DHTML
DHTML has made it possible for Web-based user services components to respond directly to input from users without having to make calls to the Web server. Before developers began to use DHTML, they had to rely on server-side applications to process the information inputted by the user and to send the result back to the client. These applications were often written using Common Gateway Interface (CGI) or, more recently, using Active Server Pages (ASP) or Java Server Pages (JSP). Although these programs transferred information to the client, the data was still being formatted and selected on the server. Each time the client needed new information or a different view of the data, another request had to be sent to the server.
Web-based user services components that respond directly to the user's input without having to go back to the server contain DHTML that is embedded in the HTML page. The DHTML code accesses the objects belonging to the Web browser that is hosting the HTML page. The ability to access the browser's objects is what allows DHTML to read and change the content in the Web page and respond to events created by objects in the page. Thus, DHTML creates dynamic Web-based user services components by accessing the browser's objects.
NOTE
Starting with version 4, Microsoft Internet Explorer included DHTML in its technology to allow developers to create Web-based user services components that could respond to the user's input. Netscape Navigator also included a version of DHTML in its Web browser that gave access to the Netscape objects. In addition to including code within HTML pages, Internet Explorer 4 introduced scriptlets that allow developers to separate the code from the Web page. The scriptlets are Web pages that contain functions or subroutines that can be accessed and used by a Web page.