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Web Servers

The document discusses web servers and how they work. Web servers receive HTTP requests from browsers and respond with HTTP responses that can include static files, dynamically generated pages from scripts, or data from databases. Modern web application frameworks run a controller program per request that handles fetching data and rendering views.

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Cleber Felipe
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10 views7 pages

Web Servers

The document discusses web servers and how they work. Web servers receive HTTP requests from browsers and respond with HTTP responses that can include static files, dynamically generated pages from scripts, or data from databases. Modern web application frameworks run a controller program per request that handles fetching data and rendering views.

Uploaded by

Cleber Felipe
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Web Servers

Mendel Rosenblum

CS142 Lecture Notes - Web Servers


Web Application Architecture

Web Browser Web Server Storage System

HTTP

LAN
Internet

CS142 Lecture Notes - Web Servers 2


Web Servers
● Browsers speak HTTP and Web Servers speak HTTP
○ Browsers: send HTTP request and get HTTP responses
○ Web Server: get HTTP requests and send HTTP responses
● HTTP is layered on TCP/IP so a web server:
loop forever doing:
accept TCP connection from browser
read HTTP request from TCP connection
process HTTP request
write HTTP response to TCP connection
shutdown TCP connection (except if Connection: keep-alive)
CS142 Lecture Notes - Web Servers
Processing HTTP requests - File reads
● Process HTTP GET index.html

int fd = open("index.html");
int len = read(fd, fileContents, sizeOfFile(fd));
write(tcpConnection, httpResponseHeader, headerSize);
write(tcpConnection, fileContents, len);

● Note open and read may have to talk to a slow disk device
○ Can process requests concurrently by starting a new thread or a new process per request

CS142 Lecture Notes - Web Servers


Processing HTTP requests - cgi-bin
● Process HTTP GET of index.php

runProgramInNewProcess(tcpConnection);

● Template processing program fetches models from database system

CS142 Lecture Notes - Web Servers


2nd Generation Web App Frameworks
Web server runs a program per request - the controller:

1. Parse URL and/or HTTP request body to get parameters to view


2. Use parameters to fetch model data from DBMS (typically a SQL relational DBMS)
3. Run HTML view template with model data to generate the HTML
4. Send a HTTP response with the HTML back to the browser

Rails runs a controller program per URL. Example: URL /rails_intro/hello


Runs controller hello.rb (Ruby program fetches models - ORM)
Applies to view template hello.html.erb (HTML embedded with Ruby)
JavaScript?: An asset (like an image or css) you can include
CS142 Lecture Notes - Web Servers
Web servers for JavaScript frameworks
● Most of the web app is simple static files - any web server speaking HTTP
○ View templates (HTML, CSS)
○ JavaScript files

● Remaining browser⇔ server communication around model data


○ CRUD (Create Read Update Delete) of model data
○ Session info (e.g. login, etc.) (Later…)

● Low requirements on web request processing


○ HTTP GET static files
○ Model data operation - mostly doing DBMS operations

CS142 Lecture Notes - Web Servers

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