Terminology

Inside the tutorials, reference book and the Footsteps system, terms are being used which might not be clear to everyone. Terms orginating from the internet or from technologies like HTML and other programming languages. Other terms are specific for the Footsteps system or differ from their general meaning. With this list we want to prevent as much as possible, that you don't understand these terms.

Browser - An application to view websites. Examples are Internet Explorer and Firefox.

Contextmenu - A lot of elements within the system have a so called contextmenu. This is a menu that appears as soon as you rightclick the element.

CSS - Cascading Style Sheets are an extension to HTML. They enable webdesigners to present the appearance of webpages more easily. CSS has also more possibilities..

Domain name - A domain name is linked to an IP Number. If you want to visit a website, you don't have to remember the IP-number of the server. The domain name is sufficient.

Downloaden - Copying information from an external source, for example the internet, to your own computer.

HTML - The Hypertext Markup Language is a programming language to create websites and their appearance.

HTTP - The Hypertext Transfer Protocol is a standard by which a browser (the client) communicates with a webserver. This protocol is meant for retrieving plain text from the internet, but can also be used for downloading complete files. Webpages are being retrieved using this protocol. So, if you enter http://www.footsteps.nl/ inside the adress bar of your browser, you actually ask for a webpage from the server which hosts www.footsteps.nl using the HTTP-protocol.

Index - Usually, on the internet, the index refers to the homepage of the website. Within the Footsteps system, index means, for example, the hierarchical tree view of your website, or the folder structure of Image Management.

Internet - The internet is an international network of computers. In principle, every computer inside the network can connect to every other computer inside the network. So called firewalls can prevent unwanted connections. If you own a so called Broadband-connection, often the modem is the "computer" which is attached to the internet. Therefore, normally, your own computer cannot be reached on the internet.

IP Adress/Number - Every computer inside a network, like the internet, is allocated a number. This is the so called IP-number. You can think of it as a kind of telephone number by which the computer can be reached.

Object - An object is a "thing" that takes care of one or more certain function within your website. For example, an object can show text and manage your input inside the Footsteps interface. Other examples are that an object displays headlines from the news module, or reactions from a forum. An object itself doesn't have any visual presentation. It can only take care of functionality.

Page - Generally, by page is meant a page of your website. This is a page like you can open within your browser, and is located within the tree view of your "site index".

Page object - A "page-object" is a special type of object. In contract to normal objects, this object doesn't take care of a part of a page, but the page itself. A page-object is able to do this all by itself, but most of the time it will be supported by normal objects.

Popup - A popup is a new browser window, often of small size and with a limited number of buttons.

Root - The "start" of something. Mostly is meant, a starting point within an hierarchical structure.

Server - A computer, mostly connected to the internet, which can provide certain services. Examples of these services are, enabling websites, email, or even telephone and television to the internet.

Site index - This is the hierarchical structure of the pages of which your website exists.

Tab - Within a window, tabs can be visualized by text and/or icons as headers. This way, certain settings and views can be combined inside one window.

Uploading - Copying information (for example files) from your own computer to an external source, like a server connected to the internet.

Window - A window is a frame and its content on your screen. Applications on your computer are presented within these so called windows. Within the Footsteps references, mostly are meant the windows within your browser. However, sometimes is meant a certain frame within the Footsteps interface.

Webpage - A page, marked up with HTML, which can be presented within your browser.

Webserver - A "server" which is specifically used for displaying webpages.

Website - A collection of webpages, available to the internet using a certain domain name.

VSR/VSB - "Virtual Site Root" or "Virtual Site Beginning" is the denominator of a set of functions, which influence the hierarchy of the structure.