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If you have to run javascript it is not a static page anymore. I've seen a lot of this particularly weird overloading of "static HTML" lately. Static HTML, or s

If you have to run javascript it is not a static page anymore. I've seen a lot of this particularly weird overloading of "static HTML" lately. Static HTML, or static webpage, is meant to describe the experience from the person who is trying to look at the page. It does not describe the experience of the dev. Using a dynamic script or application to generate a static html page that requires no JS execution is a static page. Using a static HTML page and then hiding it behind javascript execution is explicitly not a static HTML page. Use .htaccess. And if you can't, reconsider the choices you made that restrict your abilities so significantly.

creatable 4y ago
This is nonsense semantics. Words and phrases change meaning over time.
- scarface74 4y ago
  It didn’t even “change meaning” As far back as I remember (and I played with JavaScript when it was first introduced in beta for Netscape), a “static web page server” always meant that there was no backend server generating pages on the fly.
cubefox 4y ago
I would call any server side or client side code which alters the HTML non-static. A static HTML page is just an HTML file which is stored on the server and displayed as-is in the browser.
- superkuh 4y ago
  Exactly. I don't know where the confusion is, but I'm saying that it doesn't matter how the page is generated. It is sent to the website visitor as just HTML. When the user views it it is all there, just html. No changes. For example, I have a perl script that generates a set of .html files every night to show new additions to my library. They are static .html files on disk and never modified before the user views them. Just because a perl script (not connected to the web server in any way) made it does not "taint" the HTML so it is not static. The program, or the person, that wrote the HTML does not matter. All that matters is that it's just static unchanging HTML.
  - drowsspa 4y ago
    Everyone is allowed to give their own meaning to words, but you can't expect to just change a widely agreed meaning to match it. "Static" means it is just a set of files. Not that the page is stationary. Do you think that a blink tag in a HTML page makes it non-static? A hover effect? An :after pseudoelement in CSS? If your perl script is saving the HTML to the disk, then yeah, your website is static. If it's generating HTML on the fly, it's dynamic. That's the widely agreed upon meaning, and that's it.
    - flippinburgers 4y ago
      Just a set of files? Awesome! I had no idea that unix itself was a static OS.
- scarface74 4y ago
  That’s not a generally accepted as the definition of a static page. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/WebsiteHosting.html https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/Websit... > You can use Amazon S3 to host a static website. On a static website, individual webpages include static content. They might also contain client-side scripts. By contrast, a dynamic website relies on server-side processing, including server-side scripts, such as PHP, JSP, or ASP.NET. Amazon S3 does not support server-side scripting, but AWS has other resources for hosting dynamic websites. To learn more about website hosting on AWS, see Web Hosting.
  - cubefox 4y ago
    Naturally Amazon doesn't care about client site code, as they are not in the browser business. But JavaScript is in fact typically called "dynamic" content. Insofar it is not static.
mtlynch 4y ago
>If you have to run javascript it is not a static page anymore. I've seen a lot of this particularly weird overloading of "static HTML" lately. Static HTML, or static webpage, is meant to describe the experience from the person who is trying to look at the page. It does not describe the experience of the dev. I don't think this has been the common meaning of "static page" for at least 10 years. From Wikipedia [0]: >A static web page (sometimes called a flat page or a stationary page) is a web page that is delivered to the user's web browser exactly as stored Static refers to the fact the files are served without any application-level processing on the server side beyond simple file serving. A page can depend on CSS/JS/WASM and still be a static page. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_web_page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_web_page
- superkuh 4y ago
  >A static web page (sometimes called a flat page or a stationary page) is a web page that is delivered to the user's web browser exactly as stored" Right. "exactly as stored" It doesn't matter who or what wrote the HTML. I could do it by hand or maybe use a WYSIWYG editor to make it or maybe it's generated by a script. The point is that there's an html file sitting on disk and the server delivers it without modification and it's viewable in the browser as it. It's just the webserver sending the contents of the file. Whereas this "Password protected a static HTML page" cannot be viewed in the browser without a "web application", the javascript, dynamically changing the file. It's pretty clear cut. So it fails the test of the very link you posted: >in contrast to dynamic web pages which are generated by a web application
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - Bytewave81 4y ago
    It's really not "clear cut." By the definition which you agree with, an HTML file containing JavaScript is served to the client without modification, and is viewable in any modern browser with a functioning JavaScript engine. The "web application" in reference is a server-sided application which controls and renders the content, as can be assumed based on context from the rest of that page. Namely: > Any personalization or interactivity has to run client-side, which is restricting.
matsemann 4y ago
I think your definition of a static web page is different from the common one? In my head, a static page is something that's served verbatim, without some backend generating it or inserting things into a template. Wikipedia seems to agree with that view: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_web_page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_web_page
- superkuh 4y ago
  That's exactly what I said. It doesn't matter if I wrote the HTML by hand or I had a perl, or bash, or compiled c program make it. It's just an HTML file.
  - vore 4y ago
    You can put client-side JavaScript fine in “just an HTML file”?
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
  - meghan_rain 4y ago
    Lol no. If you HTML is generated, it's by definition not static anymore. Otherwise, all of the React server side rendering is static HTML.
    - superkuh 4y ago
      Oh, so when I make an .html file in Dreamweaver WYSIWYG HTML editor and save the .html file to my websever ~/www/ dir it is automatically not a static page anymore because I used a program to generate it? This is a very wild and weird interpretation of 'static site' that does not fit with existing usage.
      - Kiro 4y ago
        You are the last person to have a say in that considering your incorrect take that JS can't be static. You're clearly misaligned with common usage of terms.
Timon3 4y ago
You're interpreting the title as "a static HTML page with password protection", but the way I understood it is "statically hostable version of a static HTML page with password protection", which seems to be exactly what this implements. I'm probably biased because I would have frequently had use for this, and all the paid offerings mention "private hosting of static pages", but I feel you're a bit uncharitable with your interpretation. If you want to just have a free small private static page which is easily updated by public CI offerings this is a great solution, and the title transports this clearly.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
pierrec 4y ago
That is not correct. As long as the javascript is run on the client-side, it's a static page. Static simply means the files on the server are sent directly to the client. The client can then do whatever they want with the files. The expression "dynamic" was trending a decade or two ago to vaguely refer to javascript+HTML5. It was never the opposite of "static" in this domain.
voytec 4y ago
> If you have to run javascript it is not a static page anymore I understand static pages as files sent to a browser without having to be generated server-side.
- rwalle 4y ago
  Right. This concept has existed for decades, and people should figure out what it actually means before complaining.
Karellen 4y ago
I think "static" and "dynamic" can reasonably be used to describe both server-side and client-side behaviour, and I don't think that the dual meaning is particularly new. Yes, "Dynamic HTML" vs "Static HTML" to refer to JS-dependent and JS-free pages respectively has been around since the dawn of javascript, but my copy of the 1996 O'Reilly CGI Programming on the World Wide Web by Gundavaram contains sentences like "Virtual, or dynamic, document creation is at the heart of CGI" (p.4) "A common use for [server redirection] is to return a generic document that contains static information. [...] Suppose you have an HTML file (thanks.html) like the one below, that you want to display after the user fills out one of your forms: [...] You could use the programs discussed earlier to return static documents, but [...] it is much quicker and simpler to [redirect with a "Location" header]." (pp.44-45) ...without mentioning javascript anywhere.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dymk 4y ago
Title is still accurate, the tool is for password protecting a static HTML page. The page starts out as a static HTML page. Then this tool generates something that has password protected it.

