SSI within PHP
When SSI content must be included within a PHP web page, and the content can not otherwise be retrieved with PHP, this technique can work.
In a separate directory (if necessary), make a plain web page with an SSI tag to pull in the content.
Then, put this into your PHP web page:
<?php @readfile('http://example.com/directory/page.shtml'); ?>
Replace the URL with the absolute http:/... URL to the plain web page that contains the SSI tag.
If the above PHP code doesn't work, temporarily remove the @ character from the front of the middle line. That will allow PHP error messages to display.
Whether or not an absolute http://... URL will work depends on how PHP is configured for your server. But it must be an http://... URL in order to cause the SSI page to retrieve the content so the PHP web page can use it.
Will Bontrager