Web technology is based on the client/server model. The client computer runs a web browser to see the web page. The software sends the request by the internet to the software program, which acts as the web server, running on the server computer. This responds and the web page is sent back to the browser. The web server software which runs on the server computer has many helpers to perform the tasks, which are the server side technologies for advanced web design. The tasks performed by the client side server, are all client server technology for advanced web design.

If a file has server side script then, the script inside the HTML file is performed by the server before the file is returned to the browser as plain HTML It works in many ways:

1. A web page can be dynamically changed, edited or any content added to it.
2. It can respond to any question or any data that is submitted from the HTML forms.
3. It can access any data or database. This results obtained can be returned to the browser.
4. The webpage can be customized to make it more useful for each user.
5. The server side technology can provide security. This is necessary as the server code cannot be seen by a browser.

Some of the ’server side scripting’ languages are:

1. ASP/ASP.NET (.asp/.aspx) – ASP or Active Server Pages was developed by Microsoft for making advanced web pages in a web application framework. It helps in building dynamic website, web applications and web services. The most common language is VB Script.
2. PHP(.php) – PHP:Hypertext Preprocessor is easy to learn. There are many readymade scripts available. It also helps in producing dynamic web pages and is a general purpose scripting language. It runs on the web server and has to be configured to process PHP code and create web content. It is free of charge. Most web servers and operating systems and platforms can display it.
3. JAVA via Java server pages (.jsp) – This is a very popular web server side technology. In this, the server tags are mixed with html. This is hard to learn and complicated. It has good programming techniques.
4. ColdFusion Markup Language (cfm.) – This is from Macromedia and this server is not free. However, you can install a free ‘developer edition’. This can be used for developing and testing your applications. It is easy to learn as it consists of xml/html like tags. It is best used for web applications that are not too complicated.
5. Perl (.pl) – It is also widely used. It is a powerful and advanced scripting language. This is mainly available in many cheap web hosting packages.
6. Python (.py) – It is also easy to learn, but is not as widely used as PHP, ASP or even Perl. The disadvantage with this scripting is that it does not have a standard web application framework.

Besides these you also have Lasso(.lasso), Ruby (.rb) and SMX (.smx). There are all these server side scripts to choose from.

The most widely used server side script on Unix/Linux platform is PHP. It is not only easy to learn, but also fast to program. The Java/JSP/Servelets is the preferred choice for all the bigger projects. An expert Windows programmer will use ASP. Each one right from ColdFusion, Perl and Python are good, each having their own unique specialty.

It would be best for a beginner to learn one server scripting language first. With the experience gained, he can then go on to learning the other ones, as it will be easier.

Several technologies are used in web hosting. Each technology has its own advantages as well as limitations. As such, web developers normally use a combination of at least a few technologies to optimize the web hosting effectiveness. Some of the most common and frequently used technologies are presented here briefly.

The broad classification of web hosting technologies consists of Windows Hosting for computers that use Microsoft Windows as their operating system, UNIX Hosting for web services that use the UNIX operating system, and Linux Hosting for computers having the Linux operating system. Apart from these basic classifications, the actual technologies used for web hosting are ASP, PHP, CGI, JSP, Cold Fusion, Adobe Dreamweaver, etc.

ASP

ASP is one of the most common web hosting technologies. This had been developed by Microsoft as a server-side technology for scripting purposes. ASP helps the developer to create dynamic web pages by incorporating script codes inside the HTML pages. These codes are executed by the remote web server before the web page is submitted to the browser. The ASP technology uses both VBScript and JavaScript for generating the codes. ASP is presented by Microsoft as a standard component in all the Windows versions and can be easily activated on all the computers that run on the Windows operating system.

PHP

PHP is a free, efficient, and widely used alternative to Microsoft’s ASP. PHP had been designed as a perfect tool for web development and it is capable of getting directly embedded into the standard HTML codes. The syntax of PHP is quite similar to other technologies such as Perl and C. A combination of PHP and Apache are generally used on various types of operating systems. PHP supports ISAPI and is used with IIS of Microsoft on Windows operating system. The major advantage of PHP is that it can support different types of databases like MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, Informix, Solid, Generic ODBC, and PostgreSQL.

