Glossary

Apache

Apache is a large non-profit organisation responsible for developing a very large number of high quality open source applications. These applications generally the best in their field and are used by large enterprise businesses, governments and academic institutions. Often when people mention Apache, they are referring to the Apache Web Server (Apache HTTPD).

Domain Name System (DNS)

One of the key technologies of the Internet, DNS is responsible to converting the names of computer in to their network names. Computers identify themselves with numbers (know as IP Addresses) and use these numbers when communicating. People like to use more meaningful and memorable ways to address computers, such as www.example.com. DNS is a global database that translates between computer names and numbers (and vice versa). Control of the database is distributed using delegation, so that if you own the name example.com you can create additional names such as www.example.com and mail.example.com and then assign the appropriate IP Addresses for the servers you wish to use those names.

Extensible Markup Language (XML)

The Extensible Markup Language is a means of describing and structuring data in text. Any type of data for any purpose can be defined by in XML by creating an XML Schema, which is defines the types of data, the types of attribute an item of data has and the way items of data are related to each other; and an XML file, which contains the data itself and defines the structure of the data. XML is the basis for XHTML.

Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP)

The computer communication protocol used to read, write and search email messages. IMAP is typically used by an email client (such as Outlook or Thunderbird) to access email messages stored on an email server. IMAP supports advanced features for authentication, searching and organising messages.

Markup

A term that originate from the print industry, markup is the means of adding information to text. For example to define a piece of text as a heading or a paragraph. When we are talking about the internet, Markup usually refers to defining data using XML. More specifically when we a talking about web sites, it usually refers to describing content with XHTML.

Multimedia

In computer terms, when we say 'Medium' we mean the basic type of technology being used to convey or interact with information. Medium could be text, HTML, Flash, Video, Audio. So, multimedia means to use technology that encompasses more than one medium at a time.

Post Office Protocol (POP)

A computer communication protocol used to transfer email messages from an email server to another computer. POP is typically used by a desktop email program (such as Outlook or Thunderbird) to copy email messages off of a persons email server and on to their desktop computer.

Search Engine

A system which is used to find content containing the snippets of information provided by the user. Search Engines can be small, local systems that only search for content in one web site (or even just one section of a web site) or large systems such as Google, which aim to let their user search all of the web sites on the internet. Search engines typically work by allowing users to search text content for keywords, however specialist search engines for finding video, images and other types of content are becoming popular.

Search Engine Optimisation (SEO)

The tools and techniques used to alter web sites and web pages in order to improve their appearance in search engine results. Typically SEO will focus on improving results for specific search terms that people type in to search engines. SEO also encompasses findability, which is means altering the structure and technology used in a web site (with out altering content) in order that search engines can better understand the content with in a web site.

Server

A server is a computer system or service that is carries out tasks on behalf or a user or client. A sever could be a web server, which will access web pages and send them to a web browser for example. Another example of a servers is an Email servers, which will take care of sending and receiving email messages for you.

Server Side

Any action or operation that is carried out on a server. For example when a visitor to a web site orders some products, the processing of that order is carried out 'server side' and not on the visitors computer. Web site visitors are usually unaware that server side actions take place, they simply click a link or a button and then see a web page load.

Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)

The computer communication protocol used to send email messages between email servers. These types of servers are known as Mail Transfer Agents (MTAs) and they are concerned with moving messages to their final destination as directly and efficiently as possible.

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

The W3C are an International consortium who develop technological standards for the internet and World Wide Web. They are responsible for developing standards such as CSS and XHTML, which are used to write web pages.