Beacuse I must quote and source places that I got information from, I
have these in the research paper. I have placed **s around the areas I
would suggest removing if you find the sourcing and quoting
inappropriate for your uses. It may be more appropriate for your paper
to have these at the end as a bibliography, so I hope I have made this
easy for you to do.
The following essay took up about 2 pages single spaced 12 point in
times new roman font in microsoft word:
Although the internet bubble has burst, commercial websites are
becoming an increasingly important part of today’s economy. With the
advent of commercial websites, a number of different methods of
communicating with potential customers have come about. The types of
communication used on these websites can be broken up into three main
categories; static content, active content, and dynamic content. To
understand commercial websites it is important to understand these
three content types, how they are implemented, and the costs and
benefits of each approach.
Firstly, it is important to define the three main categories of web
site content, which are static content, active content and dynamic
content. **From [ http://www.turton.com/web/pdfs/Dynamic.pdf ]**
“Static content provides the same combination of text and graphics to
each visitor. Typical applications involve what has been termed
brochureware - the placement of brochure type content to describe a
new/existing service or product to potential and existing customers.”
Dynamic content, in contrast, uses a program such as a cgi script on a
web server to generate the information given to the user. Each user of
a dynamic page may see different information than any other user, but
once the page is loaded, nothing changes. Examples of dynamic web
pages are search engines and searchable product databases. Active
content is different than all of these in that even after the page is
loaded, the content may continue to change through the use of client
side scripts or applets. **From the pelican security faq page [ ]**,
Active content is defined as thus: “Active content is a generic term
covering all types of downloadable content containing executable
elements – ranging from downloaded software to web scripting, Active X
controls and macros in MS Office documents.” Java scripts and dynamic
html that update a page while the user is visiting it is also a good
example of active content.
The next important thing to know about these kinds of content is their
implementation. All of these methods require the use of a web server,
which is simply a computer that is designed to receive requests for
web pages and send the results to the end user. For static content,
the job of the web server is simple. All it must do is listen for a
request for a given file and respond by sending the file.
Implementation simply requires web serving software be loaded on a
computer with an internet connection for this type of content. It is
also required to prepare html files and graphics that are to be served
to the end users via the web server. This is a relatively simple
procedure with many of today’s web page editing tools. More
complicated is dynamic content. With this kind of content, the web
server not only needs to simply send files, but it must also receive
requests and perform some sort of processing before sending the
results to the user. This often involves querying a database of
information, with the results being inserted into a template page and
then sent to the user. Active content provides the most flexibility of
the three. It can combine elements from static and dynamic content,
but the main difference is what is done by the user’s computer once
the content is loaded. Once loaded onto the end user’s computer,
various scripts or programs may run that dynamically change the view
of content. This is implemented by features in a user’s browser, which
interprets the commands in a script and determines the correct way to
display the results of the scripting operations.
Finally, and most importantly, is considering the costs and benefits
to each approach to displaying content on commercial web pages. For
static content, the main benefit is simplicity and low cost. There are
a number of easy to use tools that will turn written text and pictures
into workable static content for use on a commercial website. There is
no need to program complicated databases, and making sure everything
shows up correctly on a user’s computer is greatly simplified. Static
content is nearly guaranteed to display correctly on the majority of
browsing environments and is compatible with nearly all web servers,
which makes it appropriate for use when compatibility is the number
one concern. Dynamic content is a powerful tool for many commercial
websites, but it has additional costs. Though it has few additional
browser complications compared to static content, it can be difficult
to create a website that uses dynamic content that will work from the
web server end of things.
Dynamic content often requires a working knowledge of setting up
databases, knowledge of a cgi scripting language, and a good deal of
computing power at the web server. For these reasons, a web page that
uses dynamic content will require significantly more expertise to
create and maintain, and that translates into higher costs. The
tradeoff is that dynamic content can provide a customized environment
for each user that appeal to the needs of any particular customer in a
way that no static page can match. Searchable catalogs, dynamically
updated product listings, user feedback capabilities, and shopping
cart systems are all examples of functions that would be next to
impossible without dynamic content systems.
Finally, active content has its own set of features and challenges.
Active content can provide a feature rich environment to the end user,
whereby user made changes and choices are immediately reflected by an
updated page, a different view, or new text. With active content, the
user can be placed in a more interactive environment, since everything
they do can result in a change of what is seen on screen. The problem
with this however, is three fold. First is incompatibility. With all
of the advanced features of active content comes the problem that
different browsers display different active features in different
ways, which can lead to pages that will not display as intended. The
second consideration is performance. Active content requires all
processing to be done by the end user’s computer, which can slow down
the browsing experience on slower machines, which limits potential
audience. The third consideration is user annoyance. Done incorrectly,
active content can prove to be more of a detriment than an enhancement
of the user experience as all the onscreen changes overwhelms the
user, and conflicts with what they expect to happen when browsing a
web site.
