Website Design & Development Glossary

Don't quite understand an abbreviation or term given on this website? This page should help point you in the right direction.

Accessibility

Accessibility is a term used to describe the degree to which a website is accessible by as many people as possible. Accessibility can be viewed as the "ability to access" the functionality, and possible benefit, of a website.

Accessibility is often used to focus on people with disabilities and their right of access to websites, often through use of assistive technology.

ActionScript

ActionScript is a scripting language used primarily for the development of websites and software using the Adobe Flash Player platform.

AJAX

Asynchronous JavaScript And XML (AJAX), a technique used in web application development to help simplify usability and general user experience by returning small amounts of information to the page without the need for a page refresh/load.

ASP

Active Server Pages (ASP) is Microsoft's first server-side script engine for dynamically-generated web pages. ASP pages are primarily written in the VBScript programming language, which was also developed by Microsoft

Blog

A blog (a contraction of the term "Web log") is a Web site, usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.

Many blogs provide commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic.

CMS

A Content Management System (CMS) is a Web-based application, for creating and managing HTML content. It is used to manage and control a large, dynamic collection of Web material (HTML documents and their associated images). A CMS facilitates content creation, content control, editing, and many essential Web maintenance functions.

Cross-Browser Compatibility

Cross-browser compatibility refers to the ability for a website, web application, HTML construct or client-side script to support all the web browsers. The term cross-browser is often confused with multi-browser. Multi-browser means something works with several web browsers. Cross-browser means something works with all versions of all browsers to have existed since the web began.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML.

Database

A database is a structured collection of records or data. A database query language such as mySQL or SQL is used to retrive, edit and delete the data in a controlled environment.

DHTML

Dynamic HTML, or DHTML, is a collection of technologies used together to create interactive and animated web sites by using a combination of a static markup language (such as HTML), a client-side scripting language (such as JavaScript), a presentation definition language (such as CSS), and the Document Object Model.

DNS

The Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical naming system for computers, services, or any resource participating in the Internet. It associates various information with domain names assigned to such participants. Most importantly, it translates domain names meaningful to humans into the numerical (binary) identifiers associated with networking equipment for the purpose of locating and addressing these devices world-wide. An often used analogy to explain the Domain Name System is that it serves as the "phone book" for the Internet by translating human-friendly computer hostnames into IP addresses. For example, www.example.com translates to 208.77.188.166.

Domain Name

The main purpose of a domain name is to provide symbolic representations, i.e., recognizable names, to mostly numerically addressed Internet resources. This abstraction allows any resource (e.g., website) to be moved to a different physical location in the address topology of the network, globally or locally in an intranet, in effect changing the IP address. This translation from domain names to IP addresses (and vice versa) is accomplished with the global facilities of DNS.

DOM

The Document Object Model (DOM) is a platform- and language-independent standard object model for representing HTML or XML documents as well as an Application Programming Interface (API) for querying, traversing and manipulating such documents.

eCommerce

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, consists of the buying and selling of products or services over the internet. Websites that offer products and services available for purchase over the internet are typically know as eCommerce Systems.

eShot

Similar to its snail-mail counterpart the "mailshot", eShot's are bulk email advertising campaigns sent to potential/existing customers to advertise goods or services.

Flash

Flash is a multimedia platform created by Macromedia and currently developed and distributed by Adobe Systems. Since its introduction in 1996, Flash has become a popular method for adding animation and interactivity to web pages; Flash is commonly used to create animation, advertisements, and various web page components, to integrate video into web pages, and more recently, to develop rich Internet applications.

Hosting

Hosting allows individuals and organizations to provide their own website accessible via the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies that provide space on a server they own for use by their clients as well as providing Internet connectivity, typically in a data center.

HTML

HyperText Markup Language (HTML), is the predominant markup language for Web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document — by denoting certain text as links, headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on — and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded images, and other objects. HTML is written in the form of tags, surrounded by angle brackets.

HTML can also describe, to some degree, the appearance and semantics of a document, and can include embedded scripting language code (such as JavaScript) which can affect the behavior of Web browsers and other HTML processors.

HTTP

Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is a communications protocol. Its use for retrieving inter-linked text documents (hypertext) led to the establishment of the World Wide Web.

