Jargon Explained

Too many web development companies use technical jargon which clients don't understand. At elaborations we explain everything in simple terms if you are not so clued up in all the techy jargon, but just in case you come across certain terms whilst browsing the web, here's an A-Z glossay you can use as reference.

Domain Name

This is the unique label that identifies a specific website. Typically, domain names convey information about a site and are easier to remember than the associated numeric IP address.

Content Management

A system that allows the owner of a web site to edit the site's content (the text) using simple online web forms. It allows site owners with no technical knowledge to make changes and updates to their site.

Cookie

A small ID stored on a surfer's computer that points to data stored on a web server. This allows the server to keep information about a surfer across multiple pages or visits -- for example, shopping cart or member data.

Domain Name

A name, such as google.com, that is translated into the address of a computer on the Internet.

Dynamic Pages

Web pages that are created on the fly by programs running on a web server. Dynamic pages do not exist as files, but are assembled upon request from a variety of data. The programs that create dynamic pages are written in programming languages such as PHP, Perl, or Ruby.

E-Commerce

Online shopping. An e-commerce site usually advertises products and allows vistors to purchase them by adding them to a virtual 'shopping cart' and then sending their credit card details over a secure, encrypted connection to pay for the selected items.

File Transfer Protocol (FTP)

A protocol that allows files to be transferred between computers. FTP is often used to upload pages to web sites or download files from them.

Firewall

A technology that blocks users of the Internet from accessing all or parts of a private network or server.

Flash

A technology developed by the Macromedia company (now part of Adobe) that allows the development of complex animations, very compact graphics files, film clips, and other rich content. To view Flash media, a web surfer's browser must be able to display them, either by having Flash support built in or by having a Flash plugin installed. Most, but certainly not all, web surfers are able to view Flash files. Flash is a client-side programming technology.

Host (Web host)

The server that stores your web site and delivers the web pages to surfers. Web hosts are offered by hosting companies or by Internet Service Providers (ISPs).

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML)

The code that tells a web browser how to display a web page.

Hypertext Tranfer Protocol (HTTP)

A protocol for transferring text over the Internet, used by web browsers to fetch web pages.

IP (Internet Protocol) Address

An IP Address is a unique number assigned to most web servres and other computers connected to the Internet. It's used by DNS Servers to find out what server to send a Browser to when you're typing in a domain name.

PHP

A server-side programming language that web developers use to generate dynamic web pages. PHP is a very popular open-source technology that programmers can use for free. There are currently millions of web pages generated by PHP.

Payment Gateway - PSP (Payment Service Provider)

A payment gateway is a service that connects your online store with your merchant account provider. This service reads the information from the order forms and translated that information for the merchant account. The payment gateway also verifies that the customer's credit card account has the necessary credit available for the purchase.

Merchant Account

A type of bank account that enables you to accept and process credit card payments online. Merchant accounts handle fraud checks on each transaction and manage the transfer of funds from your customer's credit card to your bank account. You must have a merchant account in order to perform online credit card transactions. Additionally, you will need an online payment gateway. In some cases these are included with a merchant account.

Meta Tag

Special HTML code providing information about a web page. It does not control how the page looks, but may provide data useful to search engines or browsers, such as keywords, page title, author, language (English, German), etc.

Secure Pages

Web pages and online forms where sensitive data, like credit card details, are tranferred over the Internet. A form of encryption called SSL ensures the security of the data.

Server-side Programming

Refers to progamming done on the web server, usually using languages like PHP, Perl, or Ruby. Online shops, message boards, blogs, and search engines all use a lot of server-side programming. Web browsers receiving the generated web pages needn't know anything about which language the server used to generate them. Web developers can therefore decide what server-side programming language to use without regard for browser requirements. (This is in contrast to client-side programming, which runs in the web browser.)

Static Pages

Web pages that correspond to simple files stored on a web server. In contrast to dynamic pages -- which programs assemble on the fly when they're requested -- static pages are simply sent as-is to the web surfer. Static pages are usually delivered more quickly than dynamic ones.

SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)

A method of ensuring that information submitted through your website is secure and cannot be accessed by unauthorised users. Information submitted via an SSL-secured form is transmitted in an encrypted state

URL

A URL, or Uniform Resource Locator, is like a file path that describes the location of a web page on a server on the Internet. The URL includes the domain name identifying the server, and optionally, additional information identifying a particular web page on that server. A URL may also contain information used by a program (written in PHP, Perl, Ruby, etc) to generate a page.

Web Site

A collection of web pages and programs for generating web pages on a web server. "Web site" means the web pages whose locations are described by a particular domain name. A web site may be small, containing just a few files, or it may contain thousands of files and complex programming.

Web Space

The amount of allocated file storage you are given on the server. You use this space to store files, web pages, databases and graphics. Web space is always measured in MB (megabytes)