ActionScript

This is the scripting language that is built into Flash. Without ActionScript, a Flash object on the page is just a simple movie. With ActionScript, a Flash object on the page can be/do more complex things, like be an interactive game.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets are a way to separate a website’s form from it’s function. A well planned an executed site will have all of it’s content separate from it’s appearance by use of css files. The advantage is that the css file can easily be changes and all of the site will be updated. For example: You may have a site with a warm summer background and light green text. Then in the fall you may change the site to have an autumn background with dark blue text.

DNS Entries (Domain Name System Entries)

There is a computer out there on the internet that is in charge of your domain name. Whenever someone types in your domain name, the web goes straight to that computer. All day, every day, that computer says, “Oh, are you looking for ‘myhomepage.com’? Well, you can find it at: ns1.234.15.132.3?. This is useful because you can tell that computer to direct people to a new location if you ever move your website. So rather than sending people to “ns1.234.15.132.3?, we can have it send them to “ns2.567.78.789.9?.

That “ns1.234.15.132.3? is your site’s DNS entry (or sometimes entries).

Domain Name

This is what people type into the address bar of a browser to easily find your site. It’s a separate thing from your sever. Normally, if you were to call up a host and sign up for a website, you’d get some long address for your webpage. Something like http://www.YourUserName.YourHostsName.com or http://123.23.234.2.2343

A domain name is a short word that will also bring you to the same location as the confusing address your host will give you. For example: the domain name for this site is: YourSiteByDanny.com

Also note, the upper and lowercase letters do not matter. YourSiteByDanny.com is always treated as if it’s lowercase. So YourSiteByDanny.com, YOURsiteBYdanny.com, and yoursitebydanny.com are all exactly the same in the computer’s “eyes”.

E-Commerce

This is also known as “shopping online.” An e-commerce website will have an online store (also known as a “shopping cart”) that visitor browse through to find what they want. After they select which items they want to buy, they would enter their credit card data to buy the item using a service like PayPal or Google Checkout. Once their order it placed and their card it approved, the store owner would be notified and given the opportunity to review the order before shipping the product to the buyer.

Flash

Is a program that allows the creation of file which will give more dynamic/moving content on your website. Many animated ads are created using Flash.

Host/Hosting

There is a computer out there called a “server,” this computer holds all the files that make up your website. The host is the person/company that owns that computer and is maintaining it for you.

HTML

HTML stands for “hypertext markup language” and is the basic script language used for the majority of web pages. It allows web designers to add “tags” to text to achieve a variety of results when the text is displayed in a web browser.

For example: if the file contained text that looked like this: “This text <u>is underlined</u>” the browsers would display: “This text is underlined”

The <u> and </u> are html tags. The ‘u’ means they will cause the text between the two tags to be underlined. Although this is a simple example, more complex html tags can allow for some very elaborate layouts and visual results.

Javascript

Javascript can add another layer of complexity and interaction to a web page, beyond that of what HTML can achieve. These elements are often more interactive. For example: If a “contact us” page had a place for a visitor to enter their email address, the text box itself would be made using HTML, however when you press the “submit” button, javascript would be used to double check if a valid email address was entered and display a message if there is a problem.

mySQL

mySQL is a standard type of database that is quite popular in most hosting packages. It allows for data to be organized, saved and retrieve quickly. It can also make it easy to backup and restore your data.

Perl

Perl is a more complex scripting language for the web that allows for the dynamic construction of website pages. For example, you may have a database with many entries and one perl script that will allow visitors to view any entry in the database (rather than having a specific page built for every item in the database).

PHP

PHP is a more complex scripting language for the web that allows for the dynamic construction of website pages. For example, you may have a database with many entries and one PHP script that will allow visitors to view any entry in the database (rather than having a specific page built for every item in the database).

SEO (Search Engine Optimization)

SEO is quite simply a list of do’s and don’ts that should be considered and implemented to help search engines see and understand your site to the best of their ability. Many regard SEO as some form of “black magic” -it’s not. It can help make sure search engines see as many unique pages on your site as possible.

Server

A server is just a computer that’s hooked up to the internet. This computer has all the files that make up your website sitting on it. So when people look at your site online, they are really looking at the files that are sitting on that computer, the server. Again, it’s all possible because the server is connected to the internet in a way that makes it as fast as possible to send and receive data.