Computer Science · Chapter 4
Study notes aligned to the official NEB syllabus.
Web technology broadly refers to the tasks associated with developing a website for hosting via the internet or intranet. Web development can range from developing a static page to a complex web based application like an e-commerce or social networking website.
There are different types of web developer, each focusing on different aspects of a website. There are three main types of developer:
1. Front-end developer: Also known as a client side developer, who develops the client side part of a web page. A decent front-end developer will be fluent in at least 3 languages:
2. Back-end developer: Responsible for server side programming. It includes developing server side application logic as well as its integration with the front-end.
3. Full-stack developer: Understands both front-end and back-end strategies and processes, which means they are perfectly positioned to oversee the entire process. They are involved in designing both the front-end and back-end.
The internet is a network of networks, meaning a complex network that spans the entire globe. Data is transferred from computer to computer and network to network using packet switching technology and protocols.
The hypertext document on the WWW is known as a web page. It is the fundamental unit of the web. It contains links, text, images, audio and video as well as other internet services. The web page is an electronic document or soft copy that contains a collection of related information found on the internet. It is developed by using HTML. It enables us to embed a hyperlink in a document. Using the hyperlink, the user can jump from one web page to another.
A website is a collection of related web pages, linked through hyperlinks, published by an organization or an individual. Generally, a website contains a home page along with other additional web pages.
A software application used to access information on the WWW is called a web browser. When a user requests some information, the web browser fetches the data from the web server and then displays the web pages on the user's screen. The primary function of a web browser is to render (utilize) HTML, CSS and JavaScript code. Common examples of web browsers are Google Chrome, Opera, Microsoft Edge, Safari, etc.
A search engine is a web based tool that enables the user to locate information on the world wide web. The main purpose of a search engine is to search for information on the internet. They are software programs that search for websites based on keywords that the user types in. The search engine goes through their database of information in order to locate the information you are looking for. The main search engines currently used are yahoo.com, google.com, bing.com, etc.
A CMS is a tool that helps users to create, manage and modify content on a website without the need for specialized technical knowledge. In simple language, a CMS is a tool that helps to build a website without needing to write all the code. Instead of building your own system for creating web pages, strings, images and other functions, the CMS handles all the basic instructions for you, so that you can focus on the more forward facing part of your website. Some of the widely used open source CMS platforms are WordPress, Joomla, Drupal and Magento (e-commerce).
HTML is a hypertext markup language used to create HTML documents (web pages) for the internet. It is a set of logical codes or tags (markup) that are used to define, for the web browser, how to present the information in the web page. HTML is a platform independent language. It is not a programming language like C, C++, Java and BASIC. Basically, it is a set of markup tags that tell the browser how to display the web page content. Tim Berners-Lee developed HTML in 1990 at CERN (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire).
There are different versions of HTML. These are HTML 1.0, HTML 2.0, HTML 3.2, HTML 4.01 and HTML 5.0 (now).