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WEB TECHNOLOGIES
UNIT - 1

(1) Explain about Web Basis?

(A) The World Wide Web (Web) is an important component of the Internet.

Web Basis: The Web consists of computers on the Internet that are connected to each other
in a specific way, making those computers and their contents easily accessible to each other.
The Web has a client/server architecture, which means that server-based applications
communicate with client workstations over a network. Users at home or in offices work on
client-side computers that are connected to the Internet, and use programs called Web
browsers, or simply browsers. Two popular browsers are Netscape Navigator and Microsoft
Internet Explorer. Web servers are computers on the server side, and are often at business
locations. Web servers are connected to the Internet and run special Web server software.
This software includes a component called a listener. The listener monitors for messages
sent to it from client browsers.
A Web page is usually a file with an.htm or .html extension that contains Hypertext
Markup Language (HTML) tags and text. HTML is a document-layout language with
hypertext-specification capabilities. HTML is not a programming language, although it can
contain embedded programming commands. The primary task of HTML is to define the
structure and appearance of Web pages and to allow Web pages to embed hypertext links to
other Web pages. When a Web server receives a message from a browser requesting a Web
page, the Web server sends the requested HTML file (the Web page) back across the Internet
to the user’s browser. The Web page file is displayed by the user’s browser as a Web page
formatted according to the HTML tags it contains. The Web architecture is illustrated in
below figure.
Request for Request for
Web page Web page
Network

Web page Web page

HTML file HTML file
Web browser
(user’s computer, Web server
or client
Web client/server architecture

(2) What is a Communication Protocol?

(A) Communication Protocol: Communication protocols are agreements between a sender
and a receiver regarding how data are sent and interpreted. The Internet is built on two
network protocols: the Transmission Control Protocol and the Internet Protocol. Both
protocols are required for any Internet activity to occur, and they usually are abbreviated and
referred to as TCP/IP.
All data transported over the Internet (e-mail messages, files, Web pages, etc.) are
broken into packets, or small chunks of data that can be routed independently through the
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Internet. TCP is responsible for breaking a long message into packets when the message is
sent and reassembling the packets into complete messages at the receiving computer. IP
specifies how messages are addressed.
Every computer that is connected to the Internet has a unique IP address that specifies
the computer’s network location. IP addresses are generally expressed as four numbers
(ranging in value from 0 to 255) separated by periods (or decimal points). An example of an
IP address is 137.28.224.5. Numbers of this type are difficult to remember, so an IP address
can also be represented by a domain name, which is a name that has meaning to people and
is easier to remember. Domain name servers are computers that maintain tables with
domain names matched to their corresponding IP addresses. Domain name servers are
maintained by Internet service providers (ISPs) that provide commercial Internet access
for customers, and by organizations that have many users connected to the Internet.
Information on the World Wide Web is usually transferred using a communication
protocol called the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Web browsers also support older
Internet protocols such as the File Transfer Protocol (FTP). Whereas HTTP is used to send
Web pages across the Internet, FTP is the primary protocol used for transferring data files
such as word-processing documents and spreadsheets.

(3) What is a URL? What are the possible components of a URL?

(A) URL’s: URL stands for Uniform Resource Located, which is an address of a document
on the web or on the Internet. A URL consists of four parts namely.
1. Protocol
2. Host name
3. Folder name
4. Filename

Protocol: The protocol specifies the computer language used to transfer information. A
protocol tells the browsers where the information is located and tells the browser what to
expect from the document retrieval process. The most commonly used protocol is HTTP
(Hyper Text Transfer Protocol). Some of the more common protocols and their use is shown
below.

Protocol Indicator Use

http:// For documents on the web, including HTML
documents and associated files.
File:/// For documents on the local hard drive. The
third slash replaces the host name, so you a
simply type the folder and file name.
ftp:// For documents on a ftp server.
Gopher:// For documents on a gopher server.
telnet:// To open a telnet connection to a specific
host.
News: To connect to a news group or a specific
article in a group.
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Host name: The host name is the name of the server that holds HTML document and related
files. Each server has a specific address, and all documents stored on the server share the
same host name. For example, if Internet service provides server name is “word ware” then
host name can be www. Wordware.com
Top-level domain
Organization name
Node name

The top-level domain name may be one of the following

. Com Commercial company

. Edu Educational institutions
. Gov U.S government agencies
. Mil U.S military
. Net Internet service provides
. Org Non profit organization

In addition each country outside the United States has its own top-level domain assigned.
Domain name Country
. AU Australia
. CA Canada
. CL Chile
. DE Germany
. FR France
. JP Japan
. UK United kingdom
. US United states
. ZA South Africa

The next portion of the URL is the port number. It is optional if the standard port
number for that protocol is used. Some standard port numbers are

Http 80
Gopher 70
Ftp 21

When specified, the port number is separated from the server address with a “:”.

Folder name: Folder name are the next chunk of information in a URL, indicating the folder
in which files are located.

File name: File names are the names of specific HTML documents and consists of 2 pieces
of information i.e.,
1. A name, which identifies file to display.
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2. A file extension, which specifies the file type i.e., an HTML document, an image, a
text file and soon.
The following example shows all parts of URL together
Ex: Http://www.wordware.com:80:/html/page3.htm.

(4) What are the different types of URL?

