Web Browser and Web Server

Unit -5
 Web Browser

• web Browser is an application software that allows us to view

and explore information on the web. User can request for any
web page by just entering a URL into address bar.
• Web browser can show text, audio, video, animation and more.
It is the responsibility of a web browser to interpret text and
commands contained in the web page.
 Architecture
of Web Browser
• There are a lot of web browser available in the market. All of them
interpret and display information on the screen however their capabilities
and structure varies depending upon implementation. But the most basic
component that all web browser must exhibit are listed below:
• Controller/Dispatcher
• Interpreter
• Client Programs
• Controller works as a control unit in CPU. It takes input from the
keyboard or mouse, interpret it and make other services to work on the
basis of input it receives.
• Interpreter receives the information from the controller and execute the
instruction line by line. Some interpreter are mandatory while some are
optional For example, HTML interpreter program is mandatory and java
interpreter is optional.
• Client Program describes the specific protocol that will be used to access
a particular service. Following are the client programs tat are commonly
used:
• HTTP
• SMTP
• FTP
• NNTP
• POP
 Examples of Web Browser
Browser Vendor
Internet Explorer Microsoft
Google Chrome Google
Mozilla Firefox Mozilla
Netscape Navigator Netscape Communications
Corp.
Opera Opera Software
Safari Apple
Sea Monkey Mozilla Foundation
K-meleon K-meleon
 Web Server

• Web server is a computer where the web content is stored.

Basically web server is used to host the web sites but there
exists other web servers also such as gaming, storage, FTP,
email etc.
• Web site is collection of web pages while web server is a
software that respond to the request for web resources.
• Web server respond to the client request in either of the
following two ways:
• Sending the file to the client associated with the requested
URL.
• Generating response by invoking a script and communicating
with database.
• When client sends request for a web page, the web server
search for the requested page if requested page is found then it
will send it to client with an HTTP response.
• If the requested web page is not found, web server will the
send an HTTP response:Error 404 Not found.
• If client has requested for some other resources then the web
server will contact to the application server and data store to
construct the HTTP response.
 Architecture
of Web Server
• Web Server Architecture follows the following two
approaches:
1. Concurrent Approach
2. Single-Process-Event-Driven Approach.
Concurrent Approach
• Concurrent approach allows the web server to handle multiple
client requests at the same time. It can be achieved by
following methods:
I. Multi-process
II. Multi-threaded
III. Hybrid method.
• Multi-processing: In this a single process (parent process) initiates several
single-threaded child processes and distribute incoming requests to these
child processes. Each of the child processes are responsible for handling
single request.
• Multi-threaded: Unlike Multi-process, it creates multiple single-threaded
process.
• Hybrid: It is combination of above two approaches. In this approach
multiple process are created and each process initiates multiple threads.
Each of the threads handles one connection. Using multiple threads in
single process results in less load on system resources.
 Single-Process-Event-Driven Approach.

• The single-process event-driven (SPED) architecture uses a

single event-driven server process to perform concurrent
processing of multiple HTTP requests.
• The server uses non-blocking systems calls to perform
asynchronous I/O operations.
• In principle, a SPED server is able to overlap the CPU, disk
and network operations associated with the serving of many
HTTP requests, in the context of a single process and a single
thread of control.
• As a result, the overheads of context switching and thread
synchronization in the MP and MT architectures are avoided.
 Examples

• Apache HTTP Server

This is the most popular web server in the world developed by the Apache Software
Foundation. Apache web server is an open source software and can be installed on
almost all operating systems including Linux, UNIX, Windows, FreeBSD, Mac OS
X and more. About 60% of the web server machines run the Apache Web Server.
• Internet Information Services (IIS)
The Internet Information Server (IIS) is a high performance Web Server from
Microsoft. This web server runs on Windows NT/2000 and 2003 platforms (and
may be on upcoming new Windows version also).
• Lighttpd
The lighttpd, pronounced lighty is also a free web server that is distributed with the
FreeBSD operating system. This open source web server is fast, secure and
consumes much less CPU power. Lighttpd can also run on Windows, Mac OS X,
Linux and Solaris operating systems.
• Sun Java System Web Server
This web server from Sun Microsystems is suited for medium and large
web sites. Though the server is free it is not open source. It however, runs
on Windows, Linux and UNIX platforms. The Sun Java System web server
supports various languages, scripts and technologies required for Web 2.0
such as JSP, Java Servlets, PHP, Perl, Python, and Ruby on Rails, ASP and
Coldfusion etc.
• Jigsaw Server
Jigsaw (W3C's Server) comes from the World Wide Web Consortium. It is
open source and free and can run on various platforms like Linux, UNIX,
Windows, and Mac OS X Free BSD etc. Jigsaw has been written in Java and
can run CGI scripts and PHP programs.
 Web 2.0
• Web 2.0, a second advanced generation of WWW, is about revolutionizing
the way of creating, editing, and sharing user generated content online.
Web 2.0 is one of the series of improved technology rather than a specific
version of web. It is characterized specifically as a transition from Static
web pages to highly Dynamic web pages or user generated content.
• This stage of World Wide Web allow the users to actively “read as well as
write”, it thus improves collaboration and information sharing on a wide
scale over internet. Ajax, JavaScript Framework, Micosoft.NET Framework
and Adobe Flex are the respective technologies used for Web 2.0.
• The name came into existence from a software Industry, where each new
software program is named using some numeric value. Web 2.0 was coined
out in the year 2004 by Darcy DiNucci; an information architecture
consultant, in her article named – “Fragmented Future”, and was
popularized by Tim O’Reilly and Media Live International.
 Features of Web 2.0

• Web 2.0 uses the approach of “guide on the Side” rather than
implementing “top-down” approach i.e dynamically change or edit the
content rather then simply reading.
• It changed the concept of “mostly read only web” to “widely read and
write” over web.
• Web 2.0 provides a perfect platform base for effective user interaction that
was not available before.
• It changed the idea from passive consumption and delivery of content, to
actively participating in creation, sharing, and collaboration.
• It is subjected to be a powerful attraction for an Enterprise; that fetch more
employees into accounts at a lower cost for greater participation in projects
and idea sharing.