Thus, some websites can be considered to be more like a software applications than a set of publications. Each form of web-based activity poses a different set of challenges for those who seek to keep and preserve records of them over time. In its most basic form, a website may be nothing more than a collection of static documents sitting in folders on a server and tied together with hyperlinks. A static website maps URLs directly to file system locations. The only interactivity provided by static sites is in the links which enable movement from one document to another or from one part of the site to another.
Many websites utilise forms to collect information such as comments and requests, from visitors.
Site users search prepared lists or put together their own searches which, in turn, query the content of a database. In many cases, documents exist as objects in a database. Even if the site s main or top-level pages are static, dynamic data access websites raise some additional issues for agency recordkeepers. Not all users see the same website. At designated levels, the pages displayed on users browsers are based on what they ask for, therefore user queries are an integral part of generating the website and may need to be captured.