Client Side Web Development

An increased focus on client-side development is being impelled by a number of forces. Firstly, the capabilities of browsers are becoming more stable and understood, with growing expertise becoming established in a number of increasingly mature client-side frameworks (Dojo, JQuery, ExtjS, YUI to name but a few). Secondly, the web is becoming an increasingly heterogeneous mixture of server-side frameworks, and client-side primitives are becoming correspondingly seen as an inviting "lingua franca" for interchange, whether at the level of markup (HTML or XML) or data (JSON or XML).

Thirdly, client-side development simplifies some aspects of architecture. Server-side webapp design is complicated by the approach to state - how to store it when it is required as part of a UI design, and how to avoid it where it can be argued unnecessary. Fourthly, client-side development promises to allow access back to development to "casual" developers and end-users - client-side environments offer short cycle times and "immediate gratification" in seeing changes reflected, and are often accessible to styles armed with a simple text editor.

Server Side Web Development

Server-side scripting is a web server technology in which a user's request is verified by running a script directly on the web server to generate dynamic web pages. It is usually used to provide interactive web sites that interface to databases or other data stores. This is different from client-side scripting where scripts are run by the viewing web browser, usually in JavaScript. The primary advantage to server-side scripting is the ability to highly customize the response based on the user's requirements, access rights, or queries into data stores.

From a security point of view , server-side scripts are never visible to the browser as these scripts are executed on the server and emit HTML corresponding to user's input to the page. When the server serves data in a commonly used manner, for example according to the HTTP or FTP protocols, users may have their choice of a number of client programs (most modern web browsers can request and receive data using both of those protocols). In the case of more specialized applications, programmers may write their own server, client, and communications protocol, that can only be used with one another.

Programs that run on a user's local computer without ever sending or receiving data over a network are not considered clients, and so the operations of such programs would not be considered client-side operations.

Server And Client Side Web Development

Client-side scripting enables interaction within a webpage. The code required to process user-input is downloaded and compiled by the browser or plug-in. An example of a client-side interaction is a rollover (typically triggered when choosing a navigation option).

With server-side scripting, completing an activity involves sending information to another computer (server) across the internet. The server then runs a program that process the information and returns the results, typically a webpage. Search engines use server-side processing. When a keyword is sent, a program on a server matches the word or phrase entered against an index of website content. (To complete the same search as a client-side process would require the browser to download the entire search engine program and index.)

Database

When it comes to installing software, secure design is often the last consideration. The first goal is usually just to get it to work. This is particularly true of databases. Databases are commonly referred to the keys to the kingdom: meaning that once they are compromised, all the valuable data that is stored there could fall into the hands of the attacker. With this in mind, this article will discuss various methods to secure databases, specifically one of the most popular freeware databases in use today, MySQL.

MySQL is used in over 4 million installations all over the world. It is licensed under both GNU GPL (General Public License) and commercial licenses, depending upon what level of support that you require. It has a large user community, which makes it somewhat easier to use under the GPL license.

There are actually four versions of MySQL:

• MySQL Standard includes the standard storage engine, as well as the InnoDB storage engine, which is touted as a "transaction-safe, ACID-compliant database" with some additional features over the standard version.
• MySQL Pro is the commercial version.
• MySQL Max includes the more technologically advanced features that are available during early access programs.
• MySQL Classic is the standard storage engine without the InnoDB engine. This is another commercial version.