Blogged by Shikhar

What is it?

Client side scripts, as the name suggests,  are those which are executed on the client’s terminal. They are not executed by the web server, but are executed by the client’s internet browser. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and JavaScript are examples of client side scripting languages.

Why is it used?

Scripts like JavaScript and CSS are involved with changing the page layout and appearance. As such, these scripts do not need any resources from the web server. They do not need to be involved in the working because these scripts do not need to access resources like databases or extra files on the web server. Therefore, it makes more sense to pass the load of executing these scripts to the client side. This ensures that the web server does not take up undue load.  Due to security restrictions, client-side scripts may not be allowed to access the users computer beyond the browser application. They can access the Document Object Model (DOM) however to change the layout and design of the page.  Read more... (635 words, estimated 2:32 mins reading time)