Scripting Language

There are two types of scripts used in web based systems; a client-side script which executes on the client and is used for setting cookies and validating data before it is sent to the web server and serverside scripts which execute on the web server, interact with the database and collect data from the forms and dynamically build Web pages in response. Java-script has been used as the client-side scripting language. It is important that a server-side scripting language is found that meets the requirements of the system.

There are a number of server-side scripting languages used in web based systems; the most widely used ones include Hypertext Pre-Processor (PHP), Active Server Pages (ASP), Java Server Pages (JSP) and Practical Extraction and Report Language (PERL). They all differ in structure and ease of development.

PHP
PHP is the most popular server side scripting language because it is easy to develop applications through its large range of libraries and as a result quick to learn. PHP usage has exploded as an enterprise application development solution-it's not just for home pages and small projects any more. As well as being freeware and platform independent, PHP allows fast integration with MySQL and Apache HTTP Server. PHP creates HTML from the script allowing dynamically created web pages.

ASP and JSP
Working on similar principles to PHP, ASP and JSP are different company's solutions. ASP is a MS product built on Visual Basic (VB) and as a result is platform dependent only working on MS Internet Information Server. Where as JSP has been developed by Sun Microsystems and is built on Java. JSP has the advantage that it can use the large collection of libraries as Java is a more advance language than VB. ASP and JSP due to syntax are a lot harder to learn than PHP.

PERL
PERL used to be the most widely used server-scripting language before being taken over by PHP. It has many libraries for database connectivity but it's not as easy to learn as PHP due to its strong syntax rules. It is often necessary to write complex and tortured code to maintain state in Perl scripts which is not necessary in other scripting languages. Another disadvantage of PERL is that it does not allow HTML to be embedded in the script. It also does not support multi threading or sophisticated memory data exchange.

Appropriate Scripting Language
As apache is the most widely used HTTP (web) server using ASP that is only supported by MS Internet Information Server would be a big mistake as it could restrict the usage of the solution in many organisations. Although PERL has many libraries for database connectivity which is essential for this project, it is harder to learn, may involve writing tortured code and as it does not allow HTML to be embedded in the script it is not the most appropriate tool for this project. ASP and PHP are very similar in terms of features although PHP popularity, ease of learning and fast integration with MySQL makes it a more appropriate tool for the server side scripting in this project.