Definitions
General Policy
Policy Authority
Right to Use University Resources
Approval
of New Sites
Required Elements
Off-Campus Vendors
Personal Pages
Security
Servers
and URLs
Responsibilities of Server Administrators
American's with Disabilities Act Compliance
University Templates
Validating
and Testing
Web Design Tips
Acrobat: An Adobe software application that allows for the creation and distribution of documents in PDF format. The free Acrobat Reader is needed to read PDF files.
Applet: A small software application, usually written in Java, that is embedded within a Web page. Applets can may display animation, or perform sophisticated database queries, or play games, among many other things.
Backbone: The physical connection between two or more local area networks (LANs). A backbone is often composed of fiber-optic cables or other high-speed transport media. The University's backbone —called URNet—is capable of transmitting data at speeds of up to 1gbps, or one gigabit per second.
Bandwidth: A way to describe a network's capacity. If you've got a T-3 leased-line, you've got a high-bandwidth connection. If you've got a 9,600 bps modem, you've got a low-bandwidth connection. To view large files such as digital video clips, requires a high-bandwidth connection.
Blog: Short for Web log, a publicly available, personal journal that often chronicles the author's thoughts about other Web sites or a specific subject matter. Blogger software, such as Blogger and Blogspot, help authors easily create and maintain their blogs.
Bookmark: A direct link to a frequently visited site, saved in your Web browser for easy access. You "bookmark" a site to make it easier to return to in the future. Also called "Favorites" in some Web browsers.
Browser: Software used to locate and view pages or files on the World Wide Web. Chances are good that you're using a browser to look at this document. Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator, Mozilla Firefox, and Safari are popular Web browsers. Web pages can often display slightly differently in different Web browsers.
Cache: Used to store Web files locally so that they do not need to be downloaded each time they are accessed. If you visit the University homepage several times a day, for example, your browser will only download from the server those files that have been updated since the last time you visited the site. Other files, like graphics and style sheets, will be loaded from the cache, thus improving your Web browser's performance. Sometimes it is necessary to clean out your browser's cache if it becomes too large. A "stuck" cache can cause an updated site to appear old by continuing to load the files stored in the cache as opposed to the updated files from the server.
CGI (Common Gateway Interface): A means for adding functionality and interactivity to Web pages. CGI programs, or scripts, are most often found in forms. When you fill out a form on a Web page, a CGI script processes the output, possibly adding a record to a database, displaying relevant search results, etc.
Chat: A form of online communication that occurs in real-time; in other words, unlike e-mail or discussion forums, when you participate in a chat your messages and replies are received instantaneously by others in in the chat. Chats can take place on Web site chat rooms, via instant messaging, or on text-based IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channels that are separate from the Web and require different software to access.
Client: A software application that interacts with a server. In the case of the Web, a browser client, like Netscape Navigator, will request a file over the Internet from a server.
CSS (Cascading Style Sheets): A standard that allows Web developers to control the appearance of design elements, like headings, links, background colors and page layout, across their entire site. A style sheet is saved as a separate document (with a .css file extension), and then linked to a Web page. By changing the style of an element on the style sheet, the element will display differently on all the pages that link to that style sheet.
Development Server: A separate Web server configuration that allows University Web developers to upload and test new content without it being seen by the outside world. The development server is password-protected. Only University users with the correct login can see sites on the development server. The domain name for the University's development server is www.wdev.rochester.edu. To move Web content to the production server, Web authors must use a utility called "Deploy."
Deploy: A Web-based utility used to "deploy" Web content from the development server to the production server so that outside users can access it. Deploy is located at https://www.wdev.rochester.edu/deploy/.
DNS (Domain Name Server): An Internet service that resolves domain names to actual IP addresses. Nodes communicate with each other using IP addresses rather than domain names, though users may never see the actual IP addresses being used.
Domain Name: The unique name that identifies an IP address. For example, the domain name www.rochester.edu represents the IP address 128.151.0.0.
The "top level" of a domain name is the last part, always two or three letters. There are only a limited number of top-level domains. For example:
- .com (for commercial organizations)
- .org (for non-profit organizations)
- .edu (for educational institutions)
- .net (for network providers)
- .gov (for the federal government)
- .mil (for the military)
- .fr for France
- .uk for the United Kingdom
- .ca for Canada
The hierarchy for domain names is represented from right to left. After the top-level domain name come the various sub-domain names. A domain name generally represents one computer. Users' workstations may have their own domain names, or they may simply be assigned IP addresses.
