsing to...