TGM Designs

TGM Designs created this glossary of web design and related terminology to help our clients to know and understand what services we provide. The terms cited are used regularly throughout Web development and design documentation. If you are starting a new website project then you will find these terms very helpful. This glossary's intention is to be relevant and beneficial to your understanding rather than be comprehensive.

DATA TABLE

A table that is used to show data in a spreadsheet format such as you would see in Microsoft Excel.

DATABASE

Data stored in a computer in a way that the computer can easily access and retrieve the data to maniuplate.

DATABASE SYSTEM

A computer program used for manipulating data in a database. Microsoft Access, Oracke and MySQL are common database systems.

DECLARATION

A declaration is part of a rule in CSS that defines what an HTML element will appear to be in a browser.

DEEP LINKING

Links that go directly into an inner page of a website instead of the homepage. Most website's main navigations are this.

DHCP

Acronym for Dynamic Host Comnfiguration Protocol (DHCP). An Internet standard protocol that assigns new IP adderesses as users need them.

DHTML

Acronym for Dynamic HyperText Markup Language (DHTML). A term used to describe HTML content that changes dynamically.

DIAL UP CONNECTION

The temporary connection of a computer to the Internet through a telephone line using a modem.

Digital Certificate

An electronic document verifying the ownership of a public key. This is designed to help prevent people impersonating others.

Digital Signature

A verification process that relies on cryptography. It allows the recipient to know the sender’s identity and that there have been no alterations to the message during transit.

DITHERING

A computer graphics term that describes a method of creating additional shades and colors from an already existing palette by interspersing pixels of a different color.

Directory

A group of webpages that are broken up into subject categoeries sometimes including a short description of a site. Not to be confused with a search engine, a directory (such as Yahoo) depends on submitted links and does not use bots such as spiders or crawlers to find webpages.

DOM

Acronym for Document Object Model. This is a programming interface specification being developed by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). It lets a programmer create and modify HTML pages and XML documents as full-fledged program objects.

DOMAIN NAME

The part of an Internet address including and immediately preceded by the domain extension. For example tgmdesigns.com is our domain name. The domain name is part of a web sites URL. Each web site has its own unique domain name followed by the TLD (Top Level Domain) such as:

	.com - Commerical Organizations
	.edu - Educational Organizations
	.gov - Government Organizations
	.mil - Military Organizations
	.net - Network Organizations
	.org - Organzations that do not fit in any other other categories (Mostly non-profit)

DOMAIN NAME REGISTRAR

A company authorized to receive domain name registration requests, approve registrations and initiate propagation of registration information throughout the Internet.

DOMAIN NAME SERVER

A computer that stores all the names of the other machines and their IP addresses.

DOS

Acronym for Disc Operating System. It is a generic term for the many programs that accept commands to trip applications to run. The most popular is MS-DOS developed by Microsoft.

DOWNLOAD

A term used when a file is copied from another computer or Internet to the users.

DPI

Acronym for Dots Per Inch (DPI). This term is used with printers or describe quality.

Drupal

An open source modular framework and content management system (CMS) written in the programming language PHP. Drupal allows the system administrator to create and organize content, customize the presentation, automate administrative tasks, and manage site visitors and contributors. Although there is a sophisticated programming interface, most tasks can be accomplished with little or no programming. Drupal is sometimes described as a "web application framework," as its capabilities extend from content management to enabling a wide range of services and transactions. Learn More...

DSL

Acronym for Digital Subscriber Line (DSL).

DTD

Acronym for Document Type Definition (DTD). A set of rules or language defining the building blocks of a web document such as HTML or XML. There are three main types: Loose, Traditional and Strict.

DYNAMIC

A type of webpage that changes every time a user visits it. It lets the user enter information that helps decide what to show next to the user on the screen. Most of the web pages that are dynamic end with .php, .asp and many others.

DYNAMIC CONTENT

Web page content that changes or is changed automatically based on database content or the user's information. These pages usually end with .asp, .cfm, .cgi or .shtml.

DYNAMIC IP

An IP address that changes each time you connect to the Internet.