To answer a long-standing demand for dynamic Web technologies at Penn State, Information Technology Services (ITS) is rolling out a new service to provide several popular technologies to Web developers for use with their personal, departmental, course or club Web sites.
These technologies, which are primarily used by Web servers to interpret and process Web application code, soon will be available at no cost to students, faculty and staff. ITS already has released the first dynamic content service (which features PHP Hypertext Preprocessor technology, a general-purpose scripting language), and has plans to provide an assortment of other programing options such as Active Server Pages (ASP) and JavaServer Pages (JSP). Options for related technologies such as relational database servers that use the Structured Query Language (SQL) will be available in the near future.
ITS computer experts believe that these technologies will make it possible for University students to learn a variety of Web programming skills to help prepare them for an increasingly Web-centric work force. In addition, faculty members will be able to use the programs to increase and enrich online student learning; departments can use the technologies to increase the usability of their departmental Web sites; and student organizations can use the service's chat and calendar management programs to enhance communication at University club Web sites.
While similar to other dynamic-content technologies currently in use at Penn State, Web-scripting languages like PHP are generally easier to learn and use and will be more readily accessible to the University community, according to ITS staff.
To find out more about Penn State's dynamic Web technologies initiative, visit
http://aset.its.psu.edu/announcements/app_engines.html
To visit the University's new PHP Web site, go to http://php.scripts.psu.edu