Download: To transfer a file from another computer to your computer. When you view a page in a Web browser, you are "downloading" the page from the server it's hosted on. You can also download files using an FTP client.
Dreamweaver: Popular Web editing software produced by Macromedia. Dreamweaver is a WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get), meaning you can create an edit a page as it appears in a browser, without looking at the code.
E-mail (Electronic Mail): Electronic messages sent over a computer network. Microsoft Outlook and Eudora are popular e-mail clients. In addition to messages, e-mail can be used to transmit files from one person to another, using e-mail attachments.
FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions): A collection of basic questions and answers regarding a Web site, service, company, etc.
Flash: A popular graphic animation program produced by Macromedia. Flash animations will look the same in any Web browser they are viewed in, as long as the browser has the necessary plug-in.
Forum: An online discussion group. Forums can be Web-based discussions or Usenet newsgroups.
Frames: A Web design technique that splits a Web page into several smaller pages that load on the same screen. Frames can be difficult to implement well, and often cause usability problems. Search engines can also have difficulty indexing a site in frames.
FTP (File Transfer Protocol): FTP is the most common method for uploading and downloading files over the Internet. When you want to upload your new Web pages to your server, for example, you send them using FTP. To upload sites to the University's Web server, you must use a Secure FTP, or SFTP, program. SSH Secure Shell and Fetch are popular FTP programs. Dreamweaver can also be used as an FTP program.
GIF or .gif (Graphics Interchange Format): One of the two major graphics file formats on the Web. The GIF format is a "lossless" compression method (meaning no data is lost when the original image is compressed), but is limited to 256 colors (8-bit color). GIF is better to use for simple line drawings, logos, illustrations, etc., and not for photographs. GIF also supports transparency, meaning that the background of the image can be made transparent, allowing the color of the Web page to show through. See also: JPEG.
Homepage: The first page or "top page" of a Web site. It should establish the look-and-feel of the site, as well as the site navigation. The University's homepage is http://www.rochester.edu.
Homepage can also refer to the first screen you see when when you start your Web browser. You may change your homepage by editing the preferences or options found in your browser's menu.
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language): The authoring language used to create pages on the World Wide Web. Every page that you see on the Web is represented in HTML, whether it was written by a human or by a computer. HTML is relatively simple: you turn attributes on and off using "tags"; and you create graphics and text hyperlinks to pages or files anywhere else on the Internet. HTML pages are viewed using a Web browser such as Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator or Firefox. HTML files end in the file extension .html or .htm.
HTTP (Hypertext Transport Protocol): The standard protocol for serving files on the World Wide Web. HTTP is what servers and clients use to send and get files. The string http:// makes up the first part of the URL for all Web pages.
Imagemap: Graphic images that have defined "hot spots," or links.
Internet: The worldwide network of networks that makes possible the rapid transfer of data around the world through such applications as e-mail, file transfer (FTP), and the World Wide Web. Every node on the Internet runs TCP/IP.
IP Address: The unique numeric address given to servers and users connected to the Internet. An IP address consists of 4 numbers between 0 and 255 punctuated by dots, e.g. 167.241.33.40. Every computer running TCP/IP has its own unique IP number.
For servers, the IP address is translated into a domain name, which is easier to remember. For users, an IP address is assigned each time you connect to the Internet. It can be the same every time you log in on the same machine (a static IP) or it can be newly generated each time you connect (dynamic IP).
ISP (Internet Service Provider): A company that allows home and corporate users to connect to the Internet. The connection may be part-time SLIP/PPP, DSL, or cable (for home users), or it may be a full-time ISDN, T-1, or T-3 connection (for companies and clients running full-time servers).
Java: Sun Microsystems' programming language, based on C++, used to develop small applications or "applets" that load from Web sites. Identical Java applets can be used on any supported platform—that is, a Macintosh machine will run the same code as a Unix machine or a Windows machine.
JavaScript: A scripting language that interacts with HTML, allowing developers to add dynamic elements to their Web pages easily. Common uses of JavaScript include image rollovers and dropdown menus.
JPEG or .jpg (Joint Photographic Experts' Group) : A standard for photographic image compression. JPEG is a "lossy" compression method, which discards data from an image and interpolates the surrounding area, resulting in a smaller file size. JPEG is capable of storing 24-bit images (millions of colors), and is best used when compressing full-color or black-and-white photographic images. JPEG files on the Web have the extension .jpeg or .jpg. See also: GIF.
