Web Development 101

Getting started with your first web development project can be a bit daunting. Over the next few months we'll be adding more articles on the subject, but this is the first and is an easy introduction into web design and development.

1. Definitions

Web page design and development is a process of conceptualisation, planning, modeling, and execution of electronic media content delivery via Internet in the form of technologies (such as markup languages) suitable for interpretation and display by a web browser or other web-based graphical user interfaces (GUIs).

Typically web pages are classified as static or dynamic.

• Static pages don’t change content and layout with every request unless a human (web master or programmer) manually updates the page.
• Dynamic pages adapt their content and/or appearance depending on the end-user’s input or interaction or changes in the computing environment (user, time, database modifications, etc.) Content can be changed on the client side (end-user's computer) by using client-side scripting languages (JavaScript, JScript, Actionscript, media players and PDF reader plug-ins, etc.) to alter DOM elements (DHTML). Dynamic content is often compiled on the server utilizing server-side scripting languages (PHP, ASP, Perl, Coldfusion, JSP, Python, etc.). Both approaches are usually used in complex applications.

2. Keyword Glossary

Apache
An open source web server. Mostly for Unix, Linux and Solaris platforms.

ASP (Active Server Pages)
A Microsoft technology allowing the insertion of server executable scripts in web pages.

Banner Ad
A (most often graphic) advertisement placed on a web page, which acts as a hyperlink to an advertiser's web site.

Cache
In web terms: A web browser or web server feature which stores copies of web pages on a computer's hard disk.

Cookie
Information from a web server, stored on your computer by your web browser. The purpose of a cookie is to provide information about your visit to the website for use by the server during a later visit.

CSS (Cascading Style Sheets)
A W3C recommended language for defining style (such as font, size, color, spacing, etc.) for web documents.

Database
Data stored in a computer in such a way that a computer program can easily retrieve and manipulate the data.

DHTML (Dynamic HTML)
A term commonly to describe HTML content that can change dynamically.

Domain Name
The name that identifies a web site. (like: thecodestudio.net)

E-mail Address
The address used for sending e-mails to a person or an organization. Typical format is username@hostname.

Forum
In web terms: The same as Newsgroup.

FTP Server
A web server you can logon to, and download files from (or upload files to). Anonymous FTP is a method for downloading files from an FTP server without using a logon account.

Hyperlink
A pointer to another document. Most often a pointer to another web page. A hyperlink is a synonym for a hotlink or a link, and sometimes called a hypertext connection to another document or web page.

Hypertext
Hypertext is text that is cross-linked to other documents in such a way that the reader can read related documents by clicking on a highlighted word or symbol. (see also hyperlink)

Intranet
A private (closed) Internet, running inside a LAN (Local Area Network).

Keyword
In web terms: A word used by a search engine to search for relevant web information.
In database terms: A word (or index) used to identify a database record.

MySQL
Free open source database software often used on the web.

PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor)
A technology allowing the insertion of server executable scripts in web pages. Mostly for Unix, Linux and Solaris platforms.

Search Engine
Computer program used to search and catalog (index) the millions of pages of available information on the web. Common search engines are Google and AltaVista.

SQL Server
A database system from Microsoft. Mostly used on high traffic web sites running on the Windows platform.

Web Services
Software components and applications running on web servers. The server provides these services to other computers, browsers or individuals, using standard communication protocols.

Web Site
A collection of related web pages belonging to a company or an individual.

XML (Extensible Markup Language)
A simplified version of SGML especially designed for web documents, developed by the W3C.