Contents - Index

Definitions

CGI- Is an acronym for Common Gateway Interface.  Very similar to ISAPI applications, but CGI applications generally run many instances to serve the many incoming web request and because of this may use more system memory and perform slower than the same ISAPI application.  It is recommended to use ISAPI over CGI when the web server allows.

Docs2Manage- The windows software also made by Docs2Manage that is needed to input documents into the database that Docs2Web uses.  Please visit the website for more details about the trial or full version of Docs2Manage.

IP Address (TCP/IP Address)- This is a unique number assigned to any device, computer, or web server on the Internet.  It is four groups of numbers ranging from 0 to 255 separated by periods like "192.168.1.13".  IP Addresses that begin with:
10.0.0.0 - 10.255.255.25
172.16.0.0 - 172.31.255.255
192.168.0.0 - 192.168.255.255
are reserved IP Address ranges reserved for Local Area Networks (LAN or Intranet).  The IP Address 127.0.0.0 is also reserved as the localhost IP address, which is the address to use when testing a website or web application on your own computer only.  All other IP addresses outside these ranges are considered to be used by the Internet.  That localhost IP address (127.0.0.1) is the address that Docs2Web is configured to use by default.  This means that Docs2Web can only be tested on the computer where it is installed.  Docs2Web can be tested on your Intranet or on the Internet by changing the IP address used by the web server and the Docs2Web application.  On a company network, obtain your company IP Address by going to the command prompt and typing "ipconfig" or contact your Network Administrator.  To obtain your External IP (Internet) address, open your browser and visit a website like www.whatismyip.com.  Please ask your network administrator about setting up your Docs2Web application on the Internet.

ISAPI- Is an acronym for Information Server Application Programmers Interface.  This is the web application technology that Microsoft developed to run on Microsoft Web Servers that Docs2Web is built on.  The main idea behind this technology is very similar to standard CGI applications except ISAPI web applications are cached by the web server.  This increases performance while decreasing the amount of memory needed for the web application, since CGI application may have to load and run several instances of the same web application to fulfill all request.  Many of today's windows-based web servers have adapted ISAPI, since this technology is also required to handle ASP pages.

HTML- Is an acronym for HyperText Markup Language.  This is the language which almost all websites use to format the content of there website.  The website templates provided or produced by Docs2Web are in standard HTML.  This means your Docs2Web can be formatted to have a look that your organization desires.  Care must be given to preserve or implement the tags used by Docs2Web.  These tags will be replaced by the web application, so the result of the page is all HTML.

HTTP Path- This describes the location of the non-encrypted website content without any of the web application information or parameters.  The format of this is usually "http://" followed by the IP Address or domain name and the port number if something other than 80 is used.  The default port used by HTTP is port 80.

HTTPS Path- This describes the location of the encrypted website content without any of the web application information or parameters.  The format of this is usually "https://" followed by the IP Address or domain name and the port number if something other than 443 is used.The default port used by HTTPS is port 443.  To insure that documents on your Docs2Web website are not captured by a third party, it is suggested  to purchase an SSL certificate from a company like Verisign or Thawte.  In terms of Docs2Web, configure this path to use HTTP instead of HTTPS.  This way if an SSL certificate is used in the future, the only change needed from HTTP to HTTPS to make all pages on the website to use the SLL secure connection.

Microsoft IIS- Is an acronym for Microsoft Internet Information Services.  This is the web server that is included with Microsoft Servers.  These web servers are capable of running ISAPI web applications.  

Port- Besides the IP Address, the port is the part of the IP Address where website content will be directed.  Typically HTTP always uses port 80 and HTTPS uses port 443.  If another port is used, your web server will need to be configured to use that different port.  You will also have to tell your browser of the different port used by including a ":" and port number after the IP Address or domain name used.  The Docs2Web Trial is configured to use port 6789.  This was done to not interfere with any other web servers that may already be running on that machine.

SSL- Is an acronym for Secure Sockets Layer.   A protocol developed by for transmitting private documents via the Internet. SSL uses a cryptographic cryptography system that uses two keys to encrypt data; a public key and a private or secret key known only to the recipient. By convention, a URL that requires an SSL connection should start with HTTPS instead of HTTP. 

Tags- In brief, HTML Tags are used to tell the clients' browser how to draw the webpage.  Docs2Web also uses its own kind of tags, which are also embedded in the HTML template.  These tags tell the Docs2Web application to fill in specific data about the website or from the database.  Please read more about this in the HTML Templates section. 

Web Application- An application that runs on or as a part of a web server.

Web Server- A computer that handles request from client browsers and returns content to the requesting browsers.