A

action (XML)

The part of an XSL or DSSSL style rule that specifies how the rule's pattern (element) should be formatted

Active channel (XML)

A technology adopted by Microsoft and others that uses the XML CDF (Channel Definition Language) vocabulary to define channels of regularly updated Web-based information. Users can subscribe to channels using CDF-copliant browsers, such as Internet Explorer

Also see CDF

Active Server Page (ASP)

See ASP

ActiveX control

A lite version of an OLE (Object Linking and Embedding) control. The control's size and speed have been optimized for use over the Internet. Active X controls provide added functionality to both Web environments and regular desktop environments.

Address

An address in a unique identifier assigned to a web page. The address is more commonly referred to as the URL (Uniformed Resource Locator).

Also see URL

ADSL

(Asymetric Digital Subscriber Loop). H-speed Internet access technology that uses a commonly available telephone copper loop (same wire as your phone service). Designed to run on up to 80% of the telephone available in the United States, and utilizing line-adaptive modulation, ADSL provides data speeds from 384kbps to 1.5 Mbps, normally using different speeds for the upstream and downstream channel (hence the "Asymmetric" ). ADSL provides a direct, dedicated pipe to an ISP.

Also see dsl kbps mbps xdsl

ADN

(Advanced Digital Network). Often refers to 56kbps leased line

ANA

The ANA web site is at http://www.ana.org.uk.

Analog Signals

Data that has been encoded as a continuous wave form for transmission over phone lines

Also see Modem

Anonymous FTP

Users may gain access to a remote server using FTP without actually having an account on that server. The user's E-mail address is usually given as a password and the user name 'anonymous' is assigned to the user by systems supporting this service.

Also see FTP

API (Application Program Interface)

A software interface that provides access to the functions of another program.

ANSI

American National Standards Institute. The U.S. standards organization that establishes procedures for the development and coordination of voluntary American National Standards.

Applet

A multimedia application written or embedded in the Java language such as animation or sound, viewable only in a Java-enabled browser such as Netscape 2.0 or HotJava.

Also see HotJava Netscape

Application Program Interface (API)

See API

Application (EDI)

In EDI terms, this is the back end software used to generate or read the business data that is to be either constructed or translated to or from EDI. The following are typical Application software packages SAP, MFG/PRO, Oracle, BAAN, JD Edwards, JBA, Exel, Formul8 and Scala

Archie

A database of anonymous ftp sites and their contents, "Archie" keeps track of the entire contents of these sites, and allows users to search for files on those sites using various different kinds of filename searches.

Archive site

Contains archived files of many kinds, available for users to download either by FTP or E-mail.

ARJ

Allows the user to store one or more files in a compressed format in an archive file. This saves space both in the compression and in the saving of disk sector clusters. Particularly strong compressing databases, uncompressed graphics files, and large documents. Named after the creator, American programmer Robert Jung.

ARPA

(Advanced Research Projects Agency) US governmental organization responsible for creating an experimental network which heralded the beginning of the Internet. Now known as Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency.

ARPAnet

Network created by ARPA in 1969, primarily allowing data transfer between Government laboratories. (Now defunct).

ASCII

(American Standard Code for Information Interchange) a file containing only text characters: numbers, letters, and standard punctuation. ASCII is a seven bit code with an eighth bit used for parity. The term is used to describe the format for transmission and for storage.

ASCX12

Standards Committee X12 accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and comprised of government and industry members meeting for the purpose of creating national EDI standards for submission to ANSI for subsequent approval and dissemination; and/or for the submission to the UN/ECE for approval and submission of UN/EDIFACT international standards.

ASP (Active Server Page)

A Web programming technique that links Web pages to back-end databases using scripting. ASP configurartions allow developers to store their content easily and logically in a database and dynamically generate a Web page template to display that content via the Web.

ASYNC

Data communication over a basic telephone line .

Asynchronous

See ASYNC

Asynchronous Transfer Mode

See ATM

Attachments

Multimedia files that are 'attached' to an E-mail; can be text, graphics, sound, video, spreadsheet, database, or even an entire application.

ATM

(Asynchronous Transfer Mode) a new communications standard that is currently in the later stages of development. ATM is designed to transfer voice, video, and other multimedia data that requires short bursts of large quantities of data that can survive small losses but must be broadcast in real time.

A transmission mode in which information is organized in cells. These cells are 53 bytes in length and are switched in a network through virtual connections. An ATM network uses these virtual connections to relay the traffic through high-speed switches from the sending customer premise equipment (CPE) to the receiving customer premise equipment.

attribute

A component of an XML or HTML element that provides additional information about a specific instance of the element. Th attributes you can use with any given element are predefined within a DTD. SRC = is an attribute of the <IMG> tag.

attribute-list declaration

The notation in a DTD that specifies which attributes can be used with which elements and the type and values of those attributes.

attribute name

The character string used in both DTDs and documents to refer to an attribute. The name of the hypertext reference element used with the ANCHOR (<A>) tag in HTML is HREF.

attribute specification

The individual listing for an attribute in an attribute-list declaration.

attribute type

Within the attribute specification, it's the notation that identifies the attribute as an enumerated, string, or tokenized attribute.

attribute value

In a document, the attribute value is the value assigned to the attribute by the document developer for each individual instance of the attribute. Within the attribute specification, it's a list of all the possible values for an attribute.

AVIEXP (EDI)

The Odette EDI despatch advice message.