HTTP development was coordinated by the World Wide Web Consortium and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), culminating in the publication of a series of Requests for Comments (RFCs), most notably RFC 2616 (June 1999), which defines HTTP/1.1, the version of HTTP in common use.

Hyperlink

In computing, a hyperlink is a reference, link, or navigation element in a document to another section of the same document or to another document that may be on or part of a (different) domain.

Intranet

An intranet is a private computer network that uses Internet technologies to securely share any part of an organization's information or operational systems with its employees. Sometimes the term refers only to the organization's internal website, but often it is a more extensive part of the organization's computer infrastructure and private websites are an important component and focal point of internal communication and collaboration.

IP Address

An Internet Protocol (IP) address is a numerical identification (logical address) that is assigned to devices participating in a computer network utilizing the Internet Protocol for communication between its nodes. Although IP addresses are stored as binary numbers, they are usually displayed in human-readable notations,such as 208.77.188.166 (for IPv4), and 2001:db8:0:1234:0:567:1:1 (for IPv6).

The role of the IP address has been characterized as follows: "A name indicates what we seek. An address indicates where it is. A route indicates how to get there."

JavaScript

JavaScript is a scripting language widely used for client-side web development. It is a dynamic, weakly typed, prototype-based language with first-class functions. JavaScript was influenced by many languages and was designed to look like Java, but be easier for non-programmers to work with. Most modern web browsers have JavaScript implemented to enable manipulation of data on the clients computer after a server request has been completed.

JSON

JavaScript Object Notation (JSON), is a lightweight computer data interchange format. It is a text-based, human-readable format for representing simple data structures and associative arrays (called objects).

The JSON format is often used for transmitting structured data over a network connection in a process called serialization. Its main application is in AJAX web application programming, where it serves as an alternative to the use of the XML format.

jQuery

jQuery is a lightweight JavaScript library that emphasizes interaction between JavaScript and HTML. It was released January 2006 at BarCamp NYC by John Resig.

Just like CSS separates "display" characteristics from the HTML structure, jQuery separates the "behavior" characteristics from the HTML structure. This separation of behavior from structure is also referred to as the principle of "Nonobtrusive javascript".

Markup Language

A markup language is an artificial language using a set of annotations to text that give instructions regarding the structure of text or how it is to be displayed. Markup languages have been in use for centuries, and in recent years have also been used in computer typesetting and word-processing systems.

A well-known example of a markup language in use today in computing is HTML, one of the most used in the World Wide Web.

Metadata

Metadata (meta data, or sometimes metainformation) is "data about other data", of any sort in any media. An item of metadata may describe an individual datum, or content item, or a collection of data including multiple content items and hierarchical levels, for example a database schema.

The more common use of the term metadata in web development refers to a number of references made in the head of a html document to aid a web browser or search engine in the interpretation of the document.

Modular Programming

Modular programming is a software design technique that increases the extent to which software is composed from separate parts, called modules. Conceptually, modules represent a separation of concerns, and improve maintainability by enforcing logical boundaries between components.

Modules are typically incorporated into the program through interfaces. A module interface expresses the elements that are provided and required by the module. The elements defined in the interface are visible to other modules. The implementation contains the working code that corresponds to the elements declared in the interface.

mooTools

MooTools is an open source, compact, and modular object-oriented programming JavaScript web application framework. The stated design goal of MooTools is to provide a means for developers to write cross-browser JavaScript in an elegant fashion, which is clearly seen in the many built-in functions for manipulation of CSS. MooTools provides a documented API that is more object-oriented than the standard JavaScript implementation provided by web browsers.

mySQL

MySQL is a relational database management system (RDBMS) which has more than 11 million installations. The program runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases.

Navigable

Navigable is a term used to descibe the ability to navigate through a website with ease. A navigable website governs a simple navigational structure for users to find what they're looking for with a minimum of hassle.

OOP

Object-Oriented Programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm that uses "objects" and their interactions to design applications and computer programs. Programming techniques may include features such as encapsulation, modularity, polymorphism, and inheritance. It was not commonly used in mainstream software application development until the early 1990s. Many modern programming languages now support OOP.