creatable 4y ago

This is nonsense semantics. Words and phrases change meaning over time.

scarface74 4y ago
It didn’t even “change meaning” As far back as I remember (and I played with JavaScript when it was first introduced in beta for Netscape), a “static web page server” always meant that there was no backend server generating pages on the fly.

cubefox 4y ago

I would call any server side or client side code which alters the HTML non-static. A static HTML page is just an HTML file which is stored on the server and displayed as-is in the browser.

superkuh 4y ago
Exactly. I don't know where the confusion is, but I'm saying that it doesn't matter how the page is generated. It is sent to the website visitor as just HTML. When the user views it it is all there, just html. No changes. For example, I have a perl script that generates a set of .html files every night to show new additions to my library. They are static .html files on disk and never modified before the user views them. Just because a perl script (not connected to the web server in any way) made it does not "taint" the HTML so it is not static. The program, or the person, that wrote the HTML does not matter. All that matters is that it's just static unchanging HTML.
- drowsspa 4y ago
  Everyone is allowed to give their own meaning to words, but you can't expect to just change a widely agreed meaning to match it. "Static" means it is just a set of files. Not that the page is stationary. Do you think that a blink tag in a HTML page makes it non-static? A hover effect? An :after pseudoelement in CSS? If your perl script is saving the HTML to the disk, then yeah, your website is static. If it's generating HTML on the fly, it's dynamic. That's the widely agreed upon meaning, and that's it.
  - flippinburgers 4y ago
    Just a set of files? Awesome! I had no idea that unix itself was a static OS.
scarface74 4y ago
That’s not a generally accepted as the definition of a static page. https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/WebsiteHosting.html https://docs.aws.amazon.com/AmazonS3/latest/userguide/Websit... > You can use Amazon S3 to host a static website. On a static website, individual webpages include static content. They might also contain client-side scripts. By contrast, a dynamic website relies on server-side processing, including server-side scripts, such as PHP, JSP, or ASP.NET. Amazon S3 does not support server-side scripting, but AWS has other resources for hosting dynamic websites. To learn more about website hosting on AWS, see Web Hosting.
- cubefox 4y ago
  Naturally Amazon doesn't care about client site code, as they are not in the browser business. But JavaScript is in fact typically called "dynamic" content. Insofar it is not static.

