Sierra Web Solutions

Internet Business Development and Website Design

Sierra Web Solutions, LLC. - Website solutions for small business.
Sierra Web Solutions, LLC. is a Reno-based business specializing in website designs for small business and personal use. Our work with small businesses emphasizes building an internet presence through solid website design, architecture and usability. We adhere to currently accepted programming and search engine practices to ensure the continued viability of your design.


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Tech Terms You Need to Know

NOTE: This is a basic tech dictionary that contains terms that may be found in articles on this website. The term list will change with time as articles are written. If you would like to see specific terms included in the list of if you have corrections/additions to current listings, please contact me.

 

A

  • Application Programming Interface ( API ) – in its basic form an API specifies how some software components should interact with each other. For instance, one software package may be able to interact and use the data residing within another software package through an API. Your website uses an API if you are displaying your Twitter or Facebook streams.
  • Automattic – The parent company of WordPress.com was founded in 2005. In addition to providing a hosted solution to the use of the WordPress website platform, Automattic also licenses the use of the Akismet WordPress plugin for comment spam filtering.


B

C

  • Cache – In reference to the Internet and websites, a web cache is a mechanism for temporary storage of web documents such as website pages and images. Most web browsers (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome, etc.) have a caching function that saves website pages in whole or part so that when you return to the same site/page the saved version may be rendered quickly rather than waiting for files to be downloaded through the Internet connection. Caching software can also be installed on website servers so that CMS-based websites which have static pages (unchanging) can return a complete page to the requester rather than generating a new page from the database system.
  • Child Theme (WordPress) – the appearance of a WordPress-based website is determined by the Theme included as part of the WordPress installation. Child themes are a way to modify the underlying or parent theme in a unique manner determined by the website designer. Using child themes ensures that the parent theme customizations are retained with future parent theme upgrades.
  • Content Management System ( CMS ) – A software system that allows publishing, editing and modifying of the content on a website. In the context of the WordPress CMS, it allows the website owner to write and revise information to be presented to a website visitor. That content is saved in a database ( MySQL ) and is retrieved and displayed when it’s associated page is requested by the reader.
  • Codex – In it’s basic form a Codex is a book with pages bound on one side. It was preceded by the writing tablet and the scroll as the written word spread. When used in reference to the WordPress CMS it is the online user’s manual for the WordPress software, found at Codex.WordPress.org.
  • CSS ( Cascading Style Sheet ) – a means of describing the look of a web page that is interpreted by the web browser (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome, etc.) that is displaying the content. Style instructions are usually saved in a separate file ( with the .css extension ) which is loaded as the web page is rendered. The styling instructions reference specific areas of the web page and instruct the browser to use desired colors, fonts, spacing or images.


D

  • Domain – A website name easily readable by humans, such as example.com. Domain names are registered through ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, usually through one of their assigned registrars (GoDaddy, Bluehost, Hover, etc.).
  • Domain Name System ( DNS ) – A hierarchical naming system for computers web services or any resource connected to the internet or a private network.  The DNS translates easily recognized names for websites into numerical Internet addresses. It is a worldwide, distributed keyword-based redirection system. For instance, this website SierraWebSolutions.com is actually at the Internet address is in the form (IPv4) nn.nnn.nnn.nn (where n is a single number). When you type a website name into your web browser and press enter/return, that website name is sent to the DNS server that your internet service provider uses. The DNS then translates the word name of the website to the numerical location of the requested website and the request continues to it’s destination.


E

F

  • Framework – a Framework in website design is a software package that supports the development of dynamic websites and web applications. It removes the overhead associated with common activities that are required to complete a project. Some Frameworks include libraries of functions easily accessed or database access routines. In the arena of WordPress Themes, Theme Frameworks operate much the same way – they provide basic theme functionality and styling that can be used as a stand-alone design and also provide or allow add-on or Child Themes that augment the basic theme framework to provide a unique website look.


G

H

  • Hypertext Transfer Protocol ( HTTP ) – HTTP is the foundation of data transfer for the Internet. Hypertext is the structured text that uses logical links between nodes or websites. HTTP is the protocol to transfer or transfer the hypertext. It functions as a request-response protocol between web browsers and the servers were the requested information is located (web servers).
  • Hypertext Markup Language ( HTML ) – the main markup language for creating web pages that are displayed in a web browser. It is a type of programming language that contains tags and styling elements usually found in pairs and enclosed in angle brackets. The tags such as <i> </i> are interpreted by the web browser (Internet Explorer, FireFox, Chrome, etc.) to mean that the content between the opening and closing tags is to be styled or displayed in a particular manner. The example <i> tag tells the browser that the information between the tags is to be displayed using italics like this.


