Server-side Scripting Primer

An HTML file can contain text, HTML tags and scripts.

Scripts in an HTML file can be executed on the Web server.

Server-side Scripting

Server-side scripting is about "programming" the behavior of the server. This is called server-side scripting or server scripting.

Client-side scripting is about "programming" the behavior of the browser. (see Web JavaScript chapter).

What is Server-side Scripting?

Normally when a browser requests an HTML file, the server returns the file, but if the file contains a server-side script, the script inside the HTML file is executed by the server before the file is returned to the browser as plain HTML.

What can Server Scripts Do?

• Dynamically edit, change or add any content to a Web page
• Respond to user queries or data submitted from HTML forms
• Access any data or databases and return the results to a browser
• Customize a Web page to make it more useful for individual users
• Provide security since your server code cannot be viewed from a browser

Important: Because the scripts are executed on the server, the browser that displays the ASP/PHP file does not need to support scripting at all!

ASP and PHP

At W3Schools we demonstrate server-side scripting by using Active Server Pages (ASP) and Hypertext Preprocessor (PHP).

You cannot view the ASP or PHP source code by selecting "View source" in a browser, you will only see the output from the server, which is plain HTML. This is because the scripts are executed on the server before the result is sent back to the browser as plain HTML.

However, the examples below display the hidden source code. This will make it easier for you to understand how it works.

ASP Examples

Write text with ASP
How to write text with ASP.

Add some HTML to the text
How to format the text with HTML tags.

Scripting Tutorials

Study our Complete ASP tutorial, or our Complete PHP tutorial.

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