Web Scripting Languages
In addition to PHP and JavaScript, there are many
other potential web scripting languages. Some of these include:
- Ajax. A scripting technique for silently loading new data
from the server. We will talk about AJAX more in out next meeting.
- ASP. Active Server Pages are HTML pages that
contain embedded scripts. IIS (Internet Information Server)
and third party providers offer server software that interprets
Active Server code. ASP pages contain either server side or
client side scripts which performs functions such as database
access, page personalization, or interactive functions.
Scripts act similar to CGI scripts. Pages should end in .asp.
- ASP.Net. ASP.NET is a set of web development technologies
marketed by Microsoft. Programmers can use this set of
technologies to build web applications and XML web services.
It is part of Microsoft's .NET platform and is the successor
to Microsoft's Active Server Pages (ASP) technology.
- C. The C programming language is a standardized programming
language developed in the early 1970s by Ken Thompson and
Dennis Ritchie for use on the UNIX operating system. It has
since spread to many other operating systems, and is one of
the most widely used programming languages. C is prized for
its efficiency, and is the most popular programming language
for writing system software, though it is also used for writing
applications.
- C++. Enhancement to the C language, providing
object-oriented programming features.
- CFML. Cold Fusion Markup Language is a proprietary
language used to build dynamic web pages that automatically
draw their content from a database.
- CGI and Perl. Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a very common
way for web servers to interact dynamically with users.
Common uses include online feedback and online forms.
Practical Extraction and Reporting Language (PERL) is an open
source server side programming language extensively used for
web scripts and to process data passed via the Common Gateway
Interface from HTML forms etc. Perl scripts are not embedded
within HTML pages and do not download to the web browser but
reside on the server. They execute by being triggered from
commands within HTML pages or other scripts and may produce
HTML output that does download to the web browser.
- Flash. Flash, a popular authoring software developed
by Macromedia, is used to create vector graphics-based
animation programs with full-screen navigation interfaces,
graphic illustrations, and simple interactivity in an
antialiased, resizable file format that is small enough
to stream across a normal modem connection.
- Java. Java is an object-oriented programming language
developed initially by James Gosling and colleagues
at Sun Microsystems.
- JSP. Java Server Pages are normal HTML with Java code
pieces embedded in them. A JSP compiler is used to
generate a Servlet from the JSP page.
- Python. A freeware open-source cross-platform
interpreted scripting language from www.python.org.
- Ruby on Rails. Ruby on Rails is an open source web
application framework written in Ruby that closely
follows the Model View Controller (MVC) architecture.
It strives for simplicity, often allowing real-world applications
to be developed in less code than other frameworks and with
a minimum of configuration. One of Rails' guiding principles
is "Don't Repeat Yourself".
Please see hotscripts.com
for more information.
PHP Reports
Report Generating Software Issues
- Software available on middle-tier platform
- Sofware available on client-tier platform
- Features required
- Speed required
- Price
Candidates
R&OS pdf class
- Allows pdf documents to be created with PHP
- Relevant website
- At the website, download the zip file which contains the class, sample, and the
required font metric files.
- For simplicity, I placed (1) class.pdf.php, (2) class.ezpdf.php and
(3) the fonts folder in the same directory where I developed today's
sample program.
- With the download, comes this documentation
Example
HTML Templates
Templates allow php code to be separated from html. Consequently,
templates make the code easier to modify and maintain.
PEAR Integrated Templates Package
- An introduction to PEAR.
- Pear has a package named HTML_Template_IT -
website
- To install the package, issue the command
pear install html_template_it at the DOS prompt
Example
Laboratory
Do something interesting and non-trivial that involves
reports and/or templates.
If you are a Montana State student, demonstrate it during
today's lab period. If you are a University of Leipzig student,
either demonstrate it during today's lab period or e-mail it to
Sebastian (loewe AT uni-leipzig.de) no later than the end of the day.