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NWE Help: Web: Intro: Static vs. Dynamic

NWE Home :: Help :: Web :: Intro

This is another of those pages you don't have to memorize, but which we're providing here anyway in case you want the full story.

Most of the web pages on the Internet are "static" pages. They are just HTML or text files which are downloaded to your browser and displayed immediately.

However, many web pages are not static pages at all--they are actually programs which produce HTML as their output, and then send that HTML to your browser. Here's a local example:

http://www.nwe.ufl.edu/cgi/time.cgi

This URL points to a CGI program which prints the local time. Load the page and press the "reload" button a few times--you'll see that the time changes as you do. Here's how that works:

  1. As before, your browser asks a server (www.nwe.ufl.edu) for a specific file (time.cgi) in a specific directory (cgi-bin).
  2. The server runs the program time.cgi and stores the output in its memory.
  3. The server then sends the output of the program to you.

Dynamic pages can get quite sophisticated. Some return different results based on the arguments you supply when asking for a page. For example, our course roster prints out an HTML form with directions for use if you load it without an argument. If you give it the name of a course, it prints something totally different. Give it a try.

Amazon.com, CNN.com, slashdot.org, and ISIS are all examples of dynamic pages.