Editing World Wide Web (section)

==== Dynamic pages ====
{{Main|Dynamic web page|Ajax (programming)}}
[[File:Scheme dynamic page en.svg|thumb|right|500px|Dynamic web page: example of server-side scripting ([[PHP]] and [[MySQL]])]]
A ''server-side dynamic web page'' is a [[web page]] whose construction is controlled by an [[application server]] processing server-side scripts. In server-side scripting, [[Parameter (computer programming)|parameters]] determine how the assembly of every new web page proceeds, including the setting up of more client-side processing.

A ''client-side dynamic web page'' processes the web page using JavaScript running in the browser. JavaScript programs can interact with the document via [[Document Object Model]], or DOM, to query page state and alter it. The same client-side techniques can then dynamically update or change the DOM in the same way.

A dynamic web page is then reloaded by the user or by a [[computer program]] to change some variable content. The updating information could come from the server, or from changes made to that page's DOM. This may or may not truncate the browsing history or create a saved version to go back to, but a ''dynamic web page update'' using [[Ajax (programming)|Ajax]] technologies will neither create a page to go back to nor truncate the [[web browsing history]] forward of the displayed page. Using Ajax technologies the end [[User (computing)|user]] gets ''one dynamic page'' managed as a single page in the [[web browser]] while the actual [[web content]] rendered on that page can vary. The Ajax engine sits only on the browser requesting parts of its DOM, ''the'' DOM, for its client, from an application server.

Dynamic HTML, or DHTML, is the umbrella term for technologies and methods used to create web pages that are not [[static web page]]s, though it has fallen out of common use since the popularization of [[Ajax (programming)|AJAX]], a term which is now itself rarely used.{{citation needed|date=March 2021}} Client-side-scripting, server-side scripting, or a combination of these make for the dynamic web experience in a browser.

[[JavaScript]] is a [[scripting programming language|scripting language]] that was initially developed in 1995 by [[Brendan Eich]], then of [[Netscape]], for use within web pages.<ref name=Hamilton>{{cite web|author=Hamilton, Naomi|title=The A-Z of Programming Languages: JavaScript|url=http://computerworld.com.au/article/255293/-z_programming_languages_javascript|date=31 July 2008|work=Computerworld|publisher=IDG|access-date=12 May 2009|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090524025720/http://www.computerworld.com.au/article/255293/-z_programming_languages_javascript|archive-date=24 May 2009}}</ref> The standardised version is [[ECMAScript]].<ref name=Hamilton /> To make web pages more interactive, some web applications also use JavaScript techniques such as [[Ajax (programming)|Ajax]] ([[Asynchronous I/O|asynchronous]] JavaScript and [[XML]]). [[Client-side scripting|Client-side script]] is delivered with the page that can make additional HTTP requests to the server, either in response to user actions such as mouse movements or clicks, or based on elapsed time. The server's responses are used to modify the current page rather than creating a new page with each response, so the server needs only to provide limited, incremental information. Multiple Ajax requests can be handled at the same time, and users can interact with the page while data is retrieved. Web pages may also regularly [[polling (computer science)|poll]] the server to check whether new information is available.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://buntin.org/2008/sep/23/jquery-polling-plugin/|title=jQuery Polling plugin|date=23 September 2008|last=Buntin|first=Seth|access-date=22 August 2009|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090813184848/http://buntin.org/2008/sep/23/jquery-polling-plugin/|archive-date=13 August 2009}}</ref>