PHP

PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP) is a widely-used general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. It generally runs on a web server, taking PHP code as its input and creating web pages as output. It can be deployed on most web servers and on almost every operating system and platform free of charge. PHP is installed on more than 20 million websites and 1 million web servers.

RSS

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) is a family of Web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works—such as blog entries, news headlines, audio, and video—in a standardized format. An RSS document (which is called a "feed", "web feed", or "channel") includes full or summarized text, plus metadata such as publishing dates and authorship.

Web feeds benefit publishers by letting them syndicate content automatically. They benefit readers who want to subscribe to timely updates from favored websites or to aggregate feeds from many sites into one place. RSS feeds can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader", or "aggregator", which can be web-based or desktop-based.

Search Suggest

Search Suggest is a method pioneered by Google, which offers suggestions to search engine queries while they're being typed. Search Suggest implemented on websites is usually developed using JavaScript and AJAX methods.

SEO

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Typically, the higher a site's "page rank" (i.e, the earlier it comes in the search results list), the more visitors it will receive from the search engine.

Site Map

A site map (or sitemap) is a representation of the architecture of a web site. It can be either a document in any form used as a planning tool for web design, or a web page that lists the pages on a web site, typically organized in hierarchical fashion. This helps visitors and search engine bots find pages on the site.

Social Networking

Social Networking focuses on building online communities of people who share interests and/or activities, or who are interested in exploring the interests and activities of others. Most social network services are web based and provide a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and instant messaging services.

SQL

Structured Query Language (SQL) is a database computer language designed for the retrieval and management of data in relational database management systems (RDBMS), database schema creation and modification, and database object access control management.

SSL

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) is a cryptographic protocol that provides security and data integrity for communications over TCP/IP networks such as the Internet.

Usability

Usability is a term used to denote the ease with which people can use a website. A usable website is a website with no errors or problems when users are trying to achieve a specific goal.

W3C

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards organization for the World Wide Web. It is arranged as a consortium where member organizations maintain full-time staff for the purpose of working together in the development of standards for the World Wide Web.

Web Browser

A Web browser is a software application which enables a user to display and interact with text, images, videos, music, games and other information typically located on a Web page at a Web site on the World Wide Web or a local area network.

Text and images on a Web page can contain hyperlinks to other Web pages at the same or different Web site. Web browsers allow a user to quickly and easily access information provided on many Web pages at many Web sites by traversing these links. Web browsers format HTML information for display, so the appearance of a Web page may differ between browsers.

Web Design

The term Web Design refers to the graphical design of a user interface for a website or online application. The process usually involves conceptualization, planning, modeling, and execution. Web Design can also be used as a loose term for the entire process of building a website.

Web Development

Web development is a broad term for any activity related to developing a web site for the World Wide Web or an intranet. This can include ecommerce business development, web design, web content development, client-side/server-side scripting, and web server configuration.

However, among web professionals, "web development" usually refers only to the non-design aspects of building web sites, e.g. writing markup and coding. Web development can range from developing the simplest static single page of plain text to the most complex web-based internet applications, electronic businesses, or social network services.

Web Maintenance

Web Maintenance refers to the process of keeping a website up-to-date in terms of both readable content and functional code. Keeping a websites content maintained usually involves adding new content and making sure that existing content is accurate. Keeping a websites code maintained usually involves the constant improvement of website functionality and making sure that there are no bugs or inaccuracies in the existing code.

Wordpress

WordPress is a popular open source blog publishing application. WordPress has a templating system, which includes widgets that can be rearranged without editing PHP or HTML code, as well as themes that can be installed and switched between. The PHP and HTML code in themes can also be edited for more advanced customizations.

WWW

The World Wide Web (commonly abbreviated as "the Web") is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet. With a Web browser, one can view Web pages that may contain text, images, videos, and other multimedia and navigate between them using hyperlinks.

XHTML

Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML) is a markup language that has the same depth of expression as HTML, but also conforms to XML syntax.

XML

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages. It is classified as an extensible language, because it allows the user to define the mark-up elements. XML's purpose is to aid information systems in sharing structured data, especially via the Internet.

XSLT

Extensible Stylesheet Language Transformations (XSLT) is an XML-based language used for the transformation of XML documents into other XML or "human-readable" documents. The original document is not changed; rather, a new document is created based on the content of an existing one.