Common Web Terminology (Jargon) Explained

Understand The BASICS.....So That You Can Go Further

WHAT IS A WEBSITE? Answer.....

When you register a domain name with a web hosting provider you normally rent some Web Space from them as well. That web space is just some hard drive space on their computer (server), and more precisely just a Folder on their computer. That folder, which acts as your root (main) folder, is normally named after your domain name (i.e. websitecreationhelp.com) and has a sub-folder inside it called public_html. The public_html sub-folder is where you should store your website content (html files, image files, forum files, blog files, video files and so on).

It is your web hosting provider's job to link your domain name to your web space, which in turn links to your public_html folder, so that when someone types your domain name into their web browser's Address Bar edit box they should be able to see your website content (i.e. web pages) through the display area of their web browser. This is because your web hosting provider has registered (made public/live on the internet) your domain name and has pointed it (linked it) indirectly to your public_html sub-folder.

On top of this scenario your web hosting provider also puts other files and sub-folders of their own into your web space (i.e. your Control Panel files and their system files). Therefore a website to you is your root, web space, folder (i.e. websitecreationhelp.com) that contains a public_html sub-folder for your web pages and so on. To the general public though, because they only get to see what is inside your public_html sub-folder, they would say/think a website is the content of your public_html sub-folder only.

Fig 1.0  Inside the web space (root, websitecreationhelp, folder) of websitecreationhelp.com




Fig 1.1  Inside the public_html sub-folder of websitecreationhelp.com

Fig 1.0 shows you an example of what is inside the root (web space), websitecreationhelp.com, folder. There is a sub-folder specifically for Passwords, Mail, FTP and the Control Panel. And a sub-folder called public_html for your website content (html files, image files, video files and so on).

Fig 1.1 shows you an example of what is inside the public_html sub-folder. By treating the public_html sub-folder as a main folder in its own right (instead of a sub-folder of the root (web space) folder) you can then treat its sub-folders as sub-folders and not as sub-sub-folders of the root (web space) folder.

So CGI-BIN for example is classed as a sub-folder of public_html and not as a sub-sub-folder of the root, websitecreationhelp.com, folder. In other words. Treat the root folder and the public_html sub-folder as two separate entities, because that is normally what happens anyway - Very rarely should you need to use the root folder. Most of the time you will use the public_html folder (sub-folder!) to upload files and install PHP Scripts.

A Web Page

A standard/classic web page (website page) is a file ending with the file name extension .htm or .html. It is a text file that normally contains Internet & Web Browser Instructions (HTML codes, JavaScript codes and/or CSS code), Text (Information) and HyperLinks (Links to Pictures and other Web Pages and Websites) but can also contain (be embedded with) Video, Music and Animation files.

I say standard/classic because these days a web page can contain HTML codes, JavaScript codes, CSS codes and PHP codes for example instead of just 100% HTML codes like years ago and it can end with a .php file name extension.

HTML is the core programming language of a web page (text file). Without it the other codes (JavaScript, CSS and PHP) cannot exist. Many people think PHP web pages (.php files) are raw web pages that can work without HTML codes, but this is not true. PHP, CSS and JavaScript are programming languages in their own right that extend the possibilities for the HTML language.

In other words. Each web page has to have the core HTML codes inside it for it to work with a web browser. After that, PHP codes and so on can be combined and/or linked into the web page (HTML text file). Hence why they are also termed as Scripting (text based) Languages. So to clarify. A web page at its root is simply a text file made up of codes from different languages.

The INDEX Web Page

Inside each folder, main folder or sub-folder, there should be a file (web page) called index.htm or index.html (or even index.php). It is called the Index Web Page because it is supposed to index all the other web pages (files) within its folder, and because it is the first web page (file) that a Web Browser (such as Internet Explorer) normally displays.

If you type www.websitecreationhelp.com, for example, into internet explorer's Address Bar edit box it will display the index.htm web page (file) within the public_html sub-folder. Without the index.htm web page people would be able to see/view the content of the public_html sub-folder.

Website Address

Without getting strictly technically; A website address is normally the full domain name. For example. This website's full domain name is www.websitecreationhelp.com. So when someone asks me "What is your Website Address" I reply with "www.websitecreationhelp.com". Strictly speaking though, a website address (domain name) does not have to end with .com. It can end with .net, .co.uk, .biz and so on.

