Glossary Flashcards
Accessibility
Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can use the Web. More specifically, Web accessibility means that people with disabilities can perceive, understand, navigate, and interact with the Web, and that they can contribute to the Web.
AJAX
Acronym for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML, which allows data exchange between web browser and server without a web page being reloaded.
Boot Camp
Apple software that allows Microsoft Windows to be run on an Intel-based Mac.
Browser
A web browser (or ‘user-agent’) is an application for requesting, retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web
business continuity
The continued functioning of an organisation after a major disruptive event such as breakdown, disaster or security threat
Cache
Stored data that can be accessed locally from a web application.
Character sets
Character sets – or character encoding refer to the different encodings you might choose for your web application.
See http://www.w3.org/International/getting-started/characters
client
A client is an application or system that requests and accesses a service made available by a server.
Client-server architecture
The client–server model as a distributed application which partitions tasks or workloads between the providers of a resource or service, called servers, and service requesters, called clients.
At its most basic clients and servers communicate over a computer network on separate hardware with a server hosting one or more server programs which share their resources with clients. A client requests a server’s content or service function.
Clients therefore request sessions or resources with servers which await incoming requests and respond to them.
CMS
Software that supports the creation and management of website content.
Code 128
A barcode that can represent all 128 alphanumeric characters of the ASCII character set.
Concatenate
In computer programming, string concatenation is the operation of joining two character strings end-to-end.
content management system
Software that supports the creation and management of website content.
CSS
Cascading Style sheets - CSS The style language used with HTML 4.1 and XHTML 1.0
http://www.w3.org/Style/CSS/
definition
A formal statement of the exact meaning of something (word, phrase, etc.).
digital landscape
An environment made up of objects in digital form.
Domain name system
The domain name system (DNS) is the means that internet domain names are located and translated into Internet Protocol (IP) addresses.
Domain names are easier to remember than IP addresses.
DotNetNuke
An open source CMS for Microsoft’s .NET web platform.
dynamic
Website content that changes over time or in response to user interactions and/or preferences
extensible
A program, language or protocol designed to be extended.
FMS
Acronym for Field Management System, parkrun’s Microsoft Windows desktop-based software for processing results.
Gecko
An open source component used in several web browsers, such as Firefox, to display web pages.
global nav
A group of links to a website’s primary content and functions displayed in the same position on every page.
Global Positioning System
A satellite-based navigation system providing accurate worldwide navigation and location information
GPS
A satellite-based navigation system providing accurate worldwide navigation and location information
GPX
An XML data format for the interchange of GPS data.
gradient
A graphic that blends two or more colour shades together to create a more natural effect.
H T M L
Hypertext Markup Language – the predominant Markup language for web pages. HTML has been through a number of versions - the last stable version was 4.01 and the xml complaint version is XHTML 1.0
H T T P
The Hypertext Transfer Protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in that transmission.
hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are links created in html that allow web documents to reference other documents on the web. When we click a hyperlink we navigate from the reference page to another resource on the web.
Hypertext
Hypertext is text with functional hyperlinks linking texts to other texts
I E T F
The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) develops and promotes Internet standards, cooperating closely with the W3C, dealing in particular with standards of the TCP/IP and Internet protocol suite.
information architecture policy
A policy describing how information should be structured, organised and presented.
information system
An interconnection of people, procedures and technologies organised to accomplish information processing tasks.
internet
A Global system of Interconnected Computer Networks
intranet
An Intranet is a private network of computers exchanging digital material using the same protocols as the WWW.
jQuery
A JavaScript library designed to simplify common client-side scripting tasks.
Module
aka ‘course’.
name server
A name server translates domain names into IP addresses making it possible for a user to access a website by simply typing in the domain name instead of the website’s actual IP address.
Netscape
A common name for the discontinued (2008) series of web browsers produced by Netscape Communications an American computer services company.
ODBC
An acronym for Open DataBase Connectivity, a standard database access method enabling data access between any ODBC-compliant database and application across products and platforms.
