What is server side scripting and what are its various advantages? It all will be explained to you in this article.
“Server-side Scripting” is basically about programming the server as per your requirements. Its done to make your website, hosted on that server become artificially intelligent
It seems odd for a moment but its a fact that most of the folks who proudly call themselves ‘web freaks’ don’t even know basics about web architecture.I actually came across some awful misconceptions about “Server-side Scripting” over a forum (by tens of folks out there) and thought of writing a post to elucidate the actual meaning of “Server-side scripting”.
I will take care that the post doesn’t turn ‘too geeky to be digestible’.
What is Server-side Scripting ?
“Server-side Scripting” is basically about programming the server as per your requirements.Its done to make your website,hosted on that server become artificially intelligent(pre-programmed for a set of inputs from the user).It is basically used to facilitate interactive websites,that interface to databases or other data stores.
In case of server-side scripting,when a web browser sends a request for an HTML file then the file,rather than returning back to the browser,gets executed on the server first and then sent to the browser as plain HTML.
Many folks usually get confused with ‘Server-side scripting’ and ‘Client-side scripting’.’Client-side scripting’ is actually about defining(programming) the behavior of the browser.Today,client-side scripting is mainly used to add extra functionality to a website.Most popular client side scripting languages include JavaScript, JScript, VBScript and not to forget “Ajax”.
For server-side scripting,popular programming languages include PHP,ASP,JSP and few others.
Why developers prefer ‘Server-side scripting’ over ‘Client side scripting’
It’s Secure : As the code is executed on the server itself and only the plain HTML resultant page is sent to the client(browser),the actual code is not revealed to the client.That is,the code that you see when you look at the “Page Source” of any webpage isn’t the actual code,provided the webpage is programmed at the server-side.
It’s Hassle-free : Client side scripts are downloaded by the browser, interpreted by the browser, and executed by the browser.So,a lot more depends on the browser in client side scripting.On the contrary,as the execution is done at the server side(in server-side scripting),the botheration of cross-browser compatibility is much reduced
What about those programmers who are still on Client-side scripting only
They’re just Lazy : What all I can say is that such folks are quite lazy in learning the evolving trends in the field of technology.These guys actually start learning another technology when they come at the verge of getting called ‘Backward’.But the actual problem lies their learning attitude.