A website address tells people where to find your website content, just the same your house address tells people where to you. Hence the word Address.

URL (Uniform Resource Locator)

Again, without getting strictly technically; An URL is just another way of saying Path Name or Location. When you want to view a web page from within the public_html folder, but not the Index web page, you type its URL (path name/location) into your web browser's (i.e. internet explorer's) Address Bar edit box. So if you wanted to view this web page you could type the web address www.websitecreationhelp.com into internet explorer's Address Bar edit box and then click on the link called Website Terminology. Or you could just type in its URL www.websitecreationhelp.com/web_terminology.htm.

With website addresses and URLs the forward slash / is used in the path name - With a computer folder the back slash \ is used instead.

One thing to remember is that because an URL is a path name it means it can point (be linked/directed) to a video file, music file or zip file for example. It does not have to point to a web page. Examples: www.websitecreationhelp.com/video.wmv, www.websitecreationhelp.com/sound.wma and www.websitecreationhelp.com/software.zip.

Web Browser

To view a web page (file) from a particular website you use a program called a Web (Website/Internet) Browser. The five most common web browsers, at this time, are Internet Explorer (Microsoft), Firefox (Mozilla), Chrome (Google), Opera (Opera Software) and Safari (Apple) but there are others out there.

After typing a website address (i.e. www.domain.com) or url (i.e. www.domain.com/music/atoz.htm) into a web browser's Address Bar edit box and then clicking on its GO button; it is the job of that web browser to download, and possibly, display the website content (i.e. the web page) that the website address or url points to - Website Address: download and display the index web page and its content. URL: download and display a web page and its content. URL: download a non-web page file directly (i.e. a mp3 music file). Remember. The url is a path name that can point to the location of something.

Server and Client

A Server is a master (hosting) computer that serves the needs of its clients, with your computer being one of those clients. Your ISP's (Internet Service Provider's/Broadband Provider's) computer is a server for example that serves your computer's internet needs - Connections to web pages, forums, blogs, e-mail servers and so on.

In relation to your website, your web hosting provider's computer is a server because it serves your website/ftp needs. For example. It allows your computer (the client) to upload files, using FTP, to your public_html folder. More precisely it will use a dedicated FTP Server - A computer (server) that is assigned to the duty of your FTP (File Transfer) needs only. The same applies to an e-mail server. It is a computer dedicated to your website's e-mail tasks.

When a web browser cannot download and display the Hotmail website for example you will either blame your computer and its software or you will say "The (Hotmail) Server Is Down" because no connection could be made to it. In the case of Hotmail, who have millions of client computers (connections) to serve, sometimes their server will shutdown. And the same thing can happen to your web hosting provider's server, therefore making your website unavailable (down).

These days though big companies usually have more than one server, attached to each other as a network of servers, so that in the event of a server breaking down another server can easily be employed with a backup of your data on it. In this case a backup of your website files. Something else that can shutdown your website is too many visitors, especially if you do not have enough bandwidth and/or if your web hosting provider cannot cope with too many connections.

Your computer can change from a client computer to a server computer. For example. If you set up a wireless or cable network you can set it up so that your computer is the master computer - the server. So at the end of the day a website-specific server is a master computer that manages visitors (client connections), uploads/downloads, e-mail and website tools (i.e. Control Panel tools). And a client is the visitor's computer.

Home Page

A home page is the web page that you first see when your web browser opens. For example. If the home page is set to www.google.com, every time you open a new Internet Explorer the first web page it will display is the Index web page from the Google website.

The home page does not have to be a website. It could be an URL that is set to www.bbc.co.uk/bbc2/, if you wanted the BBC2 web page as the first web page to display when internet explorer starts. In this case the connection would be to the sub-folder called bbc2 of the root folder (web space) called bbc. The web page that would be displayed (not specified in the URL) is the index web page inside the bbc2 sub-folder.

Because the bbc2 sub-folder was the last folder to be named in the URL it is set to the current folder. And because no web page was given in the URL (i.e. television.htm) the default (standard/normal) web page is used instead, which is always the index web page. Hence why every folder (main/root folder or sub-folder) must have an index web page inside them.

If the index web page does not exist you normally get an error web page displayed instead (i.e. Page Not Found) or you are able to see the contents (sub-folders and files) of that, unindexed, folder which is bad if you have private files inside it.