Are you a website designer who blissfully lives under the roof of HTML and CSS for majority of his designs? Are you still reluctant to give way to PHP, ASP, NET, JSP, Perl and ColdFusion into your work zone? Well, this may be high time you actually gave them a chance. The new trend in website design is gradually giving more preference to Dynamic web pages that update as per user preferences and actions, rather than dwell staunchly on their initial content. In technical terms, Dynamic web pages are becoming more common and well received by users as compared to static web pages.
Static web pages vs. Dynamic web pages -
Just to make it easier for you to understand, in case you are new to the concept of evolving web pages - static web pages rely heavily on HTML for their framework. However, they lack language compatibilities that make them stagnant as far as loading fresh information is concerned. They are reliant on manual loading of new pages or new segments to show new bits of information. Dynamic web pages on the other hand can read, observe and understand user behaviour and load fresh information depending on quite a number of factors. You may have come across web pages that change its content (and sometimes the layout of the relevant content) according to the time of the day; the viewer's chosen language, viewer's location etc. These are a few factors that contribute towards making a Dynamic webpage more interactive.
What makes Dynamic web pages so receptive?
Dynamic web pages are not made of magic. Even they use basic HTML and CSS for their main framework. But the coders make sure that these constructs understand JavaScript and other languages like PHP and Perl. These languages are capable of making all the necessary changes to the data that are added by the HTML side of the scripting.
What are the technologies that contribute to Dynamic web pages?
There are quite a few languages and technologies that are currently being used extensively to build Dynamic websites. Each of them has their own advantages and some of these technologies can include -
In addition to HTML scripting, a builder has to learn the basic working and principles of any one or more of these languages and remote database services to add the Dynamicity to their native static web pages.
Is there more than one type of Dynamic web pages?
As we already know, Dynamic web pages change their content with time, use and user preferences. What we need to know is, from where these web pages derive the necessary queues to change their displayed information. Based on their sources of queues they can be divided into two broad categories -
- Client side scripting - these web pages do work like techno-magic. They can change tier content in response to actions within the web page. These can be simple keyboard or mouse actions performed by the client. These actions generate client side content that are created on the user's computer. The web browser he uses can download the web page content from the server, proceed to process the code embedded within the web page and update the user's side of the web page content. This is popularly known as DOM or Document Object Model, and it uses JavaScript and HTML to make most of the changes in the page content.
- Server side scripting - this is when the web pages change their content immediately when the web page is loaded. Log in forms, subscription forms and shopping carts are great relatable examples of such server side scripting. So this is what happens, every time your browser is about to receive a version of the Dynamic web page the server automatically updates the page and sends the HTML page to your browser. So you see an updated version of the web page you are working on.
Are all Dynamic web pages database driven?
Database driven web pages are the most common type of Dynamic web pages. This may be one reason we treat them as synonymous to each other. In working terms, this means, you have a web page that can grab all necessary information from a working database and includes that information into the web page in real-time.
Have you seen those banking sites and payment pages that keep updating the amount and other details without any prompting? These are server side Dynamic pages that derive all its current info from another database. You account information is stored in the bank server. Your purchases and transfer activities are read by your side of the browser script and then this information in combination with the information from the database is used to update the information on the web page.
Can you build a Dynamic website with a built-in DBMS?
This is a nascent concept that will allow web pages to load much faster and update its contents in much shorter notice. Even simple scripting languages like PHP, MySQL and HTML can be used to construct these state-of-the art web pages that derive their data from a built-in database. This is an amazing innovation for job portals that need to store and process thousands of entries each day. The inclusion of a built-in database allows the website to process and organize millions of data pieces, and gives the employers' a consolidated view of the applicants' qualifications. Multiple other websites that need to process such huge quantities of data each day are also adopting the built-in DBMS structure; however this requires coding finesse and regular maintenance which can only be performed by resident DBAs.
Dynamic web pages are taking the world by storm. It is the time of fast cars, fast love and fast food, it is no wonder that the world of technology is being dominated by the fast evolving options that allow users to see updated content each time they log in or click an option on a live web page.
Author Bio: Sujain Thomas has been in the realm of webpage design and development for the last 10 years. She loves to learn the new technologies and languages that keep website design alive. She has been dabbling with the integration of web design and remote database services in the recent years. The article above is a result of one of her most recent ventures.RELATED POSTS THAT YOU MIGHT LIKE
