Most web applications involve both client-side and server-side script. Client-side script executes locally in the browser, and server-side script transmits data to and from a web server.

Client-side script is often used to program the user interface for an application. For example, to respond to user actions such as button clicks, and perform input validation. The use of server-side scripting is mostly used for content management, where the site’s content is stored in a database and presented to the user on request.

Ajax

Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) can communicate with a server side script without reloading the web page. When data is downloaded using Ajax the source code is not visible to search engine bots. Therefore Ajax should not be used to display articles or any content that should be available to search engines. Ajax is a good technology to use for admin areas, email accounts or any place that is password protected. An example of Ajax usage is the GMail email application.

Common Gateway Interface (CGI)

Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a protocol standard that specifies how information can be passed from a Web page through a Web server, to a program, and back from the program to a browser in the proper format.

CGI programs can be written in any language the server can execute; whereas Perl most commonly is associated with CGI, there is no reason that C, C++, Pascal, Visual Basic, etc. couldn’t be used to create a CGI program.

Perl

Perl is an open source programming language that is generally used for creating CGI scripts and also supports embedding into HTML. Large projects written in Perl include Bugzilla.org, TWiki.org and MovableType.org. Large websites that use Perl include bbc.co.uk, Amazon.com and IMDb.com.

ASP.NET

ASP (Active Server Pages) is a server-side scripting language developed by Microsoft which can be embedded into HTML and used to create web pages. ASP.NET is based on the Microsoft .NET framework. The .NET framework allows applications to be developed using different programming languages such as Visual Basic, C# and JavaScript.

ASP is linked to the Windows operating system and Microsoft IIS web server. It is not practical to run a web site based on ASP on anything but a Windows-based server, so in this way, it is limiting. Files created for ASP have a .asp file extension while ASP.NET files use .aspx.

PHP

PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is an open source programming language which was specifically designed for the creation of dynamic server-side applications on the Internet. PHP can be embedded in HTML pages and is a good choice for database interaction.

PHP is widespread and is used by Facebook.com, Wikipedia.org and Yahoo.com. The reason for the widespread adoption of PHP is the simplicity of the language. Files created for PHP use the .php extension.

JavaServer Pages

JavaServer Pages (JSP) is a technology based on the Java language that enables the development of dynamic web sites. JSP was developed by Sun Microsystems to allow server side development. JSP files are HTML files with additional tags containing Java source code that provide the dynamic content.

JSP pages often run slower than pages using similar technologies due to being more robust and intensive. There is a steeper learning curve when compared to many other technologies. Ebay runs on JSP.

ColdFusion

ColdFusion is a server side scripting language, which is executed by the ColdFusion application server. The ColdFusion Mark-up Language (CFML) is based on tags similar to HTML.

ColdFusion is not dependent on a particular database or Web server, and it works well on a variety of Windows-based servers as well as Solaris and Linux. ColdFusion is not open source. Files created for ColdFusion use the .cfm extension. MySpace use ColdFusion.

Ruby

Ruby is an open source scripting language first released in 1995. In Ruby, everything is an object. Every bit of information and code can be given their own properties and actions. Object-oriented programming calls properties by the name instance variables and actions are known as methods. Ruby is used by sites such as Twitter.com and Scribd.com.

Python

Python is an open source programming language which is quite easy to learn. Some of the largest projects that use Python are Zope.org and YouTube.com. Large organisations that use Python include Google.com and Yahoo.com.

Sources

• You Used THAT Programming Language to Write What?!
• Ruby Programming Language
• JSP Tutorial
• Wikipedia – Active Server Pages
• Wikipedia – Cold Fusion
• Wikipedia – PHP