LAN (Local Area Network): A network of computers that is usually confined to one room or office building. LANs are linked together in larger networks as Wide Area Networks (WANs).
Listserv: A mailing list server that originated on BITNET in 1986. E-mail messages sent to a Listserv mailing address will be automatically transmitted to everyone who subscribes to the list. Although Listserv is a commercial product produced by L-Soft International, the term listserv is often used to refer to any mailing list server. The University uses the majordomo mailing list server.
Lynx: An early, text-only Web browser. Though most early Web pages were easily comprehensible when viewed with text-only browsers, the Web's dependence on graphics often makes solutions like Lynx unworkable—much to the detriment of the visually impaired, who use text-to-speech software to "read" online text. Lynx is little used today.
Mailing List: A list of e-mail addresses that users with similar interests can subscribe to. When an e-mail message is sent to the mailing list address, it is sent to every individual who subscribes to that list.
MP3: A standard file format for storing music. When you download an MP3, you can play it on your computer or transfer it to a portable MP3 player.
MPEG (Motion Pictures Experts Group): A multimedia file format. Video files saved as MPEGs can be played in multiple media players, including RealPlayer, Windows Media Player, and Quicktime.
MySQL: A open-source, relational database management system that is often used in conjunction with PHP to create dynamically generated pages on a Web site. For example, you can create a MySQL database listing all the alumni of a university. Then a PHP Web page can connect to that database to allows users to search for alumni by name, major, year they graduated, state they live in, etc. The search results pages are generated "on the fly."
Newsgroup: An online discussion forum on Usenet. Users post messages and replies that are accessible to anyone who logs in to the newsgroup. You need a newsreader to access the newsgroups on Usenet. Newsgroups are arranged in a hierarchical fashion with names like alt.fan, alt.fan.elvis, alt.fan.elvis.songs, etc. With over 100,000 newsgroups, there is a Usenet newsgroup for every subject imaginable.
Operating system: The foundation software on every computer, necessary to run all other applications. Popular operating systems include Windows (Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows ME), Macintosh (OSX), Linux, and Unix.
PDF (Portable Document Format): The file format used by Adobe Acrobat. PDFs allow developers to recreate a document exactly as it appears in its printed form and make it available on the Web. PDFs can cause accessibility problems for users with screen readers. It's often preferable to publish your material as a Web page(s), and only use PDFs when there is a compelling reason (e.g. publishing a printed form that users need to complete and then mail or fax). NOTE: With Adobe Acrobat 7, additional accesssibility features make it easier to generate PDFs accessibile to users with disabilities.
Peer-to-Peer: A network configuration in which each computer connected to the network acts as both a server and a client. All the users connected to the network can access files located on any computer on the network. Peer-to-peer is often discussed in connection with sharing music files over the Internet.
Perl: A UNIX-based scripting language that is often used on the Web. When you submit a complex form from your browser window, for example, the processing of the information may be handled by a Perl script. Perl scripts usually end in the extension .pl.
Photoshop: Professional image-editing software from Adobe. Use Photoshop to compress and resize images for the Web, or to convert images to a variety of Web-friendly formats, including GIF and JPG.
PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor): An HTML-embedded scripting language used to create dynamically generated Web pages. PHP code is executed on the server, so all the client sees is the HTML code.
Plug-in: A piece of software that loads in conjunction with a host application—usually a Web browser—and extends the functionality of that application. A few common plug-ins include Flash, Acrobat Reader, RealPlayer, and Quicktime.
Portal: A Web site that attempts to offer a large collection of information, often customized by the user and updated frequently, in one place.
Quicktime: A multimedia standard and player developed by Apple. Quicktime movies are saved as .qt or .mov files. The player for viewing Quicktime files is available as a free download, but additional software is needed to create Quicktime movies.
RealPlayer: Multimedia software developed by Real Networks. RealPlayer allows users to access streaming media, meaning they can watch or listen to the content live, without waiting for a large file to download.
Resolution: Refers to the sharpness of an image and is often used to describe computer monitors, printers, or individual graphics. On your monitor, the screen resolution describes how many pixels, or dots, can fit on the screen. For example, a screen set at 1024-by-768 pixels can display more content than the same monitor set at 800 by 600. For in image, resolution is expressed in dots per inch (dpi). The greater the dpi, the sharper and clearer the image will be. For Web sites, images only require 72 dpi; for print materials, 150 to 300 dpi is needed depending on the eventual size of the image.