JSP

JSP had been developed by Sun Microsystems as a server-side technology and is similar to ASP in web hosting functions. JSP uses Java codes incorporated in the HTML pages for creating dynamic web pages. Due to the use of Java in JSP, this technology is not limited to any specific platform and can be applied on all types of servers and operating systems.

Other web hosting technologies for the development of dynamic web pages are

* Cold Fusion developed by Adobe Systems as a scripting language on the server side to create dynamic web pages
* Chili!Soft ASP that is capable of running on UNIX and certain other platforms
* Microsoft FrontPage that helps even persons without a sound knowledge of web development to host their website easily, if they have Windows operating systems
* Adobe Dreamweaver developed by Adobe Systems to compete with Microsoft FrontPage. This tool supports other web technologies like JavaScript, CSS, Cold Fusion, PHP, ASP.NET, and JavaServer Pages. This tool has Windows and Mac versions.

Apart from the use of one or more of the above technological tools for web hosting, you might also need a secure server to transmit data in an encrypted format to prevent unauthorized access by other parties. Bank account, credit card, and other similar transactions and their related data need such secure server web hosting facilities for protection of precious data from being stolen and misused.

JSP stands for Java Server Pages. Actually, JSP in itself isn’t a language, instead it is more of a technology used by Java on the server side to display dynamic content on the web pages.

Essentially JSP pages are just normal HTML with Java codes embedded in them. So a general understanding of HTML and Java is required for learning JSP. If you do not have even basic knowledge about HTML, please consider taking the course HTML.

How JSP works? The below is the process:

1. The Web browser sends a request to your web server asking for a page.

2. The Web server loads the page and looks for JSP code to run.

3. If JSP code is found, the web server runs the code and sends the results to the Web browser. So the result page on the client side looks like a pure HTML page.

You may wonder why we need an JSP page to display web contents while we have HTML. Well, HTML can be used to display web contents, but the page is static, not dynamic. Image you have a website that sells products, and you want to display the name, price, description and category of each product on a page. Normally in HTML you would have to write this page out by hand, and every time you change products or prices you would have to go back and re-write the page. But if you use JSP, you can select records from a database and generate the HTML page when an user request it. When you get a new product or change the prices you will only have to change the information in the database and the page will automatically be updated to reflect those changes without writing a single line of code.

JSP hosting provides web designers several different Java hosting options, including the ability to manage and use Java Server Pages (JSP). What is also nice is that JSP and ASP hosting are very similar, so if you understand one, it won’t take you long to move to the other. JSP also features many other benefits.

First, JSP makes use of some very simple codes that you simply insert into HTML or XML pages. These codes allow the creation of interactive web pages that, because they are created using Java, will run on any platform. This gives businesses the ability to reach all customers, no matter if they are using Windows, Mac OS, Linux, or any other operating system. JSP hosting makes it incredibly easy to publish these pages, so there is no hassle anywhere.

JSP allows for dynamic pages to be created by the server, plus you can create static pages that feature dynamic sections as well. This means you can include the same banner and other information on one part of the page and then a section of the page created by the user’s input on another part. This means you do not have to repeat the static code over and over, which is one of the main features of JSP hosting. The coding is much more efficient, and it takes less work to make the same type of websites.

Another nice feature of JSP hosting is that you do not really need to know Java to make use of it. All you need to do is learn the tags and codes to insert into your HTML or XML sites. These codes are all pretty simple and intuitive. There’s no need to hire a programmer to write servlets. In fact, JavaScript can’t provide the same amount of dynamic creation that JSP can. It’s actually fairly limited when it comes to dealing with client-side dynamics. You can also build your site’s design and content separately, allowing both tasks to be done at once. This can save you some time and makes updating easier.

