Web sites: static versus dynamic
From Wiki @ Karl Jones dot com
Websites typically have one of two structures:
- Static web pages
- Dynamic web pages
A website is typically made up of all static pages, or all dynamic pages.
It is possible for a website to combine static pages with dynamic pages, but this would be an exception requiring an exceptional reason.
Static web pages
- Each web page represented by a single text file
- File has extension .htm or .html
- File contains HTML (often CSS and JavaScript as well)
- Files that are in subfolders on the server are represented as subfolders in the page URL
- Default page is typically named index.html
- File can be edited in text editor
- Manage files using File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Dynamic web pages
- Dynamic in either or both of two ways:
- Client-side dynamic
- Server-side dynamic
Dynamic web sites can be either or both.
Sites that use both are typically use Ajax.
Client-side dynamic
- Page content is generated and modified by in the web browser (the client)
- Web browsers run JavaScript
- Typically implemented using library or framework, for example:
- File can be edited in text editor
- Manage files using File Transfer Protocol (FTP)
Server-side
- Content is generated by a server-side program
- Web pages are generated by the program -- in effect, the program is a "URL engine"
- There are no individual files for individual web pages
- Typically architectures:
- Server-side architectures typically use a database such as MySQL
- Typically edit content using a web browser
- Administrative control panel with username and password
