World Wide Web (WWW)

WWW

The World Wide Web (WWW) is a repository of information linked together from points all over the world. The WWW has a unique combination of flexibility, portability, and user-friendly features that distinguish it from other services provided by the Internet. The WWW project was initiated by CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics) to create a system to handle distributed resources necessary for scientific research.

1. Architecture

The WWW today is a distributed client/server service, in which a client using a browser can access a service using a server. However, the service provided is distributed over many locations called sites.

Each site holds one or more documents, referred to as Web pages. Each Web page can contain a link to other pages in the same site or at other sites. The request, among other information, includes the address of the site and the Web page, called the URL, which we will discuss shortly. The server at site A finds the document and sends it to the client. When the user views the document, she finds some references to other documents, including a Web page at site B. The reference has the URL for the new site. The user is also interested in seeing this document. The client sends another request to the new site, and the new page is retrieved.

Client (Browser)

A variety of vendors offer commercial browsers that interpret and display a Web document, and all use nearly the same architecture. Each browser usually consists of three parts: a controller, client protocol, and interpreters. The controller receives input from the keyboard or the mouse and uses the client programs to access the document. After the document has been accessed, the controller uses one of the interpreters to display the document on the screen. The client protocol can be one of the protocols such as FTP or HTTP.

Server

The Web page is stored at the server. Each time a client request arrives, the corresponding document is sent to the client. To improve efficiency, servers normally store requested files in a cache in memory; memory is faster to access than disk. A server can also become more efficient through multithreading or multiprocessing. In this case, a server can answer more than one request at a time.

Uniform Resource Locator

A client that wants to access a Web page needs the address. To facilitate the access of documents distributed throughout the world, HTTP uses locators. The uniform resource locator (URL) is a standard for specifying any kind of information on the Internet. The URL defines four things: protocol, host computer, port, and path.

The protocol is the client/server program used to retrieve the document. Many different protocols can retrieve a document; among them are FTP or HTTP. The most common today is HTTP.

The host is the computer on which the information is located, although the name of the computer can be an alias. Web pages are usually stored in computers, and computers are given alias names that usually begin with the characters "www". This is not mandatory, however, as the host can be any name given to the computer that hosts the Web page. The URL can optionally contain the port number of the server. If the port is included, it is inserted between the host and the path, and it is separated from the host by a colon.

Path is the pathname of the file where the information is located. Note that the path can itself contain slashes that, in the UNIX operating system, separate the directories from the subdirectories and files.

2. WEB DOCUMENTS

The documents in the WWW can be grouped into three broad categories: static, dynamic, and active. The category is based on the time at which the contents of the document are determined.

1. Static Documents

Static documents are fixed-content documents that are created and stored in a server. The client can get only a copy of the document. In other words, the contents of the file are determined when the file is created, not when it is used. Of course, the contents in the server can be changed, but the user cannot change them. When a client accesses the document, a copy of the document is sent. The user can then use a browsing program to display the document.

1.1 HTML

Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) is a language for creating Web pages. The term markup language comes from the book publishing industry. Before a book is typeset and printed, a copy editor reads the manuscript and puts marks on it. These marks tell the compositor how to format the text. For example, if the copy editor wants part of a line to be printed in boldface, he or she draws a wavy line under that part. In the same way, data for a Web page are formatted for interpretation by a browser

The two tags <B> and </B> are instructions for the browser. When the browser sees these two marks, it knows that the text must be boldfaced. A markup language such as HTML allows us to embed formatting instructions in the file itself. The instructions are included with the text. In this way, any browser can read the instructions and format the text according to the specific workstation.

A Web page is made up of two parts: the head and the body. The head is the first part of a Web page. The head contains the title of the page and other parameters that the browser will use. The actual contents of a page are in the body, which includes the text and the tags. Whereas the text is the actual information contained in a page, the tags define the appearance of the document. Every HTML tag is a name followed by an optional list of attributes, all enclosed between less-than and greater-than symbols (< and >). An attribute, if present, is followed by an equal’s sign and the value of the attribute. Some tags can be used alone; others must be used in pairs. Those that are used in pairs are called beginning and ending tags. The beginning tag can have attributes and values and starts with the name of the tag. The ending tag cannot have attributes or values but must have a slash before the name of the tag.

2.2 Dynamic Documents

A  dynamic  document  is  created  by a  Web  server  whenever  a  browser  requests  the

document. When a request arrives, the Web server runs an application program or a script that creates the dynamic document. The server returns the output of the program or script as a response to the browser that requested the document. Because a fresh document is created for each request, the contents of a dynamic document can vary from one request to another.

2.2.1 Common Gateway Interface (CGI)

The Common Gateway Interface (CGI) is a technology that creates and handles dynamic documents. CGI is a set of standards that defines how a dynamic document is written, how data are input to the program, and how the output result is used. The term common in CO1 indicates that the standard defines a set of rules that is common to any language or platform. The term gateway here means that a COl program can be used to access other resources such as databases, graphical packages, and so on. The term interface here means that there is a set of predefined terms, variables, calls, and so on that can be used in any COl program.