(A) Types of URL’s: URL’s vary depending on the location of the document to which we
are linking. For example a URL will be longer and include more information if the file is on
the World Wide Web. A URL will be shorter and include less information if the file is on
local computer or server. Basically URL’s are two types namely.

1. Absolute URL.
2. Relative URL.

Absolute URL: An absolute URL is similar to postal address. It contains all the information
necessary to identify files on the Internet i.e., it contains host name, folder name, protocol
and file name which are all essential for linking to websites. To link to another website, you
have to provide all these tidbits of information so that the right server, folder and document
an be found.
Ex: Http://www.xmission.com/services/index.html.

Relative URL: A relative URL usually contains only the folder name and file name or just
file name. A relative URL points to files in the same folder or on the same server on which
the organization file.
The relative URL’s can be used to refer to documents in relation to the originating
document or to the server on which the originating document resides.
Ex: There are two folders namely services and contacts root directory. The services folder
contains “other” folder and consulting.html file. The “other” folder contains tips.html. The
contacts folder contains names.html.
If we want to make link to consulting.html and tips.html from index.html document,
which exists in root directory, we can give the URL as follows.
Services/consulting.html
Services/other/tips.html
We can use “..” to move up a directory in the hierarchy, to link to documents in other
folders.
For example, to link firm consulting.html to names.html we can give the URL as
follows.
“.. /contacts/names.html”
A server relative URL is relative to the server root i.e., relative to the host name part
of the URL. Server relative URL’s have forward slash at the beginning of the file name. For
example, we could use a server relative URL to display our home page with a link to
/index.html, which would display the index.html file right under the top of the server.

(5) What is a dynamic Web page, and how does it differ from a static Web page?
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(A) Web pages can be either static or dynamic. As its name suggests, a dynamic Web page
provides more immediate and specific information than a static page, and therefore dynamic
Web pages play an important role in the creation of database-driven Web sites.
In a static Web page, the page content is established at the time the page is created.
Whenever a user accesses a static page, it displays the same information. Static Web pages
are useful for displaying information that doesn’t change often, and for navigating between
HTML Web page files. In a dynamic Web page, also called an interactive Web page, the
page content varies according to user requests or inputs. One type of dynamic Web page
queries the database and displays data, but does not change it. These user requests use a
database-driven Web site with dynamic Web pages.
The user first makes a request for a dynamic Web page, and the user’s browser
forwards this request to the Web server. The web server then starts a program to process the
request. This program composes a database query, and sends it to the database. The database
sends the requested data block to the program, where the data are formatted into an HTML
Web page by the Web server. The Web server then sends the dynamic Web page back to the
user’s browser. Using the Web to access a database is often referred to as Web/database
processing.
Dynamic Web pages can also be used to change the database’s contents on the basis of
user inputs. A form is presented to the user to allow him or her to enter data that will insert
new data records, or modify or delete existing records. This input is translated into an action
query by a program running on the web server.
This query is then forwarded to the database server, where it is processed. If the query
is successful, a confirmation message is returned to the Web server, and then forwarded to
the user’s browser. If the query is not successful, an error message is returned to the Web
server and forwarded to the user’s browser.

(6) Explain personal and client/server databases?

(Or)
Explain about Database basis?
(A) Databases store an organization’s data in a central location, using a standardized format.
The intent of a database is to store each data item only once to avoid redundant data, and to
ensure that the data are consistent. Different programs can be used to access and manage
database data. Each program interacts with the data in the database through the database
management system (DBMS), which is a program that is used to mange database data and
user access.

Personal and Client/Server Databases: The first databases were stored on large centralized
mainframe computers that users accessed from terminals. A distributed computing and
microcomputers became popular during the 1980s, two new kinds of databases emerged:
personal databases and client/server databases.
The personal database software, data, and programs are stored on a file server. When a
user makes a request to view, insert, update, or delete data, the request might require
retrieving all of the database data, the DBMS software, and the programs for processing the
data. When the user is finished updating the database, all of the database data must then be
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returned to the file server. This could involve transferring hundreds of megabytes of
information across the network, when only a few bytes are actually needed. Newer personal
databases use indexed files that enable the client to retrieve smaller subsets of the database,
but regardless, personal DBMSs can put a heavy demand on client workstations and on the
network.
In contrast to personal databases, client/server databases such as Oracle and Microsoft
NT SQL server split the DBMS and the database programs. The DBMS is installed and runs
on a server, while the database programs are installed and run on the client. The database
programs running on the client send data requests across the network to the DBMS, as
shown in below figure.

Database server
(DBMS process)
“Listens” for data requests, new data, and
updates
Filters requested data from the database and
sends it to the client
Or
Adds or updates data.

Network
Data request Filtered
Data input/update Filtered Data request data
data Data input/update

User 1 client User 2 client

workstation workstation

When the client/server DBMS server receives a request, it retrieves the data from the
database, performs the requested functions on the data (sorting, filtering, etc.), and sends
only the final query result back across the network to the client. As a result, multi-user
client/server databases often generate less network traffic than personal databases and are
less likely to bog down because of an overloaded network.
Client/server database systems have a built-in security model that can be used to limit
the operations that users can perform on the database, and limit the data a user can access.
Personal databases have fewer security options, which are not as flexible to use and maintain
as those offered by client/server database systems.