The Difference Between HTML and WELD

HTML has no named variables or commands.

WELD has named variables which are replaced by their values. Variable names are indicated by a leading dollar sign ($) as in "$tvar"

WELD has commands which activate Java classes on the server, and are replaced by the result of their execution. Commands are indicated by (and enclosed within) square brackets ([ and ]) as in "[set tvar Hello]".

Otherwise, there are no differences in content between HTML and WELD files.

WELD file contents do need to be processed by the server, whereas HTML is passed verbatim by simply copying the contents from the disk on the server to the rendering engine of the web browser. A technique very similar to WELD is called "server-parsed HTML" (noticeable by URLs which end in ".shtml" instead of ".html") but these offer no connection to Java. Another similar technique is JSP "Java Server Pages", but this technique has problems described in the introduction.

Some web servers (e.g. Apache) can be configured to automatically invoke the WELD servlet to process the variables and commands before sending the finished page to the requesting web browser. The trigger for this processing can be set to the file's extension (e.g. ".weld"). This automatic invocation mechanism is a convenience, but not strictly required by WELD.

Contents

Web Page Design

The Difference Between HTML and WELD

Previous: Web Page Design | Next: About HTML Editors

Modified: Tue Apr 18 10:32:36 EDT 2000