Summary

Throughout this book, I've talked about HTML, JavaScript, images, and other techniques that work regardless of whether your web pages live on a web server, on a CD-ROM, or in a work directory on your local hard drive. There's more to web servers, though, than just serving up static web pages when users request them, and this lesson was just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to exploring the additional capabilities of web server software. I discussed some popular web application development platforms. You probably don't need to know all of them, but if you do much web development, eventually you'll wind up using one of them or another. I also talked about how you can take advantage of server features such as server-side includes, access control, and redirection features built into the server to make your life as a web developer easier.

The key here is to take advantage of the features your web server offers to save yourself work and provide a better experience for your users. You should look into the web server that your pages will reside on for more ways to take advantage of it.