The Back End - Tech Notes

When you click the submit button in a web-based messaging system, what happens? The button or link sends information to a script known as a server-side script. This is a script that runs on the server. Information you have typed is transferred to that script for handling.

This information has to be stored someplace, and this would be a table in a database that is located on the server. A table contains rows and columns, much like a spreadsheet.  Your message is saved in a row, or record, in a table.  Information in that row would include who the original poster was, who the current poster is, which message this is a reply-to, what the subject line should read, what the posting date is, which thread it is in, and the content of the message.

Each of these columns has a data-type.

(I am sure there are other columns, but these will suffice)

This information will be stored in a table that is part of some database. One of the important things to understand, if we are to arrive at a solution for online learning systems, is that the message content will be stored in a Column of Type TEXT.  But this "Text" is not the same as what the average person thinks of as text.  What can be stored in a text field is only pure ASCII text, nothing more. For an ASCII table of characters, click here.

Corollary: We cannot store images in a Message Column on the Server. No matter how hard we try, we cannot force images into a text field. No amount of trickery or workarounds can stick an image into a text field.

Enter HTML

What IS stored in the message column of that table is HTML. Remember that an HTML file is of necessity pure ASCII text.  The web-based Edit box is a clever, JavaScript-based or Jive(?) tool that allows you to prepare text, interactively modifying the format of that text. The online Edit window in no way allows you to upload images or imbed them in the text. This window is simply an interface. Remember that when you click the Submit, what will be stored in the Text Column in the Table will be the HTML, which is pure ASCII text. If you want to see what was actually stored, then post the message and then bring it up on the screen. Right-click in the message window and select View Source.  You will see "raw" HTML. even if the message itself seemed to "contain" graphics, you will see no graphics.

Click Here for a real techy back-end view of what is going on at the Server Side.