Technology Definitions
- AJAX
- Asynchronous Javascript and XML is a combination of technologies (Javascript and XML) that allows the content of a web page to be updated or changed without the entire page being reloaded. Traditionally all of the content (images, text, etc.) on a page would have to be reloaded every time a change was made. To see a good example of AJAX you should visit gCensus.
- CMS
- CMS stands for Content Management System. The basic function of a CMS is to provide a way for non-technical web users to edit the content shown on a website. This editing functionality can be as simple as text-only editing and can be sophisticated enough to control all aspects of the website. These systems were once exclusive to very large organizations with dedicated development staffs; however, there are now dozens of CMS packages available on the web. This site runs on the Diesel CMS platform.
- CSS
- CSS stands for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS is used to define the layout and appearance of data on a web page. CSS can be thought of as a layout manager or typesetting manager for HTML. Once upon a time web developers had very little control over the look and feel of a page. What little control we did have was cumbersome and ugly to work with. A simple styling change that needed to be made to multiple pages would have to be performed once for every page. CSS allows the definition of layout to be separated from the content. Now when a styling change needs to be made we change the Style Sheet and it will be changed on every page that it applies to.
- Database
- A database is simply an organized collection of data. This data is normally in some way related and stored on a computer in a systematic way. The term database is ambiguous as it can refer to several pieces of technology that are all involved with the storage, integrety, and retrieval of data.
- Database Management System
- A database management system (DBMS) is a computer software application suite that is designed to manage databases. The DBMS is responsible for all access to the data stored within its databases such as data input, verification, storage, and retrieval. The DBMS is also responsible for the security of the data by controlling access by only those users that have permission.
- Flapper
- Flapper is a technology that I built for D2 Interactive that combines a pure HTML template system with a full Content Management System. Flapper is built on a combination of technologies: Linux, Apache, PHP, PostgreSQL, and mod-Rewrite. Taking the first letters to form the acronym LAPPR lead to the name Flapper.
- HTML
- HTML is an acronym for HyperText Markup Language. It was designed for the creation of web pages that can be displayed using web browsers. The purpose of HTML is to define the structure of the text and not the appearance as is often beleived. The most up-to-date version of HTML is 4.0 and all of the specifications for the language are maintained by the World Wide Web Consortium. HTML is slowly being phased out in favor of XHTML which uses a stricter XML style of formatting.
- Java
- Java is an object-oriented programming language developed by Sun Microsystems in the early 1990s with version 1.0 being released in 1996. James Gosling is considered the inventing father of Java and he is still the primary architect in Java's ongoing evolution. As of early 2006 version Java Standard Edition 6 was in the beta testing phase. Java was intended to replace C++ but instead Java has carved out niche markets that are not suitable for C++. Back in the early 90s there were four areas that C based languages were not well suited to serve: Object-Oriented Programming, Platform Independence, Easy Networking Access, and Remote Code Execution. Gosling and Sun set these as goals for Java and these areas are still considered Java's primary strengths.
- JavaScript
- JavaScript is a client side scripting language that is executed by the user's web browser only after a web page is loaded. JavaScript was originally created by Netscape to allow developers to add some interactivity to static HTML pages. In its early use JavaScript was primarily used to provide useful features such as RollOvers; however, many developers have abused JavaScript in the name of advertising. The dreaded Pop-Up and Pop-Under advertisements are created using JavaScript. It is for this reason that most web browsers now include a built-in Pop-Up blocker system. Thanks to the popularity of AJAX, JavaScript has received a bit of a popularity boost. It should be noted that JavaScript and Java are two different languages and share nothing in common other than having a similar syntax.
- PHP
- PHP is an acronym that stands for "PHP Hypertext Preprocessor", a recursive acronym. PHP is an interpreted programming language that is used primarily for website development. PHP usually works in conjunction with a webserver application such as Apache or Microsoft IIS and with a database such as PostgreSQL or MySQL.
- XML
- XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. XML is a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) initiative that allows all sorts of data to be formated into a meaningful structure with semantics that computers can understand. XML can easily be extended, thus the name extensible, to include user-specified or industry-specified tags. One of the most common forms of XML in use today is RSS.
