Chapter 10

Question 3

a. CGI (Common Gateway Interface) is a Web server interface that facilitates the transfer of information between the server and a CGI program created to interact with data in a specific format. An API (Application Programming Interface) is a set of shared code snippets or libraries from which functions can be called by the server or a script dynamically without the presence of a program, and so is more efficient than CGI.

b. An intranet is usually an organization’s internal network of workstations that doesn’t necessarily have a connection to the rest of the Internet. An extranet can refer to workstations outside of the organization’s intranet, whether they’re special Internet-enabled services available on secure external systems to a company from its vendors or just non-directly connected systems not part of the intranet. The term ‘Internet’ can refer to the network that includes the intranet, the extranet, and all other networks, and usually is reserved for the global network accessed by individuals through multiple protocols.

c. HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) is a document markup standard used primarily to create Web pages on the Internet. XML (eXtensible Markup Language) was modeled on the tag syntax of HTML but is used primarily as a standard way to format data in an objective hierarchy for use and transmission between very different types of programs. XHTML (eXtensible HTML) is an extension of HTML to make it a compliant subset language of XML.

d. DNS balancing occurs when the Domain Name Server returns multiple IP addresses for a requested site, in an attempt to remove excessive load from the site’s Web server. Software and hardware load balancing involve a similar process that directs multiple requests to the same IP address to multiple servers hosting the same site referenced by the IP address. Reverse proxy attempts to lighten the load by redirecting requests from the client to the client’s cache, reducing the amount of redundant content that needs to be sent from the server.

e. SQL is used for interactions between a program or user and a database management system to manipulate data in the database, whereas XML is a markup language used for formatting the data that is transferred between databases or programs.

f. Web services are a set of XML-based standards and protocols emerging to facilitate automatic communication between programs and over the Web. SOAs (Service-Oriented Architectures) are an earlier idea that is similar but more abstract than Web services, and is gaining in ease of implementation because of Web services.

Question 4

Connecting a database to a Web page allows the database to have a versatile interface, and a modern business that uses a Web site to access and use a database can have flexible access to data and information related to the business, inventory, customers, suppliers, market trends, and other data that’s necessary to succeed on the Internet. The business’s Web site can interact with its users and administrators based on this data, and becomes a versatile tool rather than simply an electronic brochure. There’s far too much data in the world, and more so in running a business, to go unorganized and utilized.