There are literally hundreds of difficult technologies available to the
webmaster. Making proper use of these technologies allows the creation of
maintainable, efficient and useful web sites. For example, using SSI
(server side includes) or CSS (cascading style sheets) a webmaster can
change every page on his web site by editing one file.
A few of the more common technologies are listed below.
- ASP
- Active Server Pages are used to perform server-side scripting. This
is a way to get things done on the web server, as opposed to, say,
JavaScript, which lets you get things one on the client (browser).
Although there is a Unix and Linux version of ASP, it is primarily
intended for use on Microsoft web server based systems.
ASP is useful for tasks such as maintaining a database, creating dynamic
pages and respond to user queries (and many other things as well).
- CGI
- Common Gateway Interface is one of the older standards on the
internet for moving data between a web page and a web server. CGI is by
far and away the most commonly used method of handling things like
guestbooks, email forms, message boards and so on. CGI is actually a
standard for passing data back and forth and not a scripting language at
all. In fact, CGI routines are commonly written in interpreted languages
such as PERL or compiled languages like C.
- CSS
- You use Cascading Style Sheets to format your web pages anyway that
you want. CSS is complicated, but the complication pays off by being
able to create web pages that look much better than otherwise. One very
nice feature is the ability to define formatting commands in a single
file, which is then included in all of your web pages. This let's you
make one change to modify the look of your entire site.
- HTACCESS
- The .htaccess file allows you to set parameters for your web site
and folders (directories). The most common use is to protect directories
by defining usernames and passwords. Htaccess can be used for many other
things as well, including denying access to specific addresses, keeping
out hostile spiders and redirecting traffic transparently to the user.
The downside of htaccess is the language used is often extremely
obscure, difficult to understand and extraordinarily precise. A small
error in your htaccess file can disable your entire web site until the
error is fixed.
- Java
- Java is a client-side (meaning it's executed by the browser not the
server) language. It is efficient and very powerful. The primary
advantage of Java over ActiveX is Java has a sane security model (called
the Sandbox Model), while the ActiveX model is so imbecilic as to defy
imagination. Java is also much less likely to crash systems. On the
other hand, Java is substantially slower than ActiveX, and there are
many tasks that simply cannot be performed in Java because it is denied
access to the operating system and disk itself.
- JavaScript
- This is a scripting language which is interpreted and executed by
the browser. It is very useful for getting tasks done on the client,
such as moving pictures around the screen, creating very dynamic
navigation systems and even games. JavaScript is generally preferable on
internet sites because it is supported on more browsers than VBScript,
which is the chief competitor.
- Office
- The Microsoft Office suite includes a number of tools, including
Word, Excel, Access and Powerpoint. Each of these tools has the ability
to save in HTML format and has special commands for the internet. This
is especially useful, for example, if you work in an office where people
are trained in Excel and you don't want to retrain them to create web
pages. On the other hand, if you are creating internet web sites (as
opposed to intranet sites) you probably would be better off using web
specific products to edit your web pages.
- Perl
- A great scripting language which makes use of the CGI standard to
allow work to be done on the web server. PERL is very easy to learn (as
programming languages go) and straightforward to use. It is most useful
for guestbooks, email forms and other similar, simply tasks. PERL's
primary disadvantage is the overhead on the server is very high, as one
process is created each time a routine is called, and the language is
interpreted, which means the code is recompiled each time it is run. For
complex tasks, a server-side scripting language such as PHP or ASP is
much preferred.
- PHP
- This language is, like ASP, used to get work done on the server. PHP
is similar in concept to ASP and can be used in similar circumstances.
PHP is very efficient, allows access to databases using products such as
MySQL, and can be used to create very dynamic web pages.
- SSI
- If your site is hosted on a typical Apache server, then you probably
can use something called Server Side Includes. This is a way to get the
web server to perform tasks before displaying a web page. One of
the most common uses us to, well, include common text. This is great
when you have, for example, a navigation system which is common to all
of your pages. You can make one change in an SSI file and thus change
your entire web site.
SSI is very common but has really been superceded by languages such as
PHP. The overhead of SSI on the server is high as each page is scanned
for SSI directives before passing it to the browser.
- VBScript
- Visual Basic Scripting was Microsoft's answer to JavaScript.
VBScript is a good tool for any site which is intended to be only
displayed by the Internet Explorer browser. In my opinion, VBScript
should never be used on a web site - JavaScript is preferable due to a
wider acceptance among browsers.
Unless otherwise noted, all photos and text is Copyright © Richard G Lowe, Jr.
