Web glossary
The following list of definitions contains phrases, words and acronyms used within the University of Melbourne web site.
Accessibility: An umbrella term used to collectively describe the ease, availibility and use of a site. Also; The way in which a user is able to retrieve information from a site.
Application:A piece of software designed to meet a specific purpose.
Alt tags: The "alt" attribute is used in image tags to provide alternate text for user agents (such as browsers) that do not display images or where the user has turned images off in their browser.
Bandwidth: Refers to the range between the highest and lowest frequencies of a transmission. Commonly understood to mean the amount of data that can be transmitted over a network connection (i.e. 56k often refers to transmission over a 56k modem connection).
Browser: An application or program (such as Internet Explorer or Netscape) that is used to view or interact with different kinds of internet resources.
CMS: Content Management System. A web application that allows people to easily create and edit web pages using a web browser.
CSS: Cascading Style Sheets define formatting for a web page when called upon.
Database: A software package for storing data.
Dpi/ppi: Dots per inch is a measure of the resolution of a printer. Pixels per inch is the number of pixels displayed in an image and refers to the display resolution not the image resolution. The terms dpi and ppi are often incorrectly used interchangeably.
E-commerce: Business transactions conducted electronically, including over the Internet.
Extranet: An extended Intranet based on internet-standard protocols, which allows access via the Internet by people outside the enterprise.
Firewall: Software that controls access from the outside.
Frames: HTML tag that allows for windows to be nested within web pages.
Gif: Image format that allows for indexed images of 256 colours or less and transparency. This is currently the best format for saving line art (i.e., flat colour artwork such as logos and graphs) for use on the Web.
GUI: Graphical User Interface
Home page: The index page of a site or sub-site. The index page of The University of Melbourne website is the homepage: www.unimelb.edu.au
HREOC: Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission: www.hreoc.gov.au/
HTML or HyperText Markup Language: The programming language of web pages that uses tags to define page formatting and layout.
http (HyperText Transfer Protocol): The method by which documents are transferred via the web from servers to user agents (i.e., browsers) and individual users.
Hyperlink: Text (or image) that provides a dynamic link to another web resources or site.
Image Map: An image that has clickable sections that can take the user to different sections of a website. An image map allows for a defined area to be clickable.
Internet: The global computer network.
Intranet: A private network within an organisation, often protected from Internet traffic by a "firewall" (software that controls access from the outside).
Intranet page: An internally focused page that is not accessible via the Web except where a valid login and password are provided or the machine used to access the webpage is within an acceptable IP range.
IP or Internet Protocol: The most important protocol upon which the Internet is based, it defines how packets of data get from source to destination.
IP Address: Every computer connected to the Internet has an IP address, written in dotted numeral notation, which corresponds to its domain name.
Javascript: A scripting language designed to create interactive websites. Javascript can interact with HTML source code which means you can have dynamic content. For example:
<script language="javascript" type="text/javascript" src="http://www.unimelb.edu.au/template-assets/07/js/form_validate.js">
Jpg/jpeg: Compression format that allows for images to contain millions of colours (photographic). This is currently the best format for saving photographic images for use on the Web.Local Area Network (LAN): A network of computers in a relatively small geographical area.
Metadata. As above, also referred to as Meta tags.
Official University web pages: Officially endorsed statements or information about the university that have been published on the University website in a manner that is compliant with the structural and technical requirements of University webpage publishing standards.
PDF or Portable Document Format: Format used for creating static files of new or existing documents for use on the web. These files are usually viewed by using Adobe Acrobat Reader.
Protocol: The language that one computer uses to talk to another.
Server: Computer that provides network services, such as hosting websites or providing e-mail capabilities.
Server Side Include, SSI: HTML Tag that provides attaching of data from other html pages.
Site/sub-site: A collection of web pages within a website that has a discrete purpose or audience. For example a faculty site (or sub-site) exists within the larger University of Melbourne website.
WAI: W3C's Web Accessibility Initiative: www.w3.org/WAI/
Web page: A single HTML page such as a page within the University of Melbourne website or an external website.
Web site: A complete site such as the University of Melbourne website. A website may have a number of sites (or sub-sites) that exist within the website. For example the University of Melbourne website has several faculty and division sites (or sub-sites).
W3C: World Wide Web Consortium: www.w3.org