Types of websites
A static website is one that has web pages
stored on the server in the format that is sent to a client web browser. It is
primarily coded in Hypertext Markup Language (HTML).
Simple forms or marketing examples of websites,
such as classic website, a five-page website or a brochure
website are often static websites, because they present pre-defined,
static information to the user. This may include information about a company
and its products and services through text, photos, animations, audio/video and
interactive menus and navigation.
This type of website usually displays the same
information to all visitors. Similar to handing out a printed brochure to
customers or clients, a static website will generally provide consistent,
standard information for an extended period of time. Although the website owner
may make updates periodically, it is a manual process to edit the text, photos
and other content and may require basic website design skills and software.
A static web page may still have dynamic behavior,
provided that this is handled entirely client-side (i.e. within the browser).
This may include such features as a JavaScript image zoom feature to display
photographs.
In summary, visitors are not able to control
what information they receive via a static website, and must instead settle for
whatever content the website owner has decided to offer at that time.
They are edited using four broad categories of
software:
- Text editors, such as Notepad or Text Edit, where content and HTML markup are manipulated directly within the editor program
- WYSIWYG offline editors, such as Microsoft FrontPage and Adobe Dreamweaver (previously Macromedia Dreamweaver), with which the site is edited using a GUI and the final HTML markup is generated automatically by the editor software
- WYSIWYG online editors which create media rich online presentation like web pages, widgets, intro, blogs, and other documents.
- Template-based editors, such as Rapid Weaver and iWeb, which allow users to quickly create and upload web pages to a web server without detailed HTML knowledge, as they pick a suitable template from a palette and add pictures and text to it in a desktop publishing fashion without direct manipulation of HTML code.
Static websites may still use server side
includes (SSI) as an editing convenience, such as sharing a common menu
bar across many pages. As the site's behavior to the reader is still
static, this is not considered a dynamic site.
A dynamic website is one that changes or
customizes itself frequently and automatically, based on certain criteria.
Dynamic websites can have two types of dynamic
activity: Code and Content. Dynamic code is invisible or behind the scenes and
dynamic content is visible or fully displayed.
Dynamic code
The first type is a web page with dynamic code.
The code is constructed dynamically on the fly using active programming
language instead of plain, static HTML.
A website with dynamic code refers to its
construction or how it is built, and more specifically refers to the code used
to create a single web page. A dynamic web page is generated on the fly by
piecing together certain blocks of code, procedures or routines. A dynamically
generated web page would recall various bits of information from a database and
put them together in a pre-defined format to present the reader with a coherent
page. It interacts with users in a variety of ways including by reading cookies
recognizing users' previous history, session variables, server side variables
etc., or by using direct interaction (form elements, mouse overs, etc.). A site
can display the current state of a dialogue between users, monitor a changing
situation, or provide information in some way personalized to the requirements
of the individual user.
The second type is a website with dynamic
content displayed in plain view. Variable content is displayed dynamically on
the fly based on certain criteria, usually by retrieving content stored in a
database.
A website with dynamic content refers to how its
messages, text, images and other information are displayed on the web page and
more specifically how its content changes at any given moment. The web page
content varies based on certain criteria, either pre-defined rules or variable
user input. For example, a website with a database of news articles can use
a predefined rule which tells it to display all news articles for
today's date. This type of dynamic website will automatically show the most
current news articles on any given date. Another example of dynamic content is
when a retail website with a database of media products allows a user to input
a search request for the keyword Beatles. In response, the content of the
web page will spontaneously change the way it looked before, and will then
display a list of Beatles products like CDs, DVDs and books.