The standard approaches static html and purely dynamic webpages are not satisfactory for many applications.
static html
viewable offline (i.e. without a webserver)
arbitrary WYSIWG-editors and html-tools (HTML Tidy etc.) can be used
webserver load is low; fast page delivery
technically, any webhoster can be employed since no support of scripting is needed
but:
very unflexible: no dynamic content or templating at all
versus
dynamic webpages (SSI, php, ASP, et al.) or even a CMS
very flexible
but:
viewable online only
WYSIWYG-views online only; many tools are unemployable
dynamic webpages changing seldom produce unnecessary server load and thus are not delivered as promptly as static pages (caching could solve that but is usually not available)
hoster must mandatorily support scripting language
The objective now is to conjoin the advantages of static and dynamically generated content getting around the drawbacks of each. The most common approaches are:
html-templating (e.g. using Dreamweaver)
recurring design elements can be defined in a template file
webserver needs to deliver static pages only
but:
much less flexible than dynamic content (scripting with php or other languages)
webdesigner needs to stick to a particular editor
and
offline generated web content
(i.e. pages with scripting commands are retrieved on triggering and saved as static pages)
offers full scripting flexibility
webserver needs to deliver static pages only
but:
different types of files are involved (source files with script code, static files)
use of WYSIWYG-editors only limitedly possible; many tools unemployable
combination with 'truly dynamic' pages not easily possible
DynaHTML aims at combining these two approaches thereby getting the best of each. The main idea is to use offline-generation of web content but to keep input and output niftily in the same file, thus avoiding the disadvantages of the traditional offline-generation approach.
