Static and Dynamic web page

A static Web page is a Web page that always comprises the same information in response to all download requests from all users. Contrast with Dynamic web page.

It displays the same information for all users, from all contexts, providing the classical hypertext, where navigation is performed through "static" documents.

Advantages

* Quick and easy to put together, even by someone who doesn't have much experience.
* Ideal for demonstrating how a site will look.
* Cache friendly, one copy can be shown to many people.

Disadvantages

* Difficult to maintain when a site gets large.
* Difficult to keep consistent and up to date.
* Offers little visitor personalization (all would have to be client side).

Dynamic web page

Classical hypertext navigation occurs among "static" documents, and, for web users, this experience is reproduced using static web pages. However, web navigation can also provide an interactive experience that is termed "dynamic". Content (text, images, form fields, etc.) on a web page can change, in response to different contexts or conditions. There are two ways to create this kind of interactivity:

1. Using client-side scripting to change interface behaviors within a specific web page, in response to mouse or keyboard actions or at specified timing events. In this case the dynamic behavior occurs within the presentation.
2. Using server-side scripting to change the supplied page source between pages, adjusting the sequence or reload of the web pages or web content supplied to the browser. Server responses may be determined by such conditions as data in a posted HTML form, parameters in the URL, the type of browser being used, the passage of time, or a database or server state.

The result of either technique is described as a dynamic web page, and both may be used simultaneously.

To adhere to the first definition, web pages must use presentation technology called, in a broader sense, rich interfaced pages. Client-side scripting languages like JavaScript or ActionScript, used for Dynamic HTML (DHTML) and Flash technologies respectively, are frequently used to orchestrate media types (sound, animations, changing text, etc.) of the presentation. The scripting also allows use of remote scripting, a technique by which the DHTML page requests additional information from a server, using a hidden Frame, XMLHttpRequests, or a Web service.

Web pages that adhere to the second definition are often created with the help of server-side languages such as PHP, Perl, ASP or ASP.NET, JSP, and other languages. These server-side languages typically use the Common Gateway Interface (CGI) to produce dynamic web pages. These kinds of pages can also use, on client-side, the first kind (DHTML, etc.).