Search engine: A program that searches the Web for keywords supplied by the user, and then rank orders the results according to its own search algorithm. Search engines crawl the Web using programs called "spiders" or "robots" to find as many pages as possible, and then index those pages based on the words contained in each document. Some search engines also include directories of sites arranged into categories by human editors. Popular search engines include Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves, AllTheWeb, HotBot, and Lycos.
Server: A computer on a network that manages or "hosts" networked resources. There are Web servers, file servers, mail servers, etc.
Shockwave: A plug-in written by Macromedia that allows interactive multimedia presentations, such as games and demos, to play in a Web browser window.
SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol): The predominant transport protocol for outgoing Internet e-mail. Messages are then retrieved using an e-mail client application (like Outlook or Eudora) using either a POP or IMAP server. That is why when setting up a new e-mail account you need to provide both an outgoing (SMTP) server and an incoming (IMAP) server.
Spam: Unsolicited commercial e-mail, or junk e-mail.
SSH: Secure Shell application developed by SSH Communications. Use SSH to log in to another computer from a remote location, execute commands, or view file structure. SSH also produces a Secure FTP client for uploading and downloading files to a Web server.
SSI (Server-side Include): A type of HTML command that instructs a server to dynamically generate code for that Web page. The basic format for SSIs is:
<!--#command tag="value" ...>
Server-side includes are especially useful for ensuring that common elements—like headers, footers, menus, modified dates, template elements—are the same on all the pages of a Web site. To change the common element, just change the one include file.
Standards: A set of rules or specifications that define a language, protocol, data format, etc. HTML is a standard supported by the World Wide Web Consortium.
Style Sheets: See CSS.
TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol): The suite of protocols under which all the computers on the Internet communicate with each other. TCP/IP was best known as the standard UNIX networking protocol, but some implementation of TCP/IP is now available for every major operating system. To truly be on the Internet, a computer must be running TCP/IP; but a computer running TCP/IP is not necessarily on the Internet.
Upload: To copy a file from your local computer to a server. Most Web authors upload their files to a Web server using an FTP client.
URL (Uniform Resource Locator): The address of any document or other resource on the Internet. URLs always start with a protocol name, like http, ftp, gopher, or telnet, for example, and then usually list the resource's domain name and file path. A typical URL looks like this: http://www.rochester.edu. All Web pages have a URL.
Usenet: A worldwide bulletin board system with over 100,000 newsgroups.
Validator: An application that ensures that all the code in a given file or program conforms to the correct standard. The W3C's HTML Validator has a Web-based interface that allows developers to check that their HTML or XHTML code is written correctly.
Virtual Server: A Web server that shares computer resources allowing several Web sites with different domain names to be hosted on the same server. The University's central Web server hosts several virtual servers, including http://www.facilities.rochester.edu/ and http://www.safety.rochester.edu/.
Virus: A computer program that replicates itself across computer networks, installing itself on individual computers without the user's knowledge. Anti-virus software is available and should be run frequently to scan your computer for viruses.
WAN (Wide Area Network): A larger network, usually consisting of a collection of LANs, that spans a large geographical area. Nodes on WANs speak to each other over a backbone.
Wireless: Networks of computers that are connected via airwaves rather than cables. The University's wireless network, URWireless, allows users with a wireless network interface card (NIC) to access networked resources using radio frequencies instead of wires.
World Wide Web: The system of more than 60 million Internet servers that use HTTP to publish files that can be read, viewed, or heard on your local computer with a Web browser. The files that make up the Web are located on servers all over the world. The Web is not the same thing as the Internet. The Web is a part of the Internet, but the Internet is also used for e-mail, instant messaging, file transfer, and other applications that are separate from the Web.
World Wide Web Consortium (W3C): An international organization that establishes standards and specifications that shape the development of the Web.
XHTML (Extensible Hypertext Markup Language): A standard supported by the World Wide Web Consortium and a hybrid between HTML and XML designed specifically for coding and viewing Web pages. XHTML is the "next step" in the evolution of HTML.
Note: More complete Web glossaries are available at NetLingo and Webopedia.
Content last modified: Tuesday, 17-May-2005 15:34:20 EDT
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