When all factors are considered, a combination of one of the three
main types of internet content can be a great asset to any commercial
website. From static content for simple brochure type applications, to
dynamic content for often updated or changing pages, to active content
for more flashy applications, the three types of content can provide a
compelling experience for end users of commercial websites, if proper
care is taken to weigh their costs, advantages and disadvantages.
Sources:
http://www.turton.com/web/pdfs
http://www.pelicansecurity.com/pages/faqIndex.asp?subNav=FAQ
search strategy:
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&safe=off&q=%22what+is+static+content%22
://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=%22what+is+active+content%22
I hope that you found this answer highly satisfactory, and if you feel
anything is lacking, please request a clarification before rating this
answer so that I may improve anything that is inadaquate. |
Clarification of Answer by
funkywizard-ga
on
03 Dec 2002 18:12 PST
ok, firstly, so none of the formatting of the essay goes wrong, I have
stored a copy of the word document with everything laid out correctly
at the following url: http://www.akddr.com/2pageessay.doc
In case this format doesn't work for you, I include the updated text
below. In my copy of MS word, the new essay took up just about exactly
2 pages. Instead of having certain sections have ** around them and
asking you to remove that later, I simply numbered these areas as such
*1*, blah blah, *2* and then at the end of the paper had a list of
what would be put into these places if you would like (which probably
isnt necessary). I'm sure you will see what I mean when you read it.
Here is a copy of the entire essay in text format (watch out, if you
copy and paste this text, the formatting can get all screwed up, I
recommend using the word document above)
With the advent of commercial websites, a new means of communicating
with potential customers have come about. This communication can be
broken up into three main categories: static content, active content,
and dynamic content. To understand commercial websites it is important
to understand these three content types, how they are implemented, and
the costs and benefits of each approach.
Firstly, one must define the three main categories of web site
content. *1* “Static content provides the same combination of text and
graphics to each visitor. Typically this involves the placement of
brochure type content to describe a service or product to potential
and existing customers." Dynamic content, in contrast, uses a server
side script on a to generate the page that is customized for each
user. Once the page is loaded, however, nothing on the page changes.
Shopping cart systems and search engines are examples of functions
that would are made possible by dynamic content. Lastly, *2* “Active
content is a generic term covering all types of downloadable content
containing executable elements.” Any page that is updated by the
browser after it is loaded is considered active content.
The next important thing to know about these kinds of content is their
implementation. All of these methods require the use of a web server,
which is a computer that is designed to receive requests for web pages
and send the results to the end user. For static content, all the web
server must do is listen for a request for a given file and respond
by sending the file. With dynamic content, the web server still needs
to send files, but it must also respond to requests for information by
performing some sort of processing before sending the results to the
user. This often involves querying a database, with the results being
inserted into the page that is sent to the user. Active content is
implemented by loading a static page onto the end user’s computer
which contains various scripts or programs that dynamically change the
view of content. This is often implemented by scripting languages made
available by a user’s browser.
Finally, one must consider the costs and benefits of using each type
of content on a commercial web page. Static content benefits from its
simplicity and low cost, as there are a number of easy to use tools
that create websites with static content. Static content is compatible
with almost all browsers and web servers, which makes it appropriate
when consistency is the most important concern. Dynamic content is a
powerful tool, but web pages that use dynamic content require
significant expertise to create and maintain, leading to higher costs.
The benefit is that dynamic content can provide a customized
environment for each user in a way that no static page can match.
Active content can provide a feature rich environment to the end user,
where a user's actions are immediately reflected by changes in what
they see on screen. The main problem with this is incompatibility.
With all of the advanced features of active content comes the problem
that different browsers display these web sites in different ways,
which can lead to pages that will not display as intended on all
computers. Also, if done incorrectly, active content can easily
degenerate into an annoyance for the end user, rather than a helpful
addition to the browsing experience.
A combination of one or more of the three main types of internet
content can be a great asset to any commercial website. From static
content for simple brochure type applications, to dynamic content for
often updated or changing pages, to active content for more flashy
applications, the three types of content can provide a compelling
experience for end users of commercial websites, if proper care is
taken to weigh their costs, advantages and disadvantages.
*1*
From the pelican security faq page [
http://www.pelicansecurity.com/pages/faqIndex.asp?subNav=FAQ ]
*2*
From [ http://www.turton.com/web/pdfs/Dynamic.pdf ]
I hope that these changes have provided you with everything you need.
If anything is unclear or you need some additional changes made, feel
free to request such and I will take a look at this question again.
Thanks again for the great question.
|
