QUESTION:

What does “______” mean? A glossary of web-related terms.

Ajax — A method used to create interactive web pages that don’t require the user to have Flash, and without requiring a complete reload of that page.

CSS — “Cascading style sheets.” A method for building web pages which separates the actual content from the way it is styled, making future maintenance much easier, in addition to other benefits. Sometimes also called "web standards."

back end — The part of a software system or computer code that provides structure and function to the site. The back end is not visible to the user.

blog —

1. Short for “web log.” Strictly speaking, a blog is a website where entries are made on a regular basis, and usually displayed in reverse chronological order. “Blog” can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.
2. In parlance specific to ExpressionEngine, “weblog” refers to a collection of data that is input and stored together.

captcha (or CAPTCHA) — This is a contrived acronym for "Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart." It is a test to ensure that the responder is a human and not a computer. The most familiar type of CAPTCHA is one which displays distorted letters or digits on the screen, and requires the user to type those same characters into an input box.

content — This refers to the stuff that fills up your website. While technically it may refer to words, pictures, documents, video, etc., it is also sometimes used to refer just to the text.

content management system, or CMS — A way of building webpages so that frequent updates can be made quickly and easily by people with no knowledge of html; all that’s required is minimal training in the user-friendly interface. Also, the software used for building such a site.

DNS — “Domain Name System.” Think of it as the behind-the-scenes phone book for the internet: it translates URL’s (e.g., http://www.janasnyder.com) into the addresses that networking equipment needs for delivering information (e.g., 321.123.456.78).

domain — As commonly used in reference to the web, the name part of a URL.

dynamic pages — Web pages with content that changes in response to different contexts or conditions.

EE or Expression Engine — This is the brand name of the software we use to create the content management system. “EE pages” means pages that have content (text and pictures) created and/or updated via the EE interface. “EE data containers” are the behind-the-scene database structure that stores, organizes and presents the content.

Flash — The brand name of the software used to create web content with motion, such as scrolling pictures, pictures or words that fade in and out, etc. “Flash pages” means webpages that have one or more areas created in Flash. For a user to see anything created in Flash, they must have Flash Reader. interface — The on-screen system that the user interacts with to achieve a specific goal. For example, when you buy books online, the webpages where you put in your name, address, credit card info, etc. are the interface.

php — A programming language for producing dynamic web pages.

site map — A list and/or diagram showing all the pages in a website and, to some extent, their relation to each other.

static pages — Webpages whose content does not change on a regular basis; not built with any means for in-house updates. Or, pages that do not change in response to user actions.

URL — “Uniform Resource Locator” or “Universal Resource Locator.” the human-readable “address” for a given website or webpage: “www.pagenamehere.com”.

web standards — See "CSS".

Some of these definitions are original, and some are copied in whole or in part from http://en.wikipedia.org, an excellent source of further information.

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