Making Holes...

In general terms, a Master Page is a template with one or more place-holders where other resource documents can put content. This template may be as simple or complex as you need. It may even "chain" into another Master Page to support complex hierarchical site structures.

With the HTML Master Pages solution, a Master Page is a whole, standards-compliant HTML document that provides one or more SSI-Container DIVs within its BODY tag. These specially identified DIVs are place-holders, easily marking up your Master Page as a template. Other resource documents -- which are discussed on the next page -- "fill" those place-holders every time a visitor requests the resource document.

A Master Page with zero containers cannot accept BODY content from other resource documents but it's HEAD will still be fully merged with any resource document that is merged with it.

Examples

Empty container

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
   <head>
      <title>Sample Master Page</title>
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
   </head>
   <body>
      <h1>Empty Container</h1>
      <div title="SSI-Container" id="unique-id-001"></div>
   </body>
</html>

Container with default content

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
   <head>
      <title>Sample Master Page</title>
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
   </head>
   <body>
      <h1>Container With Default Content</h1>
      <div title="SSI-Container" id="unique-id-002">
         <p>This content will appear in the final merged document
            only if the "current" resource document does not
            replace it.</p>
      </div>
   </body>
</html>

Multiple containers in a single Master Page

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
   <head>
      <title>Sample Master Page</title>
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
   </head>
   <body>
      <h1>Multiple Containers:
         <div title="SSI-Container" id="unique-title-id">Sample</div>
      </h1>
      <div title="SSI-Container" id="unique-id-003"></div>
   </body>
</html>

Nested containers

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
   <head>
      <title>Sample Master Page</title>
      <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
   </head>
   <body>
      <h1>Nested Containers</h1>
      <div title="SSI-Container" id="unique-outer-id">
         <p>You may occasionally find that you want to give
            resource document authors the ability to replace entire
            blocks of default content, or just a part of it. For
            these cases, HTML Master Pages permits nested
            SSI-Containers, as you see here.</p>
         <p>For example, you might provide a default contact
            for all subordinate pages while allowing later page
            authors to override the default value. However, when
            there is no reason to provide any contact method on
            a particular page, the entire surrounding block can
            be entirely removed by using an empty SSI-Filler with
            the outer SSI-Container's ID:</p>
         <p>Contact Us Via:
            <div title="SSI-Container" id="unique-inner-id">
               ... Default Contact Method Here ...
            </div>
         </p>
         <p>Just remember that replacing the outer container's
            content from a resource document destroys the default
            content and any nested place-holders within it!</p>
      </div>
   </body>
</html>