mtlynch 4y ago

>If you have to run javascript it is not a static page anymore. I've seen a lot of this particularly weird overloading of "static HTML" lately. Static HTML, or static webpage, is meant to describe the experience from the person who is trying to look at the page. It does not describe the experience of the dev. I don't think this has been the common meaning of "static page" for at least 10 years. From Wikipedia [0]: >A static web page (sometimes called a flat page or a stationary page) is a web page that is delivered to the user's web browser exactly as stored Static refers to the fact the files are served without any application-level processing on the server side beyond simple file serving. A page can depend on CSS/JS/WASM and still be a static page. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_web_page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_web_page

superkuh 4y ago
>A static web page (sometimes called a flat page or a stationary page) is a web page that is delivered to the user's web browser exactly as stored" Right. "exactly as stored" It doesn't matter who or what wrote the HTML. I could do it by hand or maybe use a WYSIWYG editor to make it or maybe it's generated by a script. The point is that there's an html file sitting on disk and the server delivers it without modification and it's viewable in the browser as it. It's just the webserver sending the contents of the file. Whereas this "Password protected a static HTML page" cannot be viewed in the browser without a "web application", the javascript, dynamically changing the file. It's pretty clear cut. So it fails the test of the very link you posted: >in contrast to dynamic web pages which are generated by a web application
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- Bytewave81 4y ago
  It's really not "clear cut." By the definition which you agree with, an HTML file containing JavaScript is served to the client without modification, and is viewable in any modern browser with a functioning JavaScript engine. The "web application" in reference is a server-sided application which controls and renders the content, as can be assumed based on context from the rest of that page. Namely: > Any personalization or interactivity has to run client-side, which is restricting.

matsemann 4y ago

I think your definition of a static web page is different from the common one? In my head, a static page is something that's served verbatim, without some backend generating it or inserting things into a template. Wikipedia seems to agree with that view: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_web_page https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Static_web_page

superkuh 4y ago
That's exactly what I said. It doesn't matter if I wrote the HTML by hand or I had a perl, or bash, or compiled c program make it. It's just an HTML file.
- vore 4y ago
  You can put client-side JavaScript fine in “just an HTML file”?
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- meghan_rain 4y ago
  Lol no. If you HTML is generated, it's by definition not static anymore. Otherwise, all of the React server side rendering is static HTML.
  - superkuh 4y ago
    Oh, so when I make an .html file in Dreamweaver WYSIWYG HTML editor and save the .html file to my websever ~/www/ dir it is automatically not a static page anymore because I used a program to generate it? This is a very wild and weird interpretation of 'static site' that does not fit with existing usage.
    - Kiro 4y ago
      You are the last person to have a say in that considering your incorrect take that JS can't be static. You're clearly misaligned with common usage of terms.

Timon3 4y ago

You're interpreting the title as "a static HTML page with password protection", but the way I understood it is "statically hostable version of a static HTML page with password protection", which seems to be exactly what this implements. I'm probably biased because I would have frequently had use for this, and all the paid offerings mention "private hosting of static pages", but I feel you're a bit uncharitable with your interpretation. If you want to just have a free small private static page which is easily updated by public CI offerings this is a great solution, and the title transports this clearly.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

pierrec 4y ago

That is not correct. As long as the javascript is run on the client-side, it's a static page. Static simply means the files on the server are sent directly to the client. The client can then do whatever they want with the files. The expression "dynamic" was trending a decade or two ago to vaguely refer to javascript+HTML5. It was never the opposite of "static" in this domain.

voytec 4y ago

> If you have to run javascript it is not a static page anymore I understand static pages as files sent to a browser without having to be generated server-side.

rwalle 4y ago
Right. This concept has existed for decades, and people should figure out what it actually means before complaining.

Karellen 4y ago

I think "static" and "dynamic" can reasonably be used to describe both server-side and client-side behaviour, and I don't think that the dual meaning is particularly new. Yes, "Dynamic HTML" vs "Static HTML" to refer to JS-dependent and JS-free pages respectively has been around since the dawn of javascript, but my copy of the 1996 O'Reilly CGI Programming on the World Wide Web by Gundavaram contains sentences like "Virtual, or dynamic, document creation is at the heart of CGI" (p.4) "A common use for [server redirection] is to return a generic document that contains static information. [...] Suppose you have an HTML file (thanks.html) like the one below, that you want to display after the user fills out one of your forms: [...] You could use the programs discussed earlier to return static documents, but [...] it is much quicker and simpler to [redirect with a "Location" header]." (pp.44-45) ...without mentioning javascript anywhere.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

dymk 4y ago

Title is still accurate, the tool is for password protecting a static HTML page. The page starts out as a static HTML page. Then this tool generates something that has password protected it.