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Ajax Includes Script

Author: Dynamic Drive

Description: This script uses Ajax (DHTML interacting with the server) to let you dynamically include the contents of an external page onto the current document. It's similar in function to our Iframe SSI script, though uses no frames, obviously. :)

Demo (Below content is dynamically included from "ajaxfile.htm"):


Directions Developer's View

Step 1: Insert the below script to the HEAD section of your page:

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Step 2: Once that's done, to include an external page, simply use the below code in the BODY section of the master page where you want its contents to be shown:

<script type="text/javascript">
ajaxinclude("afile.htm")
</script>

This will cause the script to retrieve "afile.htm" and display its content on the page. You can call the above multiple times with different file names to include multiple files. Note that the included file MUST be from the same domain as the page including it due to security limitations with this feature.

You can also include the file by specifying the full URL to it on your server, such as:

<script type="text/javascript">
ajaxinclude(rootdomain+"/includes/afile.htm")
</script>

where the part in bold ("/includes/afile.htm") is the path to your external file MINUS your domain name itself (ie: http://www.dynamicdrive.com). Do not specify your domain, as the script will detect that by itself via the variable "rootdomain." Again, the limitation with both the included file and master page being on the same domain applies.

More information

This script includes the external page synchronously (versus asynchronously), which simply means it waits for the external page to be retrieved before loading the rest of the master page. This makes the script resemble as closely to SSI as possible, and should your external page contain certain elements such as external style sheets or JavaScript, it will be interpreted as well. However, there is a downside to synchronous retrieval, and that is that depending on how slowly the external page is retrieved, there may be a noticeable delay before your page loads.

We'll probably update this script soon to also support asynchronous retrieval, which includes downsides of its own, though different from that of synchronous.

Wordpress Users: Step by Step instructions to add ANY Dynamic Drive script to an entire Wordpress theme or individual Post