Why choose JSP over ASP? Well, ASP was created by Microsoft, and some of its more advanced features will only work on Windows servers. With JSP, that’s not an issue – every feature works on all platforms. This means you can easily move your website from server to server without any concern.

The Sun Microsystems’s java server pages technology allows you to rapidly develop and easily maintain rich, dynamic web pages. As a part of java family
JSP enables development of web based applications that are platform independent. The web applications build using JSP technology works with a wide variety of web servers, application servers, browsers and development tools. The logic that generates the content is encapsulated in tags and JavaBeans components and tied together in scriptlets, all of which are executed on the server side. If the core logic is encapsulated in tags and Beans then other individuals, such as web masters and page designers, can edit and work with JSP pages without affecting the generation of the content.
Thus the JSP technology separates the user interface from the content generation.

JSP page is simply an HTML web page, which contain additional bits of code that generates dynamic content of the page. JSP technology is a part of java family. It uses a java programming language based scripting language and JSP are compiled into java servelets the first time they are invoked. JSP pages may call JavaBeans, EJB components, RMI objects, DBC objects to perform processing on the server. Example JSP page may contain HTML that display static text and graphics, as well as a method call to JDBC object that access database, when the page is displayed in a user’s browser.

Features of JSP

JSP technology follows the write once run anywhere rule which is the basic of the java language>
JSP uses pure java and takes the advantage of its object oriented nature.
JSP uses a combination of tags and scripting to create dynamic web pages.
The JSP page uses the components like EJB, JavaBeans which are reusable. This gives the JSP reusability capabilities.

Applications made using JSP technology are easier to maintain.

A web hosting service is simply a type of internet hosting service that allows companies and individuals the facility to make their personal websites accessible through the web. Web hosts basically offer space on a server they own, to their clients, and they provide with internet connectivity as well.

There are various technologies that support web hosting. In this article we provide you with a list of technologies related to web hosting to help you get a better idea about it.

Windows hosting:

Windows hosting refers to hosting of web services that specifically run on the Windows operating system. If you are planning to use Active Server Pages or a database like Microsoft Access as service scripting then Windows hosting is an apt option for you.

Linux hosting:

This means hosting of web services that run on the Linux operating system.

CGI:

Pages on the web can be executed as CGI scripts. These scripts execute on the server to generate interactive web pages. In most cases, internet service providers offer with some type of CGI abilities. The use of CGI is extremely common on Linux and Unix servers.

Unix hosting:

Unix was the first ever web server operating system. It is well know due to its characteristics of being reliable and stable. Unix hosting refers to hosting web services that run on the Unix operating system, this is less expensive than windows.

ASP:

ASP stands for Active Server Pages. It is a server-side scripting technology that was created by Microsoft. With the help of ASP, you can make dynamic web pages simply by putting script codes inside your HTML pages. These codes are first executed by the web server and then the page is sent back to the browser.

You can use both Visual Basic and JavaScript. It is a component which is found in all Windows 95, 98, 2000 and XP. It can be activated in any computer that runs on Windows. Various web hosting providers are offering ASP due to its growing popularity.

JSP:

JSP is a server-side technology which is very similar to ASP developed by Sun. With JSP, you can create dynamic pages by putting Java codes into your HTML pages. Due to the fact that this technology uses Java, it is not restricted to a specific server platform.

PHP:

PHP is another server-side scripting language which allows you to create dynamic web pages, all you need to do is put script codes inside your HTML pages.

FrontPage:

FrontPage is a very popular and common web site design tool which was created by Microsoft. This allows users to create a web site without the need to have any in-depth knowledge about it. If you are planning to use FrontPage, you should consider looking for a Windows hosting solution avoiding both Unix and Linux.

Cold Fusion:

Macromedia developed the technology called Cold Fusion. It is another server-side scripting language which you can successfully use to generate interactive web pages.

Secure Server:

A secure server plays an essential role as it helps to transmit encrypted data. If you plan to send personal information that needs to be protected, it is crucial for your web host to provide you with a secure server.