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The
World Wide Web (www) is the universal access method of information through
the Internet, using text and
graphics. The www uses a markup language designed for simplicity and a
flexible structure. This language uses an information format known as
HyperText Transport Protocol (HTTP) to transmit its messages through the
Internet.
The
Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML) is the description of the
language used, namely HyperText Markup Language (HTML), which allows text
and graphics to be displayed through a Web browser. HTML also allows for hyperlinks
which enable different pages or sections of pages to be displayed.
A
deficient characteristic of HTML is the lack of any dynamic interaction
between the page content and the user — that is, does not allow
real-time parameter variations or dynamic content.
To
enable dynamic content to be to
be included in a web page the text and graphics must be delivered to the
user via a Web Server
application specifically designed such that pages are executed by
producing in real-time the correct HTTP for transmission across the
network. At the client (user) end, the browser takes the Incoming stream
and converts it into a page that can be displayed.
Dynamic
Pages
The
ways to create dynamic pages on the fly in response to user requests or
changing information differ depending on the preference of the web site
designer and the required security. Basically these include the following
:
-
CGI, in which one of the applications available for these dynamic pages is through the Common Gateway Interface (CGI), which is a compiled (in binary) form written in any high level programming language, such as C, C++ or BASIC. However, this requires recompilation for any modification to the text or markup that is created.
-
Scripting, an approach for creating a dynamic page using special interpretive languages such as Practical Extraction and Reporting Language (Perl).
Server-Side
Scripting
Using
the scripting approach, an application or add-in accepts a request from
the user, reads and interprets the appropriate server-based script file,
and then creates the output page and communicates it to the Web server,
where it is sent as the response to the client.
Two approaches of scripting are used by Sonfat Computers, depending on the complexity and requirements of the Web pages developed, these are :
-
Active Server Pages (ASP) on a Microsoft Windows NT platform, and
-
Personal Home Page (PHP) on a Unix (Linux) platform.
These
dynamic approaches use connections to your databases for their active and
changing information content.
Microsoft
uses the Internet Information Server (IIS) for Web hosting and implements
its standard Internet Server Application Programming Information (ISAPI).
Figure 1 shows a comparison between how the ASP updates its dynamic information
from the database as compared to the CGI approach.
Fig.
1 CGI and ASP access to Databases
We
advise our customers to use the ASP approach whenever their application is
simple and they already have an existing database which has been developed
with Microsoft’s ACCESS database standard.
Figure
2 shows how the interaction between the Web server and the database takes
place on a Windows NT platform.
Fig.
2 ASP script with ACCESS Database on IIS
The
Unix based system uses Apache for an HTTP Server and implements, amongst
other languages, PHP for scripting purposes. Figure 3 shows how PHP
updates its dynamic information from the database on a Linux platform.
Fig.
3 Linux implementation of PHP access to Databases
We
advise our customers to use the PHP approach whenever their application is
extensive and they already have an existing database which is has been
developed with Structured Query Language (SQL) or is still to be
developed.
Figure
4 shows how the interaction between the Web server and the database takes
place on a Unix / Linux platform.
Fig.
4 PHP script with SQL Database on Apache