Database Reference
In-Depth Information
To implement dynamic web pages, servers will have to generate hypertext based
on the requests received. Consider database transactions. These transactions such
as insert, update, and delete effect changes in the database. A database is dynamic—
changing. Similarly, as database technology is integrated with Web technology,
dynamic web pages become a requirement. In the later sections of this chapter, we
will explore some of the major methods for making web pages dynamic.
Beyond HTML
Even with this brief introduction of HTML, you must have noted the striking
simplicity of HTML. It is a simple language. Its simplicity has made Web publish-
ing so widespread within a short period. HTML follows straightforward rules so
that it can be easily incorporated in editing tools. A programmer can generate
hypertext through these tools even without a full knowledge of HTML. The ease of
use of HTML is probably one of the chief reasons for the phenomenal growth of
the Web.
A language meant to be simple must necessarily adopt a small set of rules. HTML
does this. The simplicity of HTML is both its strength and weakness. Consider the
following list of inadequacies:
•
HTML follows a set of restrictive rules.
•
HTML is an application of the Standard Generalized Markup Language
(SGML) that is based on a set of restrictive rules.
•
HTML lacks flexibility. It cannot be used for simple and complex documents
with equal ease.
•
HTML is not able to describe complex documents.
•
HTML is more focused on content presentation than on content description.
HTML tags stipulate how the content must be presented; they say little about
the meaning of the content.
•
HTML is not a descriptive language.
•
With just head and body elements, different types of documents such as
abstracts, summaries, chapters, reference sections, and bibliographies cannot all
be described adequately.
What is the solution? Perhaps more types of tags must be added to HTML. But
how many new types of tags would satisfy all the numerous requirements? A
method of defining user tags may be a solution. What was needed is a language with
extended capabilities, a language beyond HTML—a more flexible and extensible
language. Such a language is XML (eXtensible Markup Language). XML focuses
on content description. Let us look at the major benefits. We are not getting into
the details of XML components here. That is not the purpose of this chapter. For
more information on XML, you may refer to a wide assortment of good topics on
the subject.
Major beneficial features of XML include:
Flexible.
Capable of handling a simple home page or a large document such as
War
and Peace
.
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