Glossary of internet terms

At WebSanity we appreciate that the web world can seem a strange and confusing place, so we try our best to communicate in plain English, but there are various terms that you'll hear which you will need, or want, explaining. We've gathered together some common ones here along with very basic, generalised explanations. If you can think of any other terminology that you'd like explaining then please let us know.
 

Content Management System (CMS) A Content Managenent System, or CMS, is a system that allows you to edit and update the basic content on your website. There are various ways of doing this; most popular, but also most expensive, is a set of password protected pages on your website that allow you to edit your content via a web browser. The problem with such systems is that they can be expensive and inflexible. There are cheaper alternatives that we can recommend - dependent on your requirements.   Traditionally you only needed such a system if you had to make regular updates to your website or if you wanted the ultimate flexibility to update content immediately without having to ask your developer to do it for you. However, given the low cost solutions we can recommend, there is no reason now why every website should have this flexibility.

Website hosting Hosting is the equivalent of your shop front. Just like you would pay rent for a shop or offices, you need to pay rent for your website hosting. Cost depends on how much space you need and how sophisticated your website is. Many different companies provide this service; it is best to get a recommendation from your website developer since only they are aware of the technical requirements your website will have. One thing we would normally recommend, however, is not to host on a web server in your developer's company. Why? If the relationship breaks down, or if you want to ask somebody else to develop the website in the future, then your developer can suddenly turn awkward: we've seen it happen in the past. Also, web hosting companies have hundreds of machines looked after by dedicated staff working 24x7; your website developer doesn't.

PHP PHP is a programming language that we use to develop dynamic websites; it is a list of instructions telling the website what to do in different circumstances (e.g. check the login details supplied by a customer are correct and either show them their account or ask them to re-enter them). It is an 'open source' language that is developed cooperatively by the developer community. The closest commerical rival to it is a very similar language called ASP, developed and controlled by Microsoft. There is eternal debate as to which is the better language, but we feel that the sheer number of websites and the huge amount of support offered for PHP makes it a clear favourite for website development. There is a much greater choice of services to host PHP websites, and prices are generally lower.

MySQL Almost every dynamic website needs to be able to store information; whether it is names and addresses or product details. This information is stored in a database; think of it as an electronic filing cabinet. MySQL, like PHP, is a product of the developer community. It is fast, easy to use and almost the de facto website standard. Again it's main commerical rival comes from Microsoft and is called SQLServer. The big difference is that Microsoft charges for using SQLServer and this tends to reflect in the availablity and cost of website hosting. Typically you will find PHP/MySQL or ASP/SQLServer combined solutions.

RSS RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, is a standard way of interchanging frequently updated information on the internet. It can be used to provide news/information FROM your website for use on other websites or direct to your customers who use 'news aggregators' such as Google Reader. It can also be used to incorporate information from other websites into your website, such as news or weather.