A Beginner's Handbook to the Web

Zia

1 Follower

Follow

Jun 13, 2024

-

3 sec read

393

0

0

0

Introduction

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) was introduced in the year 1990. Since then, the technology has continuously evolved, leading to the introduction of new versions. Some features were introduced in specifications, whereas others were introduced in software releases.

1. Evolution of computing:

The computing era started with using stand-alone computers to perform different computing operations. These computers were isolated and not connected.

Eventually, as the years passed, the growth of computing expanded in multiple diverse fields such as business, education, and the military due to quick data processing. With such a huge expansion, organizations felt the requirement to share the processed data among their people to save time and effort. This marked the beginning of computer networks. Organizations began to connect their computers and share data among their people. These networks are as follows:

• Local area network (LAN).
• Metropolitan Area Network (MAN).
• Wide Area Network (WAN)

LAN refers to a computer network in a small geographical area such as an office, home, or school. MAN refers to a network that covers a city. WAN refers to a network that connects LANs and MANs across the globe.

2. The Web and the Internet:

The advent of WANs raised a strong requirement to share data across the globe rather than just sharing data within an organization. This is because organizations can share their problems, solutions, experiences, and updates with other organizations and customers. This would facilitate faster analysis and decision-making processes. This resulted in the evolution of the Web, also referred to as the World Wide Web or WWW. Therefore, the Internet is known as the largest WAN.

The Web is a way to access information using the Internet which is referred to as a network of networks. Here, multiple computers are connected irrespective of their geographical locations. Information is made available across the globe in the form of Web pages.

A Web page is a file that contains information and instructions to display information to users.

3. Web Communication:

Web pages are stored on a Web server to make them available on the Internet so that users can view them. A Web server is a computer with high processing speed connected to the Internet and is used to host Web pages. Web browsers such as Microsoft Internet Explorer or Google Chrome interpret and display Web pages using a protocol (set of rules). The most popular protocol used to view Web pages is Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). It is a protocol that specifies how a Web page will be retrieved from a Web server.

The steps to view a Web page in a browser are as follows:

• The user specifies the Uniform Resource Locator (URL) of the Web page in a browser.
• The client browser sends the URL request to the appropriate Web server.
• The Web server processes the request and sends the Web page as a response to the browser.

4. Static Web Pages:

The evolution of the Web started with the creation of static Web pages. A static Web page consists of contents specified by the Web page designer. These contents include text, images, audio, and videos. The same content is displayed to each user on the Internet each time a page is requested.

Therefore, such a Web page is called a static Web page, as the contents of the Web page remain unchanged. The only way to update a static Web page is to change its content manually.

Static Web pages are developed using HTML. HTML is a language used to create Web pages that include hypertext along with other content. Hypertext refers to the content on a Web page, which is linked to another Web page. The advantages of static Web pages are as follows:

• Simple to design as it does not provide interactivity. This leads to a reduction in programming effort and the complexity of Web pages.
• Ideal for specifying content appearance as static Web pages focus on content presentation, which Is a one-way flow of information.
  
  
  

5. Dynamic Web Pages:

Static Web pages are easy to design and develop but they have a few limitations. Firstly, static Web pages are difficult to maintain, as they must be updated manually. This raises the risk of inconsistency and incomplete content on static Web pages, which might make them unreliable. Secondly, they do not allow user interaction. This means that users can only view and read the contents. These limitations led to the requirement for dynamic Web pages.

A dynamic Web page generates content 'on demand' when the user provides certain inputs. It accepts use inputs from the user based on which it displays the content in the browser. Consider the example of an online store where users can buy different products by selecting them online. Based on the selected products (input), a page with the total cost is displayed to the user.