Jul 31, 2010

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- A -

AJAX

AJAX is an acronym referring to "Asynchronous Javascript and XML". AJAX isn't so much a programming language, but more of a technique used to create interactive Web 2.0 pages. Using AJAX, web developers can retrieve data from the web server asynchronously (in the background) without interfering with the display or behavior of the page. AJAX can also be used to reduce the number of page loads and even the load on the web server and therefore bandwidth.

- C -

CMS

Content Management System. An application that allows the user to easily create and update content for their website. Drupal and Mambo are examples of Content Management Systems.

Control Panel

A Control Panel refers to the user interface provided by web hosting companies that is used to maintain a hosted web site. Using a hosting company's Control Panel, you can upload files and set file permissions, create and edit databases, configure email accounts and examine user statistics. Exact features and the usage of a Control Panel will vary depending on your web hosting company.

- D -

Database

A Database is an indexed collection of data that is stored and can be quickly recalled. The structure is achieved by organizing the data according to a database model. A popular database application used today on many web site is MySQL. This largely because it is open source, free and already installed and available by most hosing companies. Other databases include Oracle, PostgreSql, and Microsoft SQL Server.

Digg

A commmunity-based web site where members submit and rate web content by "Digging" what they see and like. More popular submissions are shown on the Digg homepage. The web site was launched in Nov 2004.

DNS

Domain Name Service. An Internet service that translates domain names into IP addresses. Domain names are easier to remember for humans, but the Internet is based on IP adresses, so DNS is used to translate easy to remember names into the addresses that the Internet needs.

Domain

One or more computers on a network that are administered as a unit. The Internet defines domains by their IP address. All computers using a common part of the IP address are considered to be in the same domain.

- F -

File Permissions

File Permissions refers to a file system's ability of allowing some users or groups access to a given file, while blocking other users access to the file. These access rights control the ability of users to view or make changes to a file. On most Unix based systems, individual file permissions can be set by the owner to allow who has access to a file. Windows (and DOS) systems do not have permissions, but there is a "read-only" attribute that can be set/unset by any user on any file. For more information on File Permissions, see Wikipedea.

- H -

HTTP

HyperText Transfer Protocol. An Internet protocol that provides the ability to transfer HyperText documents (or web pages).

- R -

Root Directory

The Root Directory is the first or top-most directory in the file system's hierarchy. All other file system entries, including mounted partitions and user directories are "branches" from this root. The Root Directory can be denoted with a single slash ('/').

- S -

Search Engine

A Web Search Engine is an application that is designed to search for information on the World Wide Web. The types of information that a Search Engine indexes vary, but can consist of web pages, documents, images, etc. Some of the more popular Search Engines include Google, Yahoo, and MSN, or Live.

Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization, or SEO, is a technique whereby one can increase the volume of traffic to their website from search engines. The basis of the technique takes into account how search engines work and what people search for. Optimizing a web site requires focusing on the contents of individual pages, and the HTML used to display the page in order to increase the relavance of specific keywords and improve the search engine's ability to index the page. SEO requires contant change, as Search Engines are always updating their algorithms and other web site owners are always changing their pages in hope of increasing their Page Rank. For more on SEO, you can visit Wikipedia.org or visit our Articles Page.

Session Information

Session Information is a collection of data that is stored by a web server for each individual web browser that is visting a web site. Since the HTTP protocol is a "stateless" protocol (meaning that no information about other HTTP connections is included with a given HTTP connection), programmers have devised ways of enabling web servers to differentiate one user's session from another. This is often does with the use of Session Cookies, and then storing session data on the web server and associating it with a specific user.

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer. A protocol used in transfering encrypted data. SSL uses a system employing two keys to encrypt data - a public key and a private key.

- T -

TLD

Top Level Domain. This is the name for the suffix used in domain names. There are a number of predefined suffixes, some examples are:

.com - commercial
.gov - U.S. government
.edu - educational institutions
.org - organizations
.mil - military
.ca - Canada
.nz - New Zealand

- U -

URL

Uniform Resource Locator. This the fancy name given to your site's web address.

A URL consists of four parts: protocol://address[:port]/[file]
Protocol specifies how the resource should be accessed, HTTP and FTP are examples. The address is either a domain name or an IP address and denotes where the resource is located. The optional port specifies how the resource is accessed, if not using the default port for the given protocol. Finally, the file is the exact name of the resource at the specified location.