What is the recommended way to include a standard header/footer on a static html website?

Question

I have a website (Apache) that is all static html and I want to include certain content across all pages, for example a footer. Are good 'ol server side includes (SSI) still the way to go?

Answer 1

Yes, that will be the simplest solution in this case, just follow the security tips for SSI at http://httpd.apache.org/docs/current/misc/security_tips.html

Answer 2

I wouldn't use SSI's anymore, they are vulnerable to security leaks. It's also a lot easier to just include static HTML with whatever servers side language you're using (PHP, Node.JS, JSP, or whatever), as they allow for a lot more extensibility

Because that would break some links, you could use this in your .htaccess to redirect those links

RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-f
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} !-d
RewriteRule ^(.*)\.html$ $1.php?%{QUERY_STRING} [L]