Client and server side printing

Question

Hey guys. Been a while since I posted. Hope everyone is well. I have paused working on C++ just for a while to focus on my Computing Science diploma.

Would someone kindly run me through what exactly is Client Side and Server Side printing ?
I need an example of each and the advantages and disadvantages of each one ?
This may be unrelated but this course has a lot of information to take in and understand in a short space of time. Would appreciate the help.
Thanks

Answer 1

Hi Harry - all the best with your diploma. Just noticed the timestamp on this post so not sure if an answer helps you now (but I’ll proceed anyway)

Think about if you are using a website. You are the client, making requests as you use the site. Who fulfils these requests? The server.

Say you went to use website that retrieved lots of data but the way it is retrieved (e.g. directly from a database query) is not exactly how you would expect it displayed on the website.

Client side means that this extra work of doing anything to the data before you see it is done on your side: after the server has sent data. This could mean in the JavaScript code interpreted by your browser has a for loop to go through the data. This can be seen as less complex code but performant heavy (and slows the website loading)

Server side means this will be handled for you without the client side having to do anything. As an example, this could be where the code is for data retrieval, there is also a command to modify the data as it is retrieved preventing any extra work needing to be done. This will result in a quicker query versus looping through the data post-retrieval but it will mean learning how to do this.

I don’t think I’ve answered Client vs Server side ‘printing’ but I hope the above at least explains the difference between tasks on the client and server sides to draw conclusions for any type of task.

Hope that helps!

Answer 2

When referring to the client side by itself, it does not necessarily mean it does all the work. Client side means the thing that makes a request. Client side processing - e.g. my example of a for loop in JS code after data retrieval - means the client side does extra work.

Sorry if I’ve confused you but I’m additionally going to refer you to a stack overflow post that puts it in simpler terms without the example: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/18508964

Answer 3

So Client side basically means me and my computer do all the work.
Whereas server side means another client will do the work for me ?