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• Glossary of Terms

Glossary of Terms

AJAX
A group of interrelated web development techniques used on the client-side to create asynchronous web applications

Authentication
A procedure that insures that digital data transmissions are delivered to the intended receiver.

Bandwidth
A term used to describe the data carrying capacity of a connection. It is usually measured in bits or bytes per second.

Browser
Interface to the World Wide Web that interprets coded web pages into viewable pages. Allows for easy navigation across the Internet.

CGI
Common Gateway Interface. A set of rules for running programs from a HTTP web server. This allows for information to be passed from the browser to the server.

CSS
Cascading Style Sheets. The language used to describe how an HTML or XHTML document should be formatted affecting the appearance in a web browser.

Cyberspace
Used loosely to refer to the Internet or the World Wide Web. A virtual world composed of computers and the connections between them.

DNS
Domain Name System. Translates domain names into internet addresses, or a series of numbers such as 11.111.11.11

Domain Name
The text name corresponding to the numeric IP address of a computer on the internet. It is used to specify the address, or URL of a website.

eCommerce
Conducting business, in the form of buying, selling and marketing goods and services online.

Encryption
The process of changing data into a form that can only be read by the intended receiver using a key.

FTP
File Transfer Protocol. Used to transfer files between computers, such as installing websites on a host's server.

GIF
Graphics Interchange Format. A compact file format that is ideal for graphics that use few colors. GIFs are limited to up to 256 colors.

Hit
A request made to a web server. Commonly misused to describe the number of visitors to a site. One visitor may produce several hits per page.

Home Page
A home page serves as a site's starting point and introduction page.

HTML
Hypertext Markup Language. A group of formatting commands consisting of tags, attributes and content, that are used to create web pages.

HTML5
Hypertext Markup Language version 5. This is the new standard put forth by the W3C to handle websites and pages into the foreseeable future.

HTTP
Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Used to transmit and receive data over the World Wide Web.

Hyperlink
Usually an underlined word that when clicked, takes you to another web page. Any code that refers you to another page.

IP address
Internet Protocol Address. A unique string of numbers that identifies a computer on the internet. The numbers are separated by periods, and look like this: 11.111.11.11.

JavaScript
Code that can be added to standard HTML to create interactive documents.

JPEG
Joint Photographic Experts Group. A compressible file format for color rich images.

Mobile Application
A software application that runs in a handheld device such as a smartphone.

Protocol
Communication rules that computers use to transfer data. This is needed because of the many different types of computers and operating systems.

Shopping Cart
An application used on eCommerce sites that let you buy more than one item, and pay for it with one payment.

Spam
Unsolicited email, usually advertisements sent to a large group of people.

URL
Uniform Resource Locator. The internet equivalent to an address. The address of a web site, containing the protocol, domain name and optionally a directory.

Web Application
An application that is accessed over a network such as the Internet or an intranet.

World Wide Web
A visual part of the internet that lets you visit a site, and surf using hyperlinks. A client/server hypertext system for retrieving information across the internet.

XHTML
Extensible hypertext markup language. A more strict reformulation of HTML as an application of the XML language.

XML
Extensible markup language. A flexible language used to create common information formats and share both the format and the data over the internet.