There are two ways to include other content into the current page component:
  1. <!--#include file="/actual/path/to/file" -->
    This would look for a file on the filesystem with the path "/actual/path/to/file" and insert its contents. Relative paths as well as absolute paths are permissable; as long the include is present in the location in relation to the present component's location, it will work.
  2. <!--#include virtual="/virtual/path/for/content" -->
    If you have content in your web URL space that is accessible, in this instance as http://www.example.com/virtual/path/for/content, than that will be run through Apache as a sub-request. This has a number of advantages over using the file style include
    1. Enables easy inclusion of the output from a CGI
    2. Allows includes to be independent of the physical file system and where files are actually deployed
This is a popular technique for including shared components such as navigation widgets, page counter CGI output and so forth.