Parsed (parsing)
Analyse a string or text into a set of logical syntactic components which conform to some expected grammar (or convention).
protocol
A set of formal rules that governs an action across a network.
public-key encryption
Also known as asymmetric-key encryption, public-key encryption utilises both a private key and a public key. The private key is only held on the local computer, while the public key is given by your computer to any computer that wants to communicate securely with it.
To decode an encrypted message, a computer must use the public key, provided by the originating computer, with its own private key. Although a message sent from one computer to another won’t be secure since the public key used for encryption is published and available to anyone, anyone who picks it up, it can’t read it without the private key.
This key pair is quite effective at providing secure encryption.
remote desktop
A combination of software and protocols that enables applications running remotely to be displayed locally.
scalable
Capable of handling increased load without degradation in performance.
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
Several web browsers provide support for SVG which allows XML based graphics, text and animations to be made up from objects which can be scaled rather than bitmap based representations which can degrade.
scope creep
The uncontrolled expansion of a project beyond its original objectives.
SENDA
The Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA) sets out legal rights for disabled students making it illegal to discriminate against them in UK education, training or research.
This act was largely replaced by The Equality Act 2010, which incorporates* and builds upon the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 (SENDA), makes it unlawful to discriminate against students of any age on the grounds of disability.
(*The provisions introduced into the Disability Discrimination Act by the Special Educational Needs and Disability Act 2001 have been repealed, as they have been replaced by the provisions in the Equality Act 2010. However, the provisions SENDA introduced into the Education Act 1996 in relation to Special Educational Needs in schools still remain in force.)
server
A server is a computer program running to respond to the requests of other programs the clients.
site map
A hierarchical overview of the pages that make up a website.
SSL/TLS
Secure Socket Layer Protocol, SSL was initially developed by Netscape to secure transactions over the World Wide Web. Since, the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) developed a standard protocol that provided the same functionality using SSL 3.0 as the basis for that work, which became the TLS protocol.
TLS and SSL are most widely recognized as the protocols that provide secure HTTP (HTTPS) for Internet transactions between Web browsers and Web servers. TLS/SSL enables server authentication, client authentication, data encryption, and data integrity over networks such as the World Wide Web.
sticky
Website content designed to hold visitors’ attention and encourage them to return.
Usability
Usability is an approach to web design that makes web applications easy to use for an end-user, without any requirement for specialized training.
Usability requires that information is presented clearly, that choices are obvious and that there should be no ambiguity when using the application.
User agent
A user agent is the software used to request and retrieve data across a network. User agents can be browsers or screen reading software. User agents act as the client in the client-server model of web architecture.
VBA
An implementation of Microsoft’s Visual Basic included with Microsoft Office applications allowing users to develop programs to automate common tasks.
Virtualisation
The partitioning of one physical server into multiple virtual servers providing the appearance that each is running on its own dedicated machine.
Visual Basic for Applications
An implementation of Microsoft’s Visual Basic included with Microsoft Office applications allowing users to develop programs to automate common tasks.
VMware
A company providing virtualisation software.
W3C
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is the main international standards body for web technologies.
http://www.w3.org/
WebFMS
Parkrun’s web-based replacement for FMS.
web service
A software system defined and described using XML and accessed via HTTP.
Website
A collection of inter-linked web pages and digital assets on the World Wide web – usually under a single common ownership.
wiki
A website that allows collaborative editing of its content and structure by its users.
World Wide web
All the documents and objects on the Internet that can be retrieved using the HTTP Protocol.
WYSIWYG
An acronym for ‘What You See Is What You Get’ used to denote an easy-to-use visual interface that allows a user to manipulate content and structure while immediately seeing the finished result.
XML
XML - Extensible Markup Language, a meta-language that allows users to define their own customized markup, especially in order to display documents on the World Wide Web
XPath
XPath is a language for finding information in an XML document. More information can be found at the w3Schools.com web site.
