Fortunately, there's no need to start renaming any files. You can simply instruct server to treat your ".html" files as ".shtml" files and execute all SSI instructions in them. This can be done with a ".htaccess" file. If you already have one, you'll have to edit it. If you don't, open up a text editor, such as Notepad, and paste following lines into a blank file. Be sure to replace .html with .htm, if you're using that extension.

Options Includes AddType text/html .html AddHandler server-parsed .html

Save file in "All files" mode and name it ".htaccess". Include quotes so that Notepad won't decide to name file ".htaccess.txt".

Changing Your Pages ===================

After .htaccess file has been created, you'll have to make changes to your HTML files. To be on safe side, take backups of them before doing anything. Then, paste HTML you use to generate menu from one of your pages into a blank file. Save file as "navig.html" for example. Next, remove navigation menu from all of your pages. Replace it with following line:

What you're doing is telling server to insert code from "navig.html" into page. This will be done before page is sent to user who has requested it, so anyone visiting your site will merely see a normal HTML file. When you have finished editing your files, connect to your host via FTP and upload ".htaccess" file, "navig.html" file and new versions of your content pages.

Then it is time for true test, trying to visit your site and see what happens. If you have done everything correctly, you should see that your pages look same as before. However, if you make a simple change to "navig.html" file, it will apply to navigation menu of every page. What used to take minutes or even hours can now be done in seconds, giving you possibility to use that valuable time to do something other than changing HTML code of each page separately.

You're now done with CGI script. Save it as "404helper.cgi", without quotes of course. However, there's still work to be done, so take a deep breath and prepare yourself for next challenge.

Editing your custom 404 page and .htaccess file ===============================================

Just having script will not be enough. In order for it to work, it has to be executed when an error is encountered. This is part where SSI's step into picture. Open up your 404 error page in a text editor and add following line into it:

Because script prints out a few rows of HTML after it has been run, best place for that line is at bottom of your 404 error page, but before tag. After everything is safely in place, simply save file, but instead of ending it with usual ".htm" or ".html", use ".shtml". Do not forget to do this, as SSI tag might not work if you fail to use proper extension.

Finally, you will have to edit .htaccess file you created when you built your custom 404 page. If you only have " ErrorDocument 404 http://www.yourdomain.com/404page.html " in it, modify file so that it will contain following:

Options Includes ExecCGI AddType application/x-httpd-cgi .cgi .pl AddType text/html .shtml AddHandler server-parsed .shtml ErrorDocument 404 http://www.yourdomain.com/404page.shtml

The new lines will enable Server Side Includes and CGI so that your script will work. Do not forget to change ErrorDocument 404 line to point to new .shtml page instead of your old .html version. After you are done, save your .htaccess file.

Upload, set permissions and launch! ===================================

Connect to your host with an FTP program and upload .shtml version of your 404 page and your new .htaccess file into your root directory. Then go to directory you've reserved for CGI programs and send 404helper.cgi file there. Make sure that you upload in ASCII, not in Binary mode! I nearly drove myself crazy by accidentally using Binary mode and then trying to figure out why script refused to work.

Everything is now uploaded and all that remains is to set permissions so that CGI program can be executed. You'll need to CHMOD 755 both CGI file and directory where it is in. The steps you need to take in order to accomplish this depend on what software you are using, but here are instructions on how to do so with WS_FTP, a popular Windows FTP program which can be downloaded from Tucows.com.

First, navigate to directory where you've uploaded CGI program. Left-click it once to highlight file, then right- click it. Select "chmod (Unix)" from menu that appears. Give Read, Write and Execute permissions to Owner and Read and Execute permissions to Group and Other. Then go into root directory and repeat same process with folder of directory where you placed CGI program.

That's it. The work is finally done and you can now enjoy luxury of receiving an E-mail report on all 404 errors, allowing you to quickly stomp out any broken links and improve quality of your site. Congratulations!