5CC001 Web Application

Development

Dynamic websites

Alix Bergeret v3.0

Dynamic website construction

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Dynamic website?
Client-side scripting
Server-side scripting
Client-side or server-side?
PHP

1. Dynamic website?
Classical

hypertext navigation, with HTML

or XHTML alone, provides static content,
meaning that the user requests a web page
and simply views the page and the
information on that page.

1. Dynamic website?
However

the content of a dynamic page

might differ depending on:
data

in a posted HTML form

parameters in the URL
the type of browser being used
the passage of time
a cookie, session, database or server state
Examples

on next slides
4

1. Dynamic website?
The

content
displayed on the
Amazon home
page depends on:
Time

of the year
Previous
purchases
Stock availability

1. Dynamic website?
The

content of the
search result page
depends on the
keywords you
types in the search
box

1. Dynamic website?
I

think the most significant change in web

design this decade has been the evolution
to building dynamic sites.
Chris Coyier, .net magazine, April 2010

1. Dynamic website?
Most

websites we use every day are

dynamic (facebook, hotmail, youtube)
They

are often created with the help of serverside languages such as PHP, Perl, ASP,
ASP.NET, JSP, ColdFusion and other
languages.

Smaller

businesses still use static websites

(aka Billboard websites)
Here

is my favourite Keswick B&B (Alix )

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2. Client side scripting

3. Server side scripting

10

4. Client side or server side?

Client side
Responses

to interaction are more

immediate
Secure (data doesnt leave your computer)
Plug-in/Browser Dependant

E.g. You must have JavaScript enabled

Processor

is bottleneck

Faster your processor, faster the website

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4. Client side or server side?

Server side
Better

for more complex processes that

involve multiple resources, i.e. databases,
files
Security concerns

Sensitive data sent out

Independent

No specific browser/plug-ins required

Connection/Remote

Processor are

bottlenecks
12

4. Client side or server side?

For some applications, you dont have a
choice:
Animated menu, pop-ups, scrolling text

It

needs to be instant => Client side

Access to a database or a file on the

server
Needs

access to server => Server side

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4. Client side or server side?

For other applications, both are possible

User

input validation
Drop-down list population

Which one should you go for?

14

4. Client side or server side?

Languages
Client

side:

JavaScript, VBScript

Server

Older executed by operating system

side:

C, Perl, Shell Scripts, CGI

Newer executed by web server

PHP, ASP, JSP, Cold Fusion, Python,

15

5. PHP
PHP is a widely used, general-purpose scripting
language that was originally designed for web
development, to produce dynamic web pages.
It can be embedded into HTML and generally runs
on a web server, which needs to be configured to
process PHP code and create web page content
from it.
It can be deployed on most web servers and on
almost every operating system and platform free
of charge.
PHP is installed on over 20 million websites and 1
million web servers.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PHP)
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5. PHP

How can it be used?

Websites
Command
GUI

Cross Platform
Windows

(all?) webservers - IIS, PWS, Apache, etc.

Output formats
Any

/ Linux / Unix / MacOS / etc.

Integration
Most

Line

- XML, XHTML, HTML, PDF, Flash, etc.

Object Orientated or Procedural

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5. PHP
Parsing
Passes

the text of the file back to the webserver until it encounters <?
Executes PHP commands until it finds a ?>
Multiple <? ?> are allowed within a PHP file

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5. PHP is relevant
244M
Can

sites as of January 2013

you name a couple?

Source: http://php.net/usage.php - Usage Stats for January 2013

19

5. PHP is relevant

Source: http://www.tiobe.com/tpci.htm - The Programming Community Index

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What we have covered today

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.

Dynamic website?
Client-side scripting
Server-side scripting
Client-side or server-side?
PHP

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