A website component which allows visitors to view and enter information and comments about a website.

Short for HyperText Markup Language, the authoring language used to create web pages.

Is a secure version of http which enables the encryption of data, it basically is a protocol that allows browsers to handle these encrypted transfers.

The protocol for transferring hypertext files across the Internet. It requires a HTTP client program on one end, and an HTTP server program on the other end. HTTP is the most important protocol used in the World Wide Web (WWW). You see it every time you type a web site in your browser http://...

A graphic containing one or more invisible regions, called hotspots, which are associated hyperlinks. A pie chart is an example of an image that can be divided up into sections, each section (hotspot) linking to a different location.

A popular Web browser developed by Microsoft.

A company or institution that provides access to the Internet or services related to the internet in one form or another.

Each computer connected to the Internet or any network has an address known as an Internet Protocol address (IP address). The IP address takes the form of four numbers separated by dots, for example: 123.45.67.890. If the computer does not have an IP address then it cannot connect to a network. A web address is also an IP address, for example this is Google’s IP address http://216.239.51.100/. This points to a server connected to the internet where Google pages are held.

Java is a high-level, cross-platform; object-oriented programming language developed Sun MicroSystems. Java should not be confused with JavaScript, which shares only the name and a similar C-like syntax.

A scripting language produced by Netscape for use within HTML Web pages. Don't confuse JavaScript with Java. It can provide a webpage the ability to display content dynamically without having to avail of any server-side technology.

A server-side scripting language developed by Sun Microsystems that allows web pages to be generated dynamically.

Linux is a free open-source operating system based on UNIX. Linux was originally created by Linus Torvalds with the assistance of developers from around the globe. Developed under the GNU General Public License, the source code for Linux is freely available to everyone. Linux has a reputation as a very efficient and fast-performing system.

A special HTML tag that is in the header section of the html page and is not seen but provides important information about the web page. Unlike normal HTML tags, Meta tags do not affect how the page is displayed. These tags provide information to aid search engines like keywords, descriptions, author information, expiration dates of pages and even how often the page is updated.

An open source relational database management system that uses Structured Query Language (SQL). It is pronounced “my ess cue el,". Because it is open source, anyone can download MySQL and tailor it to their needs in accordance with the general public license. MySQL is noted mainly for its speed, reliability, and flexibility.

A standard application programming interface (API) for accessing data in both relational and non-relational database management systems. By using ODBC statements in a program, you can access files in a number of different databases, including Access, dBase, DB2, Excel, and Text. In addition to the ODBC software, a separate module or driver is needed for each database to be accessed.