Introduction to Web Programming - Part 2

5 Web Programming Languages

XHTML – Extensible Hypertext Markup Language – is the basic set of programming instructions given to a browser to properly display a page. As a matter of fact, you don’t need any of the other four items listed to display a web page.

HTML files usually have a .htm or .html extension, like index.htm.

CSS – Cascading Style Sheets – is an additional set of instructions added to XHTML to aid in the styling of the display of a web page. CSS can be an extremely powerful tool, particularly when paired with instructions given by javascript.

If CSS is in a separate file that only contains CSS instructions then the file usually has a .css extension like styles.css.

Javascript should not be confused with the programming language Java. They have nothing to do with each other. It’s just one of those charming things that have cropped up that confuse a lot of people. Javascript provides client side programming instructions. These instructions are evaluated by the browser upon an action by the user such as clicking an image, or sometimes when the page is loaded.

An exciting new tool has become available in the last few years called AJAX that uses some special javascript functions to add new functionality to web pages. Unfortunately, it is fairly complicated, and is not suited for use by novice programmers. We will be talking about AJAX quite a bit later on.

If javascript is in a separate file that only contains javascript instructions then the file usually has a .js extension like encrypt.js.

PHP – it doesn’t really stand for anything, it just is – is an open source service side scripting language. PHP is a programming language used on the computer where the website is actually stored and served from. When a webpage is requested by the client browser the PHP statements are evaluated and some sort of XHTML, and possible CSS or javascript is sent to the client machine.

PHP files usually have a.php extension like index.php. The .php extension lets the server know that the file should be evaluated by the PHP processor, and not sent directly to the client browser.

PHP is not the only server side programming language available. There are literally hundreds of available options. We have chosen to use PHP because (1) it’s free, (2) there is a huge network of users all over the world, which means that (3) there is a great deal of support and help available for PHP.

MySQL is an open source database program used to store data on the server. Examples of things that are stored in a MySQL file are user names and passwords for user authentication systems, personal data, even information about the web pages themselves.

Information in a MySQL database is usually read or written using a server side language like PHP. As a matter of fact, PHP has a large number of built in functions specifically written to interface with a MySQL database.

MySQL is not the only database program available. Again, there are hundreds of other options. But, like PHP, we have chosen to use it because (1) it’s free, (2) there is a huge network of users all over the world, which means that (3) there is a great deal of support and help available for MySQL.

PHP-MySQL Hosting Plans

Many hosting companies offer plans that include PHP-MySQL. These plans are often hosted on computers running the LINUX operating system. Frequently Linux-PHP-MySQL plans are more economical than Windows-ASP-MSSQL plans.

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