If you belong to the old guard of web developers, you will certainly have been fully aware of how tedious and time-consuming web development proved to be. There were just too many things you had to do manually for it to be comfortable. If you belong to this age, you can heave a big sigh in memory of those days.

Ever since the internet blossomed into the giant it now is, people developing for the web have constantly worked on ways to make web development easier and more powerful. The new web had to be able to handle an ever changing face of computing.

In the past browsing the web consisted of connecting to sites and downloading simple mark up documents. Since the early users of the internet where scientists and military personnel, they did not have much need for fancy graphics and stuff. Text and images –and the lack thereof – sufficed.

However, today, everyone uses the internet – from shopping moms, to eight-year-old kids looking for comic books. To cater to this new breed of internet users, the web had to evolve to accommodate there individual needs. Kids need colorful and interactive pages while moms like having the ability to interact with other moms.

To keep us with these needs various addendums and revisions have been done to HTML, as well as the addition of newer more powerful languages.

With the commercialization of the internet, companies have started setting up online identities to reach to the online market. This sort of web activity along with the changing face of the web’s users has necessitated the introduction of scripts that help make the jobs of web developers simpler and more organized.

Scripts are snippets of programming language that help generate dynamic web content. There are two kinds of scripts – server side and client side. We will delve into some of the more powerful ones. These scripts automate most of the difficult pages on the internet. They handle web content such as blogs, surveys, questionnaires, forms, news feeds, and others.

1. Blogs: there are tons of blogging scripts, which is not surprising considering the popularity of blogs. Among the more popular scripts include b2evolution, Nucleus, pMachine, and Wordpress.

2. Content Management: Content Management scripts are a necessity when dealing with large volume websites such as new sites, company web sites and such. No respectable portal can operate without one of these software – Drupal, Geeklog, Mambo Open Source, PHP-Nuke, phpWCMS, phpWebSite, Post-Nuke, Siteframe, Typo3, and Xoops.org.

3. Customer Relationship: With more and more people browsing the internet, setting up a customer relations site is a necessity for any company – online or not. With the use of predefined scripts – many of which are free – setting up a system to take care of all your customer relations needs is a cinch. Among the features most commonly found in such systems are a ticketing system for comments and complaints, live chatting, FAQ’s and statistics. Among the more popular scripts available for this purpose include - Crafty Syntax Live Help, Help Center Live, osTicket, PHP Support Tickets, Support Logic Helpdesk.

4. Discussion Boards: Discussion boards are the best way to set up and maintain online communities. These online boards allow members to post comments, news, and other interesting stuff. It also allows for intermember communication and interaction. phpBB2, SMF are the more popular bulletin board scripts available.

5. E-Commerce: is the new market. Most companies have already set up online stores that cater to those that enjoy shopping from the comfort of their homes. Studies have shown that an increasing number of people are spending their money online. Facilitating such transactions is a delicate and complex matter, since it involves money, identification, and security. The following scripts make your life a whole deal easier – CubeCart, OS Commerce, Zen Cart,

6 Mailing Lists: mailing lists are an important tool for marketers and company representatives to keep in touch with their clients. One of the most popular mailing list scripts includes PHPlist.

Conclusion
In the end, webmaster’s lives are a lot easier and efficient nowadays all because of the development of such scripts. The proliferation of these scripts also means that a script management software is needed for you to control your site’s functions properly.