Web server scripting and language

Web server scripting and language

Web Server’s scripting.

Scripts could be defined as series of command belonging to different scripting languages that are often embedded and linked to web pages. Scripts are being interpreted rather than compiled.

Scripts are written to add more functionality to pre-existing programs. It could either be a server side script or client side script. Server side scripts are blocks of codes that are executed on the web server while client side scripts are executed by the user’s browser on the client side.    

       

Web server scripting can therefore be defined as a technique in web development where a client's request is responded to with the help of the execution of the scripts on the web server. A good example of this technology is when a user tries to login in to his or her E-mail account. He or she enters the credentials and clicks the login button which sends a message like a request to a server. The web server now properly checks the login details and pulls out the account from the database and sends the HTML page before the browser translates it to the text and graphics the client see.  

These scripts are written in different languages such; the Hypertext preprocessor (PHP), Java, Ruby, Perl, Python, web DNA, cold fusion, Active server pages (ASP) etc. Below is an explanation of some of these relevant scripting language;

• Active server pages (ASP): As the name implies, the Microsoft Active server pages was developed by Microsoft. It is not a scripting language but is rather referred to as a frame work used in combining other scripting languages such as Java scripts and visual basic (VB) scripts with software components. Most of these software component that the Active server page relies on for it to function are windows specific which makes ASP closely related to the windows operating system. ASP could also run on other operating system like Linux as the case may be. Although while ASP is expensive especially while purchasing these software components developed in languages like c/c++, ASP is also fairly easy to learn.

•  Hypertext preprocessor (PHP): PHP (Hypertext preprocessor) is general purpose server side scripting language which is open source and can also be used on Mac, Linux, Windows operating system etc. Its comprehensive function library and familiar syntax has attracted lots of programmers to it. As compared to ASP, PHP also has a simple syntax but is free therefore giving it an edge over ASP. Compared to Perl, PHP can do almost everything that Perl does and faster because while Perl runs a CGI (common gateway interface) program to handle page request, PHP does not.

·        Perl: This language was developed before the World Wide Web itself and many other web server scripting languages as its first version was released on the 18th of December, 1987 (Yank, 2001). Perl was actually created before the (WWW) World Wide Web because its reason for creation was not actually for web development. This multipurpose scripting language was designed to handle task involving text manipulation from various sources that is then brought together to form one document which is also what is what happens in web development on the server side. 
             Complex functionalities such as the common gateway interface (CGI) can be embedded into this language. CGI can be used in the creation of dynamic web content which is also supported by many web servers. Although it is widely used because of its flexibility, other scripting languages can get your web development job done easily because Perl was not mainly created for web development. It is also important to note that Perl is not an acronym as many people refer it to as Practical Extraction and Report Language. See more at; http://c2.com/cgi/wiki?PerlIsNotAnAcronym 

·        Cold fusion: Originally created by Allaire in 1995 but was bought by Macromedia later on (Yank, 2001). Unlike all other scripting language, it tends to act more like hypertext markup language (HTML) because it gives you tags to use like HTML tags. Its latest version has over 300 tags already built in its library alongside extra ability to use customized tags of programming language like Java, C++ and C makes cold fusion flexible. <CFQUERY>to query the database to retrieve information and <CFOUTPUT> that displays the query results are examples of the cold fusion tags.

References

G., A., 2013. What is website scripting?. [Online] Available at: https://www.greengeeks.com/kb/3684/what-is-website-scripting/[Accessed 3 December 2015].

Rowlands, C., 2014. Principles of web server scripting. [Online] Available at: https://prezi.com/otsyyzsgalzx/unit-27-principles-of-web-server-scripting/[Accessed 4 December 2015].

Yank, K., 2001. Which server side language is right for you?. [Online] Available at: http://www.sitepoint.com/server-side-language-right/[Accessed 4 December 2015].