Web Technology

Web design and Development is the skill of designing hypertext presentations of content that is delivered to an end-user through the World Wide Web, by way of a Web browser or other Web-enabled software like Internet television clients, micro blogging clients and RSS readers.

The process of designing Web pages, Web sites, Web applications or multimedia for the Web may utilize multiple disciplines, such as animation, authoring, communication design, corporate identity, graphic design, human-computer interaction, architecture, interaction, photography, search engine optimization and typography.

Involved technologies may include

Markup languages (such as XHTML and XML)
Style sheet languages (such as CSS and XSL)
Client-side scripting (such as JavaScript and VBScript) Server-side
scripting (such as PHP, ASP.NET and J2EE)
Database technologies (such as MySQL, MSSQL)
Multimedia technologies(such as Flash and Silver light)

A Comparison of Three Major Platforms

A comprehensive look at Linux/ Apache/ MySQL / PHP(LAMP) vs. Microsoft's ASP.NET vs. Sun's Java 2 Enterprise Edition(J2EE)

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Services

Website Development Software Development Domain Registration Web Hosting Search Engine Optimization Custom Software Development

Area	LAMP	ASP.NET	J2EE
Licensing cost	No licensing cost	Expensive licensing cost	No licensing cost
Support options & cost	Free support via community Paid support options available	Free support via community Paid support options available	Free support via community Paid support options available
Platform(s)	Multiple	Windows only	Multiple
Hardware Costs	Runs on very inexpensive servers	Requires slightly more expensive servers	Requires expensive servers
Staffing	Somewhat difficult to find qualified people	Very easy to find qualified people	Reasonably easy to find qualified people
External Hosting	Widely available and inexpensive	Widely available, but more expensive	Not widely available
Security	Very good	Historically very bad, but improved recently	Good
Performance	Very good	Often requires more expensive hardware to perform well	Often requires substantial configuration & expensive hardware
Scalability	Scales very well	Can be difficult to scale	Scales well when configured properly
Administration	Difficult: Often requires reading documentation & editing text files	Easy: Often can be done through point & click interface	Moderate: Sometimes can be done visually
Configuration ease of use	Can be difficult to configure properly	Easy to configure	Moderately difficult to configure
Configuration flexibility	Extremely flexible	Not very flexible	Moderately flexible
Framework(s)	Many available often difficult to choose	One standardized framework	One standardized framework
Components	Widely available	Widely available	Widely available
Compatibility	Very good: New versions usually backwards-compatible	Moderate: New versions often break functionality	Bad: Many problems between old & new versions

Web pages and Web sites can be static pages, or can be programmed to be dynamic pages that automatically adapt content or visual appearance depending on a variety of factors, such as input from the end-user, input from the Webmaster or changes in the computing environment (such as the site's associated database having been modified).

With growing specialization within communication design and information technology fields, there is a strong tendency to draw a clear line between web design specifically for web pages and web development for the overall logistics of all web-based services.

A web site is a collection of information about a particular topic or subject. Designing a web site is defined as the arrangement and creation of web pages that in turn make up a web site. A web page consists of information for which the web site is developed. A web site might be compared to a book, where each page of the book is a web page.

There are many aspects (design concerns) in this process, and due to the rapid development of the Internet, new aspects may emerge. For non-commercial web sites, the goals may vary depending on the desired exposure and response. For typical commercial web sites, the basic aspects of design are:

The content: The substance and information on the site should be relevant to the site and should target the area of the public that the website is concerned with.

The usability: the site should be user-friendly, with the interface and navigation simple and reliable.

The appearance: the graphics and text should include a single style that flows throughout, to show consistency. The style should be professional, appealing and relevant.

The visibility: the site must also be easy to find via most, if not all, major search engines and advertisement media.

A web site typically consists of text and images. The first page of a web site is known as the Home page or Index. Some web sites use what is commonly called a Splash Page. Splash pages might include a welcome message, language or region selection, or disclaimer. Each web page within a web site is an HTML file which has its own URL. After each web page is created, they are typically linked together using a navigation menu composed of hyperlinks. Faster browsing speeds have led to shorter attention spans and more demanding online visitors and this has resulted in less use of Splash Pages, particularly where commercial web sites are concerned.

Once a web site is completed, it must be published or uploaded in order to be viewable to the public over the internet. This may be done using an FTP client. Once published, the web master may use a variety of techniques to increase the traffic, or hits, that the web site receives. This may include submitting the web site to a search engine such as Google or Yahoo, exchanging links with other web sites, creating affiliations with similar web sites, etc.