I

  • ICANN – the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers. ICANN is a non-profit organization headquartered in Los Angeles, CA in the United States, created in 1998 to oversee Internet-related tasks. ICANN is responsible for the coordination of the Internet’s system of unique identifiers, including the assignment of the unique Internet Protocol ( IP) address spaces.
  • IPv4 – IPv4 is the fourth version of the Internet Protocol of the Internet and routes most of the internet traffic to it’s specific destinations. IPv4 uses 32-bit addresses which limits the number of unique Internet addresses to 4,294,967,296. This number of unique addresses on the Internet was achieved on February 3, 2011. This stimulated the development of IPv6. IPv$ addresses are most often written in a dot-decimal notation consisting of four octets in decimal and separated by periods, such as  192.0.2.235
  • IPv6 – with the exhaustion of all of the available IP addresses using the 32-bit IPv$ system, a means of generating additional addresses was needed. IPv6 was developed as a result.IPv6 uses a 128-bit address, allowing 2 to the 128th power unique addresses. The Internet Protocol system is designed so that the two IP systems (IPv4 and IPv6) are interoperable. IPv6 addresses are represented as eight groups of four hexadecimal digits separated by colons, such as  2001:0db8:85a3:0042:1000:8a2e:0370:7334


J

K

L

M

  • MySQL – a free open-source relational database management system ( RDBMS). SQL stands for Structured Query Language, the means by which the database is queried or asked for specific information from a database containing varied information. MySQL is the database portion of the WordPress CMS and is the ‘M’ in the term LAMP, an open source web application stack consisting of Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP.


N

O

  • Open Source – a type of computer software license that makes the source code of a program available to the general public for use, modification and re-distribution. GNU GPL or just GPL is the most widely used General Purpose License associated with Open Source Software. It guarantees the end users the right to use, study, share (copy) and modify the software and requires that those rights be retained with redistribution of the modified software. The current version of the license is GPLv4. Wikipedia


P

  • PHP – a server-side scripting language designed for website and web application development. The term originally stood for Personal Home Page but now stands for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor.  PHP code is interpreted by the web server rather than the client (web browser) as HTML or Javascript. The result of the PHP  code interpretation is generally a web page that is then sent to the requesting client. PHP code can be embedded directly into an HTML document and will be interpreted by the server with the code result returned with the HTML document. The WordPress CMS is written primarily in PHP.


Q

  • Query – in relation to database operations a query is a request to the database for data stored in the database tables, often specific information with portions matching specific criteria.  Such as all profile information for any user with a first name of John.


R

S

T

  • Top Level Domain ( TLD ) -A top-level domain is one of the domains at the highest level in the hierarchical Domain Name System of the Internet. Examples of top-level domains are those ending in .com and .net.


U

  • Uniform Record Locator ( URL ) – a url is also know as a web address, especially when using HTTP. It is the address that you type into the web browser to navigate to the desired web page. A typical url would be http://example.com.


V

W

  • WireFrame – A wireframe is a tool used by website designers to present a web page layout to a prospective client. It is a blueprint for a web page and is often populated with sample text and graphics. The layout may be rearranged as needed to generate the proper page layout for the content and purpose of the page.
  • WordPress – WordPress is an open-sourse software platform licensed under GPL/2 that is written primarily in the PHP programming language that uses MySQL database software to operate as a content management system (CMS). WordPress is a fork of the blogging software b2/cafelog modified by Matt Mulllenweg and Mike Little beginning in 2003. (From WordPress.org)
  • WordPress.com – A blog web hosting service owned by Automattic. It provides free blog hosting for registered users and is financially supported via paid upgrades, “VIP” services and advertising.
  • WordPress.org – The non-profit portion of Automattic which maintains and oversees the WordPress open-source content management system software, WordPress. Potential WordPress users may freely download the complete WordPress software from the WordPress.org website and install it on their own hosting account or development server.


X

  • eXtensible Markup Language ( XML ) – a language that defines a set of rules for encoding documents in a format that is both human-readable and machine-readable. The design of XML focuses on documents but it is used widely for the representation of arbitrary data structures. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) often process XML data and XML-based formats have become the default for many office-productivity tools such as Microsoft Office.


Y

Z

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