Useful for:
- People who have some experience of using HTML and want to extend the range of what they want to do
Not relevant for:
- People needing detailed technical information such as scripting guidance and code writing
More technical help:
Use the tags along the bottom of this article to explore other related posts.
When a browser assembles a web page it is using HTML given to it by the web server. However for the developer there are two ways of creating that HTML. Firstly you can just write the HTML and store it in a file say example.com/index.html. Secondly you can create a script that the web server runs, the server then uses that script to create the HTML it then passes to the browser such as southcot.co.uk/index.php. Two of the most frequently used server side technologies are PHP and ASP.
This second option allows much greater flexibility and also means that you can create web pages that are dynamic and modified by other pieces of information. For example you might maintain a database of names and addresses you want to share via your website. Well you could of course create an HTML page with all the names and addresses in. The problem is that if one of the entries in the database changes then you also have to open the HTML and hand edit the details there too. Alternatively you could use say PHP to create a page that each time someone browses to it, opens your database and then creates the HTML on the fly. Then when something changes in the database they are reflected immediately on the website.
Obviously this is a very complex subject. If you are interested in looking deeper then have a look at the links at the top of this page.
If you are interested in having a domain hosted then please look at our prices at southcot.co.uk/Products/Hosting.php if you need a domain first then have a look at our domain pricing at southcot.co.uk/Products/Domains.php. Contact us too if you want any server side development we are always willing to undertake bespoke development tasks.