Creating dynamic web sites.

Understanding the technology.

[dana71]

Hi my name is Dana.
This is my first thread in this forum.
I use to work as a freelancer web designer; most of my work was static and flash web sites.
I thought that I must take a step forward by learning more about creating dynamic web sites.
I start as a self learner by reading the Dream weaver help topic about dynamic pages then a lot of online topics about web server and web applications arriving to sql scripting passing by some tutorials about MS Access.

Unfortunately … after reading all these topics and more I got 100 % lost and confused.

I need some one who is really patient to give me some help by explaining what I need to understand.
I have a fundamental knowledge about some of these issues, but I need to put what I know in order and to clarify what I can't understand, that's all.

I want to discuss some issues like:
- Web server.
- CGI.
- Server side scripting.
- Data base.
- Converting my pc to a web server.
- How to upload the data base to the server and how to deal with.

But before asking I would like to be sure that the (New to Web Development) board is the correct place to start in or I have to move my thread to the (Website Technology Issues) board?

Thank you

Dana

[dana71]

Hi

I didn't receive any comment, so may be it means that I am in the right board.

Ok let's start with the web server.

I will tell you what I know then my questions.

1- Web server is a piece of hardware, like our computer, but much bigger and is full of hard drive space. It stores all of the files necessary to display web site pages and communicate with browsers to display the request pages using the http or the ftp protocol.

(Question):

Is that right or wrong? Did I miss something?

2- Web server uses operating system like Windows NT or UNIX.

(Questions):

-The web hosting server of my web site uses Linux as an operating system, so what else we can find as an operating system for the web server and which is more stable?

-Comparing between hosting plans I notice that the hosting plans based on Windows NT servers are more expensive than the Linux plans... Why?

-If I have to choose between the windows plans and the Linux plans (I will not use the price factor here)
Can we put these points as essential factors while comparing (I am talking here about the web site structure)?:
Server side scripting language which I use.
Amount and type of data base.

What are the features that I must put in mind while comparing?

I still have questions but it will be better to cover each section individually.

Thanks

Dana

[mack]

Hi there and welcome to WebmasterWorld.

The web server is the computer that stores your web pages. With regard to size, this is not really an issue. Most hosting server are rack mounted so do not look like pc's. The hardware is very similar between a server and a pc. The actual hardware depends on how your host has set the server up. Generally servers have more RAM than the average pc. They generally also have more than one hard disk.

A web server can also be referred to as the piece of software on a computer that enables it to serve files. Apache and IIS are common examples of web server software.

You also mentioned that Windows hosting is more expensive. The main reason for this is because the company who supply your hosting account need to pay a per user licence. It is almost like you or I. We need to pay to licence out Windows software, Linux on the other hand is a free open source operating system with no licence fee.

As for features… Linux is the natural choice if you plan to run php/Mysql Perl. On the other hand if you want to run asp scripts then Windows hosting is the way to go. I know that it is possible to run asp application on Linux and also php Perl and Mysql can run within Windows but not natively.

Mack.

[dana71]

Thank you very much Mack for answering my questions, be careful … I still have many questions so I hope that you will be patient to help me.

You gave me a great definition for the web server as hardware, but about the iis and the Apache point I have some questions so I prefer to cover the operating system point before jumping to the application server issue.

You mentioned that Windows hosting is more expensive because we must pay to have the software license , so if it is a money issue , why they still use Windows as an operating system for the web server and not Linux . What is the advantage of using Windows NT?

Dana

[mack]

On the web Linux is more popular than Windows as an operating system in the server sector. Most of the hosting companies offer linux as standard. As was said earlier, it costs a host more to provide hosting on Microsoft Windows.

Hosts have 2 main options. Pay a fee per user or a one off fee per physical server. A host needs to have hundreds of hosting accounts on a server for it to be viable to make a one off payment.

As for the Linux Windows debate, each is different and has it's own benefits. Many will stick with windows because they can run certain applications that where writen for Windows. There are also people who have software that requires Linux to operate.

Mack.

[dana71]

Thank you very much Mack for answering my question.

You said: "Hosts have 2 main options. Pay a fee per user or a one off fee per physical server. A host needs to have hundreds of hosting accounts on a server for it to be viable to make a one off payment."
I am so sorry, but I can't understand this point, would you please explain it to me.
Thank you
Dana

[mack]

The one off payment a hosting company needs to make is a lot. On a per client case, it is not so much. Eventualy when a host has enough users it will work out cheaper to make a per server payment. With a small munber of users one off payment is not financialy an option.

Mack.

[encyclo]

Hi Dana, and welcome to WebmasterWorld. As mack has explained, Windows servers tend to be more expensive due the the license fees - however, as this is for your hosting company to sort out, I wouldn't worry too much about it. You can get good hosting deals for both Linux and Windows servers.

The choice of server is more to do with which server-side language you will be using. Two popular choices are PHP (which runs on Linux and most Windows servers) and ASP (which usually runs on Windows only). The server-side language is the programming language you use to generate your dynamic site. Often, you will be storing your content in a database (MySQL for Linux and Windows, Access or MS-SQL for Windows only) and using a scripting to generate HTML pages with the content filled from the appropriate fields in the database. Here at WebmasterWorld we have dedicated forums for both PHP and ASP/ASP.NET, as well as for Perl (another popular scripting language available on Linux). As for your question about using your own computer as a test server, I'll wait until you decide which scripting language you decide to use. :)

Often, you don't need to create your entire application from scratch, as there are a wide variety of free and commercial scripts that you can use. There are generally more free scripts available for PHP/Linux than for ASP. What kind of site are you looking to build? A blog, a forum, a site with articles...?

[dana71]

Thank you for helping me

Dana

[edited by: mack at 8:05 am (utc) on Aug. 3, 2005]
[edit reason] TOS [webmasterworld.com] [/edit]

[dana71]

Hi mack

I did not know that adding an attached file would be against the forum rules.

Dana