Glossary of Web Terms and Acronyms
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Attribute
Describes additional information about an XML element. An example is <price currency="Euro">. Currency is the attribute.
Cataloging
The process of providing metadata information for a resource that enables discovery.
Categories
The first order division of metadata fields for metadata framework. Categories are made up of fields.
CGI, Common Gateway Interface
CGI scripts are basically programs (software) that run on the computer where the web pages of a website are stored. They do things that a simple document like a web page cannot. For example, if you search for something on thesitewizard.com using the Site Search facility on the left column of this page, your search query is passed on to a CGI script which does the actual searching.
Collection
Generically, this means a group of metadata records that are organized around a theme, or some other criteria.
Collection-level metadata
Metadata that describes the overall characteristics of a grouping of item-level metadata records. This information includes who maintains the collection, how many resources are in the collection, what types of resources are in the collection and what is the scope of the collection.
Collections development
A process conducted over time that builds and shapes a collection of materials into a balanced, cohesive, and sought-after set of user resources. This process includes assessing the information needs of users, analyzing usage statistics and demographic projections, formulating and articulating selection criteria, planning for resource sharing, creating a well-defined cataloging plan, and creating a selection and deselection mechanism for library items.
Complex tag
A set of XML elements that nest within other elements. Type and Name are nested elements within the complex tag set of Requirements.
Controlled vocabularies
Words or phrases that catalogers use to complete metadata information. Use of common words and phrases ensures better searching capabilities for library users.
Crosswalk
A semantic or technical mapping (sometimes both) of one metadata framework to another metadata framework.
CSS
In computing, Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a stylesheet language used to describe the presentation of a document written in a markup language. Its most common application is to style web pages written in HTML and XHTML, but the language can be applied to any kind of XML document, including SVG and XUL.
DC
Dublin Core - the full name and acronym are Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (DCMI). The Dublin Core metadata element set is a commonly used standard for cross-domain information resource description.
Downloading
When you download a file from the Internet, you transfer it from some computer on the Internet to your own computer. Traditionally, "download" was used only when you transferred something from a larger computer, such as a mainframe, to a smaller computer. However, this is not the sense used by people nowadays when they speak of downloading on the Internet.
DTD
Document Type Definition file that specifies how elements inside an XML document should relate to each other. It provides "grammar" rules for an XML document and each of its elements.
Element
The smallest division within an XML document that is defined within a DTD or schema. An example is <body>formatted text</body>. Body is the element.
Fields
The smallest division within a metadata framework. Fields become elements in a DTD or schema. Fields become tag sets within XML documents when the field is surrounded by a "<" and a ">" sign.
Framework
The systematic format and technical structure that supports metadata concepts, contents, and controlled vocabularies.
FTP
File Transfer Protocol. The protocol used on the Internet for exchanging files. FTP uses the Internet's TCP/IP protocols to enable data transfer. FTP is most commonly used to download a file from a server using the Internet or to upload a file to a server (definition obtained from Webopedia).
Harvest
Electronic file transfer over the Internet of metadata records between repositories. A primary method of transfer is to use the Open Archives Initiative Protocol for Metadata Harvesting (OAI-PMH).
HTML
HTML, short for Hypertext Markup Language, is the predominant markup language for the creation of web pages. It provides a means to describe the structure of text-based information in a document - by denoting certain text as headings, paragraphs, lists, and so on - and to supplement that text with interactive forms, embedded images, and other objects. HTML is written in the form of labels (known as tags), surrounded by less-than (<) and greater-than signs (>). HTML can also describe, to some degree, the appearance and semantics of a document, and can include embedded scripting language code which can affect the behavior of web browsers and other HTML processors.
IMS
One of many different metadata schemes that exist. The abbreviation no longer stands for anything. The IMS Project is part of the non-profit EDUCAUSE consortium of United States institutions of higher education and their vendor partners that work to develop open market-based standards for online learning, including specifications for learning content metadata.
Ingest
The process of incorporating metadata records, either of individual resources, or of collections of resources, into the library, so they are discoverable by users.
Interoperability
The ability to share (provide and harvest) metadata records via standard protocols.
Metadata
Descriptive information (such as title, description, audience, geospatial coverage, keywords) that can be used to describe, index, and discover learning resources for particular user needs.
NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NSDL
National Science Digital Library for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines.
OAI
An abbreviation for the Open Archives Initiative, which develops and promotes interoperability standards that aim to facilitate the efficient dissemination of content.
OAI-PMH
Open Archives Initiative-Protocol for Metadata Harvesting - an application-independent interoperability framework.
Object-Level Metadata
Metadata that generally describes a single item or object.
Perl
Perl is a computer language. Webmasters often use programs written in Perl (sometimes called "Perl CGI scripts" or just "Perl scripts") to do things that a simple document like a web page cannot. For example, Perl scripts can be used to search a website for a particular document, send email for a feedback form, conduct online polls, and more.
PHP, PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor
PHP scripts are basically programs (software) that run on the computer where the web pages of a website are stored. Since they are computer programs, they can do things that a simple document like a web page cannot. For example, PHP scripts can be used to search a website for a particular document, send email for a feedback form, conduct online polls, and more.
