What’s Transclusion?

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Transclusion is the process of including part of one document into the body of a second document. The process is part of a larger method known as replacement models. Transclusion is normally handled with the use of HTML and hypertext.

The origins of the term transclusion date back to the early 1980s. First used as terminology in the context of computer science by Ted Nelson, the underlying idea was that you don’t need to store the same data in more than one place. Using the link, the data could be included in two different documents without actually having to copy the information. Nelson is also credited with coining the terms hypertext and hypermedia along with transclusion.

Currently, the usage scope of transclusion is affected by the environment in which the usage occurs. For example, the type of browser used can affect how the process works. Current incarnations of Internet Explorer are sometimes thought to provide a less hospitable environment for using transclusions, because the browser can make including parts of a document a bit more complicated. Mozilla Firefox is an example of a browser that makes transcluding images and text very easy.

To compensate for differences in browsers, a process known as server-side transclusion is sometimes employed. Essentially, this form of transclusion involves caching the data that is being transcluded on the actual server. Various applications and documents can access data directly from the server, rather than linking from one document to another. This effectively allows you to include data in several different documents without having to submit the data each time you call up the page.

As Internet use continues to become commonplace in more environments, transclusion continues to be an important component in assembling pages efficiently. To address this reality, new versions of browsers are configured to allow for an easy transclusion process.

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