If you decide to use a server-side include to display the date, despite the disadvantages, you must make sure they are turned on. For more information on enabling server-side includes, check out the NCSA HTTPd documentation.

The first step is to create a CGI (Perl) script that prints the date in the desired format. Simply copy the following code and paste it in a text file named display.pl (the file must be located in the cgi-bin directory):

#change this to perl's real path
#!/usr/bin/perl
 
 sub curDate {
  # replace localtime with gmtime for GMT (UTC)
  my($sec,  $min,  $hour, $mday, $mon,  $year, $wday, $yday, 
     $isdst) = localtime(time); 
  my $monthName = ("January", "February",   "March", "April", 
                   "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October",
                   "November", "December")[$mon];
  ("$monthName $mday\, " . (1900 + $year));
}

print "Content-type: text/html\n\n"; # HTTP header
print &curDate;

Now add the following code segment (a "server-side include") to your HTML document:

<!--#exec cgi="/cgi-bin/display.pl"-->

You should enter the virtual path to the script (display.pl), or the full URL. This is not the script's real path, but the one you would use to execute it with your browser.

Learn more about the Date object from Column 2, Mastering JavaScript Dates.

People who read this tip also read these tips:

• Debugging Date-Based Scripts
• Accessing a Collection Member
• Hiding Popups
• Deploying Coordinated Universal Time
• Hiding Pages in A Print Template