Dynamic web page - Definition and Overview

Dynamic HTML or DHTML designates a technique of creating interactive web sites by using a combination of the static markup language HTML, a client-side scripting language (such as JavaScript) and the style definition language Cascading Style Sheets.

It may be used to create small applications in a web browser: for example to ease navigation, to create interactive forms or to create interactive exercises to use in e-learning.

Competing techniques include Macromedia Flash for animation and Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), though SVG isn't yet well-supported by the major web browsers.

Some disadvantages of DHTML are that it is difficult to develop and debug due to varying degrees of support among web browsers of the aformentioned technologies and that the variety of screen sizes means the end look can only be fine-tuned on a limited number browser/screen-size combinations. Development for recent browsers, such as Internet Explorer 5.0+, Netscape 6.0+, and Opera 7.0+, is aided by a shared Document Object Model.

External links

• QuirksMode (http://www.quirksmode.org/), a comprehensive site with test examples and instructions on how to write DHTML code which runs on several browsers
• Solitaire Mahjongg (http://www.mahjongg.li), a web game application coded in dynamic HTML