Web Application Development
Introduction to Web Application Development
Web Technology
The growth of the World-Wide Web (WWW or simply Web) today is simply phenomenal. Each day, thousands more people gain access to the Internet (upwards of 6 million users at recent estimates). Easy retrieval of electronic information in conjunction with the multimedia capabilities of Web browsers (like Mosaic or Netscape) is what started this explosion. This document will provide some basic information behind some of this technology used in accessing the World-Wide Web.
History of World Wide Web (www)
First, a distinction: The Web and the Internet are not the same thing. The Web is a collection of standard protocols, or instructions, sent back and forth over the Internet to gain access to information. The Internet, on the other hand, is a "network of networks" a more physical entity.
The World-Wide Web began years ago by CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics) who sought to build a distributed "hypermedia" system on the Internet. The term "hypertext" refers to the notion that one can click on a word or phrase displayed onscreen and a hotlink would cause it to jump to another text document, page, or section when selected. Extending this concept, "hypermedia" lets you click on something with your mouse and bring up not only text, but also graphics, sound, and animation. This "multimedia" capability is what drives the Web Until the release of the popular Web browser (a program used to read documents) called "Mosaic" (from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications), accessing online information was something only Computer Scientists and scholars did using text-based terminals. Since then, a colorful point-and-click graphical user interface, much like that on our Macintosh and Windows computers, makes surfing Cyberspace as easy a clicking a mouse.
WWW Component
Semantic Components
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
The Web uses a language called Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to talk to other
Web Technology
The growth of the World-Wide Web (WWW or simply Web) today is simply phenomenal. Each day, thousands more people gain access to the Internet (upwards of 6 million users at recent estimates). Easy retrieval of electronic information in conjunction with the multimedia capabilities of Web browsers (like Mosaic or Netscape) is what started this explosion. This document will provide some basic information behind some of this technology used in accessing the World-Wide Web.
History of World Wide Web (www)
First, a distinction: The Web and the Internet are not the same thing. The Web is a collection of standard protocols, or instructions, sent back and forth over the Internet to gain access to information. The Internet, on the other hand, is a "network of networks" a more physical entity.
The World-Wide Web began years ago by CERN (the European Laboratory for Particle Physics) who sought to build a distributed "hypermedia" system on the Internet. The term "hypertext" refers to the notion that one can click on a word or phrase displayed onscreen and a hotlink would cause it to jump to another text document, page, or section when selected. Extending this concept, "hypermedia" lets you click on something with your mouse and bring up not only text, but also graphics, sound, and animation. This "multimedia" capability is what drives the Web Until the release of the popular Web browser (a program used to read documents) called "Mosaic" (from the National Center for Supercomputing Applications), accessing online information was something only Computer Scientists and scholars did using text-based terminals. Since then, a colorful point-and-click graphical user interface, much like that on our Macintosh and Windows computers, makes surfing Cyberspace as easy a clicking a mouse.
WWW Component
Semantic Components
Hypertext Transfer Protocol
The Web uses a language called Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) to talk to other