Glossary

.NET

The Microsoft .NET Framework is a technology for building applications. It includes a large library of pre-coded solutions to common programming problems, e.g. validate a date.

Access

Microsoft Access is a product that contains a database and application building tools, e.g. a form wizard. It is often used for small databases as it is quick to develop.

Adwords

This is the name that Google gives to its advertising products. You can pay to have your site appear at the top of the listings. It is a useful way for a new site to get seen by customers. It helps if you are very focussed in your marketing strategy and put a cap on your budget.

Analytics

This the name for the product that Google has to allow you to see how people are finding your site. It shows, for example, keyphrases used, referring sites and time on site. This is a very good measure of how many are real customers not just people who have found you by accident!

ASP

Active Server Pages, a web-scripting interface by Microsoft

Autoresponder

Autoresponders generate those canned messages that you receive when you email someone. They are commonly used to automatically reply to people who email you that you have received their message and will get back to them in person

Browser

A program used to view web pages. Examples include Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and Google's Chrome

C#

C# is a programming language developed by Microsoft as part of the .NET initiative.

Cascading Style Sheets

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language. It ensures a consistent look a feel for your website. For example, headings are in a particular font and colour.

CMS Made Simple (CMSMS)

CMSMS is an open source content management system, which allows non-technical users to manage their own website content.

Content Management System

These systems are similar to site builders, in that you can maintain your own website without having to write any code. However, they are much more flexible than site builders. CMSMS, Joomla, and Contentissimo are examples of CMSs.

Contentissimo

A content management system developed by Alberon.

Customised Error pages

Typically if you click on a link and the web page is not there you get 'Error 404'. You might prefer something more friendly like: 'Sorry we could not find the page you wanted. Please bear with us whilst the website is being constructed.'

Database

A database is a structured collection of records or data that is stored in a computer system. The structure is achieved by organizing the data according to a database model. The model in most common use today is the relational model.

eCommerce

Electronic business. For a website this typically includes a database of products and prices, a shopping cart and checkout procedures.

Flash

Adobe Flash (previously called Shockwave Flash and Macromedia Flash) is a set of multimedia software created by Macromedia and currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages.

FTP

File Transfer Protocol. This is typically used to transfer files from a PC to a server, e.g. images and new pages for a website

Hosting

Hosting is where one company allows you to put your web site or database on their computer. Naturally there is a charge for this.

HTML

HTML, stands for HyperText Markup Language. It is the predominant markup language for Web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document- by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on - and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded images, and other objects.

IndexU

IndexU is a software package by Nicecoder for building and managing online directories.

JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language most often used for client-side web development. Its logo is a coffee cup.

Joomla

Joomla is a free content management system (CMS) written in the programming language PHP and using the database engine MySQL. It has won the "Best PHP Open Source CMS" award twice.

Keyphrases

The combinations of words that people use in a search engine to find a website

Linux

Another operating system similar to UNIX that is used to host Open Source applications

Meta-data

Data about data, e.g. categories of products. On a website this will include data about the site such as the brief description of the site that appears underneath the site name in a Google listing.

MSXML

Microsoft XML Core Services (MSXML) is a set of services that allow applications written in JScript, VBScript, and Microsoft development tools to build Windows-native XML-based applications

MySQL

MySQL is a database that runs under LINUX. It is the database used by CMSMS, Joomla and Wordpress.

Open Source Software

Open source software (OSS) began as a marketing campaign for free software. It allows users to use, change, and improve the software, and to redistribute it in modified or unmodified form.

Operating System

This is the basics software that runs on a computer. It allows you, for example, to find a file on a disc without having to know the numeric address on the disc.

Perl

A scripting language often used for scripting on a Linux or Unix server

PHP

PHP is a computer scripting language. Originally designed for producing dynamic web pages, it has evolved to include a command line interface capability and can be used in standalone graphical application.

POP3

A protocol used by an email client to talk to a server

Search Engine

A website that lets you search for other sites using a combination of words. Google is an example

Search Engine Optimisation

The process of making your site appear high in the rankings for Search Engines such a Google.

Server

Web sites and databases need a computer to run on. For single-user systems this could be a PC but it is more likely to be something larger. The server can run a Microsoft operating system or something like Linux or Unix.

Server Side Includes

Server Side Includes are files that have some commonly used code that can be reused by many pages in your site. For example, you might have a web site with links at the top, bottom and sides common to all pages. The scripts are often written in Perl, PHP, ASP or JSP.

SHTML

The file extension used for HTML when run on a server, e.g. for Server Side Includes

Site Builder

This generic term is used to cover products that help you build web sites. They are very quick and easy to use but often do not allow you to add any custom code, e.g. your own HTML

SQL

Structured Query Language. This is used to get information out of databases. Increasing we refer to databases that support that standard as SQL databases e.g. Microsoft's SQL server or MySQL

SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server is a database produced by Microsoft. Microsoft Access applications can run on SQL Server.

Symfony

Easy to use framework to build web applications

UNIX

An operating system for servers.

Wordpress

A content management system that is particularly good for managing blogs.

WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get
Allows you to edit a web page similar to how you would edit a Word document, instead of having to write complicated HTML code.

XHTML

The Extensible Hypertext Markup Language, or XHTML, is a markup language that has the same depth of expression as HTML, but also conforms to XML syntax

XML

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) allows information systems to share structured data, particularly via the Internet.