Glossary

Domain

When referring to the internet, a domain or domain name is used to identify the location of a website. For example, the domain name “google.com” points to the IP address “216.58.216.164”. Generally, it’s easier to remember a name rather than a long string of numbers.

URL

The address of a website. It stands for Universal Resource Locator.

IP address

A unique string of numbers separated by periods that identifies each computer using the Internet to communicate.

DNS: (Domain Name System)

The Internet’s system for converting alphabetic names into numeric IP addresses. For example, when a Web address (URL) is typed into a browser, DNS servers return the IP address of the Web server associated with that name and containing the website requested.

Hosting

A service that allows organizations and individuals to store a website (or other data) on a server or other computer so that it can be accessed over the Internet.

Server

A server is a computer that provides data to other computers. For our purposes, the server serves data to other computers over the Internet. Many types of servers exist, including web servers, mail servers, and file servers. Each type runs software specific to the purpose of the server.

Shared Hosting

Just as the name implies, multiple websites, often thousands of them, are hosted on a single server.

Virtual Machine

A virtual machine (VM) is a software program that not only exhibits the behavior of a separate computer, but is also capable of performing tasks such as running applications and programs like a separate computer. A VM can exist on a single physical machine but is usually distributed across multiple physical machines hosts to share the load and make the VM more performant.

Dedicated hardware

Dedicated hardware is a term used to describe web hosting packages that provide a dedicated server with dedicated resources (physical machine) to a single client.

Protocol

A set of rules governing the exchange or transmission of data (information) between devices.

Hypertext

A software system that links topics on the screen to related information and graphics, which are typically accessed by a point-and-click method.

HTTP

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is the data transfer protocol used on the internet (World Wide Web)

HTTPS

HTTPS stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol Secured. It means that the data transfer protocol used on the World Wide Web is secured and requires a certificate to verify the identity of the website.

Link

A link allows you to jump to a new location when you click or tap on it. Links are on almost every web page and provide you a simple way to navigate between different web pages or different locations on a single page.

HTML

Short for Hypertext Markup Language. It is a language to create webpages with font, color, graphic and other effects.

CSS

Short for Cascading Style Sheets. CSS are used to format the layout of Web pages. For example, CSS can be used to define the style, thickness, and color of a table’s border, and the space around images or other objects.

PHP

Short for Hypertext Preprocessor. PHP is a programming language used in conjunction with HTML to enhance the features of a website and making web pages more interactive by allowing them to do more things. For example, a website programmed with PHP can have pages that are password protected and require a Member Log In.

CMS

A content management system (CMS), is software that helps users create, manage, and modify content on a website without the need for specialized technical knowledge.

Static Web Page

Static web pages are pages that remain as they were created, unless manually changed. The web is made up mainly of Static web pages. Static pages are ideal for pages that don’t change very frequently. They are used to display information.

Dynamic Web Page

A dynamic page is one that changes or is created when it is requested by the user, and can contain up-to-date information that wasn’t available when the web page was first created. The information normally comes from a database. An example of this would be product name or price information or anything that changes.

Database

A structured set of data held in a computer, especially one that is accessible in various ways.

Caching

Caching is a temporary storage of a web page inside of a web browser (Chrome, Safari, etc…). The code that determines the way your website looks is stored either inside of your browser (called caching) or on the server where it is hosted. When changes are made to the website on the server, you may still be looking at the version of the site that was stored in your browser instead of the new version, so the new changes may not show on your computer. In order to avoid that, it is possible to clear your cache. This allows your browser to refresh and show you the updated version. Without caching, websites can be very slow as all of the website elements need to be downloaded into your computer for viewing every single time you access a specific web page.

Install

To load software into a computer or onto a website.

Configure

To arrange or order a computer system (or an element of it) so as to fit it for a designated task.

Code

A system of symbols and rules that serve as instructions for a computer.

Minification

Minification is a computer term for the action of changing code to remove unnecessary characters and elements. By taking out comments and extraneous characters, as well as phrases and elements, minification makes files smaller.

Script or Web Script

An automated series of instructions used to create a Dynamic Web Page. Scripts may be used to automate a specific processes on a single Web page or to generate multiple Web pages on the Web.

Laravel

This is a PHP-based programming language and is very popular for custom software development.

Plug-In

A plug-in is a piece of software containing a group of procedures or routines, called functions, that can be added to a website to provide support for specific features or functionality.

Snippet

A little piece of code.

JavaScript

A computer programming language commonly used to create interactive effects within web browsers.

VueJS

Vue.JS is a JavaScript framework used for building user interfaces and single-page applications.

AngularJS

AngularJS is probably one of the most popular modern day web frameworks available today. This framework is used for developing mostly single-page applications. This framework has been developed by a group of developers from Google itself.

ReactJS

ReactJS is a JavaScript library for building user interfaces. It can be used as a base in the development of single-page or mobile applications, as it is optimal for fetching rapidly changing data that needs to be recorded.

WordPress

WordPress is a web software to create websites quickly and easily. Everything from simple websites to blogs, to complex websites, and even applications are built with WordPress. WordPress is used by 58.6% of all the websites whose content management system is known.

Divi

Divi is a new drag and drop website building platform for WordPress. It is a tool used to create great-looking websites with ease.

Bootstrap

Bootstrap is the most popular CSS Framework for developing responsive and mobile-first websites.

Visual editor

A visual editor, or full-screen editor is computer software for editing text files using a textual or graphical user interface which displays the content (text) in an easy to look at and good view; that is, it displays a portion of the opened file and updates it in real time.

CNAME

Stands for Canonical Name Record.
When referring to programming, canonical means conforming to well-established patterns or rules.
When referring to IP addressing, CNAME is used in the DNS to create an alias from one domain name to another domain name. An example would be graphem.ca which is an alias to the domain graphem.com. Users accessing graphem.ca are referred to graphem.com.

Alias

For our purposes, an alias is an alternative name or label that refers to a file, command, address, or other item, and can be used to locate or access it.

CAPTCHA

CAPTCHA is an acronym for Completely Automated Public Turing test (named after Alan Turing) to tell Computers and Humans Apart. It is a type of challenge–response test used in computing to determine whether or not the user is human, based on replies to questions.

“reCAPTCHA” is a free CAPTCHA service by Google so that you can protect your website from spam or abusive activities. It saves websites from spam because reCAPTCHA is easy to solve for humans but not for computers (bots).

Automation

The technique of making a process or a system operate automatically.