What Is DHTML?

Date First Published: 19th January 2023

Topic: Web Design & Development

Subtopic: Web Development

Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions

Difficulty: Medium

Difficulty Level: 6/10

CONTENTS

Uses Of DHTML
Difference Between HTML and DHTML

Learn more about what DHTML is in this article.

Stands for Dynamic Hypertext Markup Language. DHTML refers to a combination of markup, stylesheet, and scripting languages used to make webpages interactive. Examples are HTML, CSS, JavaScript, VBScript, and DOM. DHTML is not a programming language. It is a set of technologies that are used in web development to create dynamic webpages and combine standard HTML and CSS with JavaScript (client-side scripting) and server-side applications written in scripting languages such as Perl and PHP.

The term DHTML was first introduced in 1997 to refer to a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript technology to enhance the interactivity of a website. As of now, it is considered an outdated term and is not used as much now since everything that is accomplished using JavaScript, such as animations, form validation, and sliders is considered DHTML.

Uses Of DHTML

DHTML allows effects to be added to pages that are hard to achieve. This is accomplished by changing the DOM and page style. The combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript allows ways of:

Animating text and images in a document.
Creating dropdown menus that appear when a user moves their mouse over a certain section of the page.
Using a form to capture user input and then processing, verifying, and responding to that data without having to send it back to the server.
Dynamic styling, which allows the colour, font, size, or content of a webpage to be dynamically changed.

Difference Between HTML and DHTML

The main difference between HTML and DHTML is that HTML is a markup language, whilst DHTML is a collection of technologies used in combination with each other that increase the interactivity of webpages. Static webpages that form the structure of a website can be created using HTML and technologies are used to make HTML webpages more interactive and dynamic. DHTML can be used to create dynamic webpages because it is a combination of all the technologies needed to do so.