Dynamic HTML, or DOM script, combines HTML with scripting languages to create interactive elements on a website. It allows for variable elements that can be changed by the user after the page has loaded. DHTML games and drop-down menus are examples of dynamic HTML. Server-side scripting languages like PHP and Perl are needed for dynamically generated content. DOM script simplifies development across browsers and enables forms that update automatically. Dynamic HTML games are becoming less difficult due to fewer cross-browser issues.
Dynamic HTML, more commonly known as DOM script or DHTML, is a set of tools that can be used to create interactive elements on a website. Typically, dynamic HTML combines standard HTML, which is the markup language of the web, with a scripting language. This allows the website designer to include variable elements in a web page that can be changed by the user after the page has loaded. An example of dynamic HTML is a menu that drops when the user hovers over it. DHTML games are also becoming increasingly popular.
Websites created from static HTML cannot be edited or modified by the user once they are uploaded. For basic websites this is not a problem, but lack of interactivity is a problem for many websites and applications. Dynamic HTML combines plain HTML with JavaScript, a simple scripting language, to provide much more freedom to the web designer through interactive elements.
Standard HTML doesn’t have “variables” that can be changed, but dynamic HTML does. Once a website is loaded with DHTML, the scripting language can be used to modify certain elements of the page. It cannot, however, create pages with dynamically generated content. For this, the web designer needs to use server side scripting languages like PHP and Perl.
Originally, dynamic HTML was known as DHTML. Due to teething problems getting the technology to work across all internet browsers, this label fell out of style. Instead, the technology is now usually referred to as DOM script which stands for Document Object Model script. This provides a set of conventions that work across browsers and greatly simplifies the development of dynamically animated web pages.
There are a number of common examples of dynamic HTML in action. Aside from drop-down menus, forms that can return information without needing to be submitted to a server and automatically update the contents are two more examples. These would be very difficult, or impossible, to achieve using standard HTML and a server-side scripting language. Hiding content from a user until a specific action has taken place is another common use of the technology.
Dynamic HTML game development is getting less difficult now that cross-browser issues start to become less uncommon. DOM scripting games are still relatively rare, but the technology works well for small browser-based games. One advantage of DHTML games is that they can also run on popular operating systems as widgets.
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