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In our time of impetuous progress you can hardly amaze anyone with nicely presented text and images on your website. And requirements which websites should meet have changed very much; now to represent your company on the Internet successfully (and this is what you develop your website for, isn't it?) you should provide your visitors with various features and opportunities: feedback tools, mailing list subscriptions, RSS feeds, search tools, and so forth, and so on.
You cannot achieve it using common HTML as HTML is just a markup language, a tool for creating hyperlinks, inserting images, tables etc. Let us give a simple example. Using the hypertext markup language you can create a request form very quickly and easily. Such form will have all necessary attributes: a text input field, a send button. But what will happen when you click on this button? In most cases – not a single thing. You have not set the sequence of actions that should be performed in order to achieve the result. Therefore development of interactive components is the task for web development (web programming).
Let us take a closer look at web development and try to figure out why we need it.
Web development is accomplished with the help of special software tools – scripts. These software tools are subdivided into two main types: server-side scripts and client-side scripts. Server-side scripts are executed on the side of the server, i.e. the computer where the site is located. They are executed before the site pages are loaded on the user's computer. In their turn, client-side scripts are executed on the client's computer after the page has been loaded from the server; they do not require additional page refreshment.
Programming languages used for writing both kinds of scripts are various. Some of these languages are used for development of server-side scripts only, others – for writing client-side scripts, and many languages allow to create both kinds of scripts.
So what are the most widespread web development technologies?
Client-side scripts are usually developed with the help of such programming languages and application frameworks as JavaScript, VBScript, SilverLight, Adobe Flash etc. For example, to use JavaScript or VBScript on a website you don't need any additional plug-ins or software applications – you can simply insert the script into the HTML code of the site page. The script is executed directly in the user's web browser, therefore the client computer also will not need any additional software. What does JavaScript allow to do? With its help you can track any actions of the site visitors and respond to them, for example, check the correctness of information typed into the request form right in the browser without having to upload information on the server and wait for its response.
You can create animated menu items, advertising web banners or other animated effects on your website with the help of Adobe Flash or similar technology powered by Microsoft – SilverLight. These technologies also allow to create client-side scripts. The opportunities of Flash technologies are really huge: with its help you can create drop-down menus, active element highlighting, moving background or other objects. These technologies are even used for writing online games.
As far as server-side scripting technologies are concerned, the most well-known technologies are PHP, Perl, ASP.NET.
PHP web programming language is widely known and actively used thanks to its simple syntax, high performance and support by most hosting services. Just like JavaScript, a PHP script is simply inserted into the code of an HTML page, and it doesn't require any additional browser extensions to be executed. Many content management systems (CMSs) (for example, WordPress) are written in PHP.
ASP.NET is a technology developed by Microsoft Corporation and orientated towards Microsoft Windows operating system; Perl technology is designed for Unix operating systems. Both of them are popular enough; the use of these technologies on a site allows to process thousands of requests a day.
Thus using a certain web development technology (either a client-side or a server-side one) a developer can enrich his site with various interactive facilities which include:
- feedback tools (postal forms, guestbooks);
- mailing tools (for sending price lists, news);
- content management system (CMS);
- animated menu items, backgrounds, advertising movies;
- search tools;
- tools for online communication (online chats);
- polls etc.
To sum everything up we would like to mention that the ultimate aim of website development is to provide the user with information, ensure its convenient and accessible representation, keep an eye on its relevance and usefulness. To skillfully use the technologies of web development for information management means to make one more step towards the achievement of the cherished aim!
TAGS
web development,
server-side scripts,
client-side scripts,
javascript,
flash,
vbscript,
silverlight,
perl,
aspnet,
website development,
web programming |
web programming 