Required metadata
The minimum level of metadata information that enables searching and indexing of resources within a website. Some examples of required metadata include: title, description, audience, technical information, and copyright.
Robust metadata
Includes all metadata above and beyond required metadata.
Schema
An XML document that describes the metadata framework in terms of structure, data types, number of field occurrences, and controlled vocabularies.
SDLIP
Simple Digital Library Interoperability Protocol. A protocol to facilitate query and response between clients and servers. Clients use SDLIP to request searches to be performed over information sources. The resulting documents are returned synchronously, or they are streamed from service to client as they become available.
SVG
Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML markup language for describing two-dimensional vector graphics, both static and animated, and either declarative or scripted. Images can contain hyperlinks using outbound simple XLinks.
Swiki
Swiki is a quite popular implementation of Ward Cunningham's WikiWikiWeb (Squeak + Wiki = Swiki) that runs under Comanche (wiki-wiki is Hawaiian for "quick"). Swiki may also be referred to as CoWeb, short for Collaborative Website. Both Comanche and Swiki are implemented by Mark Guzdial's Collaborative Software Laboratory at Georgia Tech. It is a collaborative work area and web page modifiable by its users.
Tag set
An element defined in a DTD or a field enclosed in a greater-than and a less-than sign. An example is <body>. The element, body, is defined in the DTD. Body may also be the field name within the metadata scheme (but not necessarily). The tag set is then "<body></body>".
Transform
Applying a process that changes one metadata format to another through the application of a semantic crosswalk and technical XSLT transform, so that the page can handle the metadata provided to make a record discoverable.
Uploading
Uploading is usually used by webmasters to refer to the act of transferring a file from their own computer to another computer on the Internet. Traditionally, "upload" was used only when you transferred something from a smaller computer to a larger computer like a mainframe. However, this is not the sense used by people nowadays when they speak of uploading on the Internet.
UTF 8
Universal Transformation Format (UTF), a method of converting characters into 7- or 8-bit characters. UTF-8 converts Unicode to 8-bit bytes.
Valid or validity
An XML document that adheres to the specifications outlined in the DTD. This generally refers to how an element can occur, the name of the element and the number of times the element can occur.
Web Host
A web host is a company that has a computer (or many computers) that are permanently connected to the Internet. Documents (web pages) that are located on those computers can be read by anyone connected to the Internet.
Web Server
There are at least two senses in which the term "web server" is typically used. Firstly, a computer that is permanently connected to the Internet and allows other people to read web pages located on that computer is called a web server. For example, the pages that you are reading on thesitewizard.com are located on a web server (computer) somewhere in the world.
Secondly, a web server may refer to a computer program like Apache. Just because a computer is connected to the Internet doesn't mean that anyone else on the Internet can read the documents located on that computer. There needs to be a computer program running on that computer that allows people using a browser to read the web pages located there. This computer program is also called a web server.
Well-formed
An XML document that adheres to the following XML syntax rules:
WYSIWYG, What You See Is What You Get
When you design a web page or write a document with a WYSIWYG editor (or word processor), the editor displays the page exactly (or almost exactly) as it will appear when you publish the web page or when you print it out. WYSIWYG means that what you see on the screen is what you will get on output. You can find a list of free WYSIWYG web editors at http://www.thefreecountry.com/webmaster/htmleditors.shtml
- Uses a DTD file or contains an XML declaration with the "standalone" attribute set to "no."
- Element attributes are in quotes.
- Elements have an opening and closing tag unless it is an empty tag set.
- Tag sets nest correctly.
- XML - The abbreviation for the eXtensible Markup Language. The XML language is a document processing standard that allows you to create and format document markups.
XHTML
The Extensible HyperText Markup Language, or XHTML, is a markup language that has the same depth of expression as HTML, but also conforms to XML syntax.
XML
eXtensible Markup Language, a much-used format for defining the structure of information.
XSL
Acronym for eXtensible Style Language, a specification for separating style from content when creating HTML or XML pages. The specifications work much like templates, allowing designers to apply single style documents to multiple pages. XSL is the second style specification to be offered by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). XSL allows developers to dictate the way Web pages are printed, and specifications permitting the transfer of XML documents across different applications.
XSLT
An acronym for Extensible Style Language Transformation, the language used in XSL style sheets to transform XML documents into other XML documents.
XUL
XUL (pronounced "zool"), the XML User Interface Language, is an XML user interface markup language developed by the Mozilla project for use in its cross-platform applications, such as Firefox. The only complete implementation of XUL is the Gecko layout engine.
XUL relies on multiple existing web standards and technologies, including CSS, JavaScript, and DOM, which makes it relatively easy to learn for people with a background in web programming and design. XUL and web developer documentation is available from the Mozilla Developer Center. XUL has no formal specification or interoperable non-Gecko implementations and therefore may be described as an internal or proprietary language.
On the other hand, its implementation (Gecko) is open source and Mozilla provides experimental XULRunner builds to let developers build their applications on top of the Mozilla application framework and XUL in particular.
The main benefit of XUL is that it provides a simple and portable definition of common widgets. This reduces the software development effort in a way analogous to the savings offered by 4GL tools. For more information, refer to the Joy of XUL article on developer.mozilla.org.