Anyone dealing with the subject of their own website will inevitably stumble across words such as PHP, MySQL, Javascript or CSS. While they sound confusing to the layman, they are the bread and butter of a web developer. How exactly the technologies work is less important for you, but a little understanding of how to use them correctly won’t hurt.
The technologies can basically be divided into two categories: Server-side and client-side. Help, what does that mean? In most cases, a visit to your website proceeds as follows:
Client (visitor’s computer): Hello server, I would like to see the start page.
Server: Yes, the start page exists
Client: Then send it to me
Server rummages and calculates, collects all texts and images from the database and structures them into a readable form
Server: Here is the page and all required files
Client: Thanks server, see you next time. The client embellishes the page and finally displays it to the visitor.
| Server | Client |
| PHP is the language responsible for the logic. From simple calculations to complicated programs, PHP can do it all. By the way, Facebook also runs with PHP | |
| Javascript (JS) is a nice little language which, like PHP, is also responsible for logic, but unlike PHP (traditionally) runs on the client side, i.e. in the browser. | |
| HTML is not a programming language but a \”marking language\”. It looks like XML and makes it possible to make information readable for the computer. | |
| MySQL is a database. A (relational) database looks like Excel. For example, there is a table called \”Pages\”. This consists of the columns \”Title\”, \”Text\” and \”Date\”. | |
| CSS is the makeup of HTML. CSS defines colors, sizes, fonts and much more. |
Hopefully this clarifies a few terms.