4 Explain the purpose and functions of a web browser

• The main purpose of a web browser is to render hypertext markup language (HTML)
and display web pages
• Functions include:
1. Storing bookmarks and favorites
2. Recording user history
3. Allowing use of multiple tabs
4. Storing cookies
5. Providing navigation tools
6. Providing an address bar

In order to view or access resources on the world wide web, we need a special type of software to
accomplish this. This software is referred to as a web browser

What is a web page?

A website consists of one or more web pages of information that can be accessed by other
computers on the internet.

What is a web browser?

Explain the purpose of the web browser.

It is a program/software that renders (the method of processing all the web page data) hypertext
markup language (HTML) and display the web pages on the computer screen.

State the roles/ functions of a browser

1. Storing bookmarks and favorites

• Provides functions such as bookmarks and favorites. A bookmark is a link that can be
created to allow a user to quickly find a web page again. A web browser can ‘bookmark’
pages of interest or importance to its users. For example, if someone visits a website every
day, or even several times a day, it could save that user a lot of time to add this website to
their bookmarked websites. This means the user can simply click on their bookmarks,
rather than type out the URL of the website each time.

2. Recording user history

• A history is a record made on the web browser of all the web pages that a user has visited.
User history keeps a chronological ledger of each site visited. This is helpful if you cannot
remember which website you viewed many weeks/months ago and would like to reopen
the exact same page again.

3. Allowing use of multiple tabs

1
 • Allows multiple tabs / web pages to be opened. Tabs allow a user to have a single web
browser window open, but with multiple pages within that single web browser. This eases
browsing between websites, and usually means less computer systems are used.

4. Storing/accessing cookies
• Cookies are small files which store small amounts of data on our computer system, usually
used to save our login details for certain websites, or provide advertising agencies with our
data.

5. Providing navigation tools

• Provide navigation tools, that is, navigation forward and backward

Web browsers allow us to navigate websites and web pages. Navigation tools include:

• Back
Navigate one page backwards.
• Forward
Navigate one page forwards (only if you have already gone ‘back a page’).
• Reload
Reloads the current web page.
• Home
Navigates to your home page, which is customisable per-user.
• Add tab
Opens a new blank tab to visit another web page.
• Close tab
Close the currently open tab.

6. Providing an address bar

• Address bar is the section of a web browser where a user types the web page address.

Without address bar, you would not be able to browse a web page of your choice without following
a link. In most browsers, the address bar is located at the top of the screen, and takes up most of
the horizontal space of the window.

7. Check security of the web page; identify the protocols used such as https or Secure
Socket Layer.// Check if a website is secure; it authenticates digital certificates
8. Translates any embedded scripts/client-side scripts (instructions used to make
the page dynamic). For example: Java script.

9. Send domain name to DNS ( It sends the Domain name from a URL to DNS to
get IP address of web server.

2
Web browsers
Fill in the blanks question, 3 blanks
The primary function of a web browser is to translate raw into
-readable web pages. Its secondary function is to
provide
tools for users.
Which of the following is a useful feature found in a web browser?

• Storing cookies
• Chrome
• HTTP rendering
• FTP key

True or false?

A browser’s ‘forward’ button will take you to a brand new web page.

3
5 Describe how web pages are located, retrieved and displayed on a device when a user enters
a URL

• Including the role of:

1. The web browser
2. IP addresses
3. Domain name server
4. HTML

Using a web browser alongside a URL will usually grant access to the resource specified in the
URL. However, the process of retrieving resources via a web browser relies on several
technologies working together

HTML

HTML is Hyper Text Mark-up Language. It a programming language used to

create/develop/author webpages on the World Wide Web. The transmission from the web
server to the user’s computers(web browser) is often in the form of a HTML document which
need to be translated by a browser to display the web page properly.

An HTML document/code is divided into elements, each holding a specific type of content.

An html document consists of 2 parts.

• the content to be displayed

• the instructions on how to interpret that content

The language used to convey these instructions consist of Mark-ups. Marks-ups are instructions
on how content is used to be formatted, structured and displayed by the browser.

Mark-ups take the form of tags to define for eg: colour/font/graphics/layout. Tags enclose the
content, with an opening < > at the beginning of the content and a closing tag </> at the end as
shown below.

4
HTML tags as transmitted by a web server How it is translated and displayed on a web
browser

<html>
This is a Heading
<head>
<title>Computer Science</title> This is a Blue Heading
This is a paragraph.
</head>
<body>
<h1>This is a Heading</h1>
<h1 style="color:blue;">This is a Blue
Heading</h1>

<p>This is a paragraph.</p>
</body>
</html>

HTML uses both structure and presentation.

