1. Web Programming Building Dynamic Web Pages Adrian Shaw (ais) – 80% Jonathan Roscoe (jjr6) - 20%

2. September 2012Web Programming2 Building on what you know ● This course continues where CS15020 left off ● Anyone who didn't take CS15020? It is assumed: – You have used XHTML ● though HTML will do at a push – You have written some JavaScript (ECMAScript) – You know what XML is – You know that XHTML is a DTD (derived from) XML – You know what the terms “client side” and “server side” mean in the context of web programming

3. September 2012Web Programming3 We will study... ● Mostly server side programming – PHP – Accessing a database – What is a servlet – Perl ● We will also look further at XML, and using XSL to generate content

4. September 2012Web Programming4 Quick revision ● XHTML – XML ● Client Side – What happens on the user's computer (browser) – JavaScript – Browser's interpretation of data sent to it ● Server Side – What the server (e.g. Apache) generates – Sends a web page – Could be generated from a script (perl, PHP etc)

5. September 2012Web Programming5 Client/Server ● Client side is best if you want to do something that is dependent on the client's environment (e.g. timezone, browser) – JavaScript is the only real choice for client side scripting ● Server side is best if you need to customise a page according to data that might be held on the server (online shopping cart, user authentication for site access, etc) – PHP, Perl, Python, Ruby and many other languages are used for server side scripting – PHP is probably the most popular

6. September 2012Web Programming6 Web servers ● There are a number of different server programs ● Apache is by far the most popular with 55-75% of web servers running it (depending on who you believe) – http://www.securityspace.com/sspace/index.html http://www.securityspace.com/sspace/index.html ● (click research reports – market share) ● Apparently counts the most active domains only – http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html http://news.netcraft.com/archives/web_server_survey.html ● Apparently counts all domains, even “parked” ones ● google use their own server for their web infrastructure ● nginx is coming up quite fast nginx ● Google securityspace netcraft discrepancy for some sort of explanation!

7. September 2012Web Programming7 Apache ● We use Apache here in Aberystwyth – That's important to know – if you're using Server Side Includes ● It's running on Linux – That's why Aberystwyth URLs are case sensitive ● You will probably get the opportunity to install and configure Apache next year in CS35810, if you choose that module

8. September 2012Web Programming8 Server side programming ● Web server has to know how to run the script! – Apache modules ● PHP – Originally Personal Home Page – now considered to stand for PHP – Hypertext Preprocessor ● Doesn't use the standard CGI-BIN method – PHP scripts are in your usual web directory – That makes life easier for you

9. September 2012Web Programming9 Register for PHP! ● This course requires you to use PHP ● You have to register to use it here in Aber ● If you did CS15020 you should already be registered for it ● If not, email advisory@aber.ac.uk and ask to be addedadvisory@aber.ac.uk