Structure is the essential part of the HTML document that instructs on how the layout of the
content is to be created and displayed on the web browser. For eg placing an image alongside
some text // example of tag, such as <div>

Presentation is the style of the document, that is, how the content will be formatted if it
includes any multimedia data. For examples: colours, javaScript, style/cascading style sheet
(CSS). for eg:. the colour that is applied to some text // example of tag, such as <font-color>

Question
Priya creates a website to sell her old comic books and superhero figures.
(a) She uses HTML to create her website. The HTML she produces has both structure and
presentation.
Explain what is meant by HTML structure and presentation. Include an example of each.

5
Question
Five examples are given of structure and presentation.
Tick (✓) to show which example is Structure and which is Presentation. [5]

Example Structure Presentation

(✓) (✓)
The colour applied to a text heading on a web page
The font style applied to a paragraph of text on a web page
The placement of a paragraph of text on a web page
The size that an image is set to be displayed at on a web page
The placement of an image next to a paragraph of text on a web
page

Explain how a web browser uses the URL to access the webpage

Suppose a user opens a web browser and enters the following URL:
https//www.yahoo.com/ComputerScience.html

• The web browser sends URL (for eg yahoo.com) to local DNS (Domain Name
Server/system) using HTTP/HTTPS
• DNS stores an index of URL and matching IP address. A DNS resolves domain names
to IP addresses.
• DNS searches for URL to obtain IP address. If not found, the DNS contacts an
upper/higher level DNS.

6
• If found, the IP address (for eg 74.125.44.25) is sent to web browser.
• The Web browser sends request to IP of web server to access web page.
• Web server locates the web page and sends HTML code and any scripts to web browser.
• Web browser interprets HTML code and scripts to display the web page.
• If URL is not found, the DNS returns an error message that page cannot be found.
• Security certificates are exchanged during the process.

7
Draw a diagram to describe how web pages are located, retrieved and displayed on a device
when a user enters a URL

Web server

A web server is a computer system connected to the internet, which stores multiple resources.
This could include:

• Web pages
• Images
• Videos
• Audio files
• Interactive content

8
Activity

Use this interactive to check your learning about DNS and web servers.

Accessing resources on the world wide web

Fill in the blanks question, 1 blank
The role of a server is to host resources, such as web pages, on the world wide
web, so other computer systems can access them.
Web servers are just internet-connected computer systems that host resources, such as web pages.

Multiple choice question

What does the term ‘DNS’ stand for?

• Domain Naming Systems

• Domain Numbering Station
• Domain Name System
• Domain Number Server

An
is required if a web server intends to host resources on the internet, so other
computer systems can access them.

9
What happens when the user wants to access a secure website (for ex internet banking web
site) stored on a web server to send and receive data to and from it.
No Stages
1 The user opens a web browser and types in the web site address: for example:
https://www.sbmonline.mu
2. The web browser attempts to connect to a web site which is secured by SSL
3 The web browser requests the web server to identify itself
4. The web server sends the web browser a copy of its SSL certificate
5 The web browser checks the SSL certificate is trustworthy; if it is then the web
browser sends a message back to the web server
6 The web server will then send back some form of acknowledgement to allow the
SSL encrypted session to begin
7 The encrypted data is then shared between the web browser and the web server.

10
Question:
A company sells smartphones over the Internet.
Explain how the information stored on the company’s website is requested by the customer, sent
to the customer’s computer and displayed on the screen.
• A user enters the URL/web address of the company into the address bar using a web
browser.
• The URL contains the domain names and specifies the protocols used either HTTP or
HTTPS
• The web browser sends the URL to the nearest DNS.
• The DNS stores a list of URLs and matching IP addresses/ the domain name server (DNS)
stores an index of domain names and IP addresses
• The DNS returns the IP address to the web browser
• The web browser sends a request to the company’s web server using the IP address.
• Data for the website is stored on the company’s web server
• Web server sends the data for the website back to the web browser using the customer’s IP
address
• The data is transferred into HTML which is interpreted by the web browser to display the
website.

11
Question
Describe how the web pages for the website are requested and displayed on a user’s
computer.
...................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
...................................................................................................................................................
............................................................................................................................................. [4]

Question
HTML can be used to create the structure and the presentation of web pages.
(a) Describe what is meant by HTML structure. [2]

(b) Gloria writes a paragraph as an answer to an examination question about accessing a

website.
Use the list given to complete Gloria’s answer by inserting the correct four missing terms. Not
all terms will be used.
• browser • cookies • Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) • hypertext transfer protocol
(http) • hypertext transfer protocol secure (https) • Internet Protocol address (IP address) •
Media Access Control address (MAC address) • web server

The user enters the URL of the website. The ............................................................... uses the DNS
server to look up the ............................................................... of the website.
The browser sends a request to the ............................................................... to obtain the website
files. The website files are sent as ............................................................... that is interpreted by the
browser. [4]

12