{"id":91170,"date":"2021-04-15T09:00:06","date_gmt":"2021-04-15T03:30:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/data-flair.training\/blogs\/?p=91170"},"modified":"2021-04-28T13:31:22","modified_gmt":"2021-04-28T08:01:22","slug":"web-browsers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/data-flair.training\/blogs\/web-browsers\/","title":{"rendered":"Web Browsers – History, Components, Architecture and Functions"},"content":{"rendered":"

World Wide Web is the full form of WWW that is a network connecting all resources and users using Hypertext Transfer Protocol. There is an exchange of information between the devices on the internet becoming an interactive multimedia platform. The Internet is how the web transfers information and thus they are two separate concepts. The world wide web is a network while the internet is means by which it works to practice all sorts of features.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

You are always requesting websites using the internet on the web. The web needs web browsers to open that are software applications allowing users to interact with content and data on the website.\u00a0 Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google Chrome, etc are the commonly used web browsers across the globe.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many times the content on a website will have a hyperlink to another web page of the same website or of another one. Web browsers format HTML information for all sorts of content. A web page is a document on the websites that are stored on the server.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is the place where users find all the information, a collection of web pages with the same link make up a website. Each of these pages has a Uniform Resource Locator (URL).<\/span><\/p>\n

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Evolution of the Web Browsers<\/h3>\n

Tim Berner Lee was the founder of the Web Browser as a concept developed in 1990. The initial name of his browser was World Wide Web but now it has become Nexus. Erwise was the first graphical user interface web browser. Robert Cailliau was the man behind this development.<\/p>\n

Marc Andreessen developed the browser further in 1993 by releasing one of the most popular browsers of all time – Mosaic. The WWW system became more user-friendly and accessible after this. Andreesen lead company Netscape reached its boom in 1994 with 90% of the users using it.<\/p>\n

Internet Explorer by Microsoft came out in 1995 giving major competition to Mosaic. The upper advantage of windows in internet explorer led to increase in its market share to 95% by 2002. Opera came out in 1996 but did not manage to get a stronghold in the market by only having a 2% share by 2012.<\/p>\n

Netscape\u2019s Mozilla foundation led to the introduction of the Firefox browser in 1998 that grew to 27% of the market share in 2011. Apple Safari was late in the market by coming out in 2003 but yet it is the dominant browser for Ios users around the globe.<\/p>\n

Chrome which accounts for the majority of the users in the world came out in 2008 but its usage only increased with every passing year. By 2014, 45% of the internet users were using google chrome as their go-to web browser.<\/p>\n

How the World Wide Web Works?<\/h3>\n

The clients server format enables the basic functioning of the web. The users request information on the web pages and the server works on transferring it to them. Software to serve these pages to the users is a web server. And the user\u2019s computer here becomes the client and the browser on this allows document retrieval.<\/p>\n

All websites are on this server as guests and every time there is a request, the server pays the hosting price. The second users type an URL on the search, www begins to work. The three key elements here are Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and Web browsers.<\/p>\n

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How does a web browser work?<\/h3>\n

Like mentioned in the introduction, browser allows sending and receiving of information from all parts of the web. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol allows data transfer while governing all pieces of content. The user interface is what enables graphical representation of the data and allows users to explore it.<\/p>\n

The backend of the browsers are the one handling requests and becomes the carrier for information transfer and interaction. While the clean front end allows users to scroll and browse. The backend supports it completely with handling all the functions smoothly. This is how the web browsers function.<\/p>\n

Components of a Web Browser<\/h3>\n

1. User Interface<\/h4>\n

It is an environment allowing users to use certain features like search bar, refresh button, menu, bookmarks, etc. <\/span><\/p>\n

2. Browser Engine<\/h4>\n

The bridge connects the interface and the engine. It monitors the rendition engine while manipulating the inputs coming from multiple user interfaces.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Networking<\/h4>\n

The protocol provides an URL and manages all sorts of safety, privacy and communication.
\nIn addition, the store network traffic gets saved in retrieved documents.<\/p>\n

4. Data Storage<\/h4>\n

The cookies store information as the data store is an uniform layer that the browsers use. Storage processes like IndexedDB, WebSQL, localStorage, etc works well on browsers.<\/p>\n

5. JavaScript Interpreter<\/h4>\n

It allows conversion of JavaScript code in a document and the executes it. Then the engine shows the translation on the screen to the users.<\/p>\n

Architecture of Web Browser<\/h3>\n

The architecture of a web browser has certain components. They are Controller\/Dispatcher, Interpreter, and Client Programs. The control unit in a CPU is a <\/span>controller <\/b>that takes in the input, interprets it, and then instructs the device to work in a certain way.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>interpreter <\/b>receives this info from the controller to get ahead in the given task step by step. Lastly, the <\/span>client program<\/b> has sets of protocols to complete a particular service. Some common names are – HTTP, SMTP, FTP, etc.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Websites<\/h4>\n

As mentioned above, the location on a web browser using a URL opens up a website. They are of two types –\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Static Websites <\/b>– These are flat or stationary websites made by the client that only they can change. The users can read and watch them but cannot interact with the content in any way. They use HTML language to create as the information is fixed. <\/span><\/p>\n

2. Dynamic Websites<\/b> – These websites keep updating and the users will find new information every time. The ajax technology allows users to change information as they want to make it very dynamic.<\/p>\n

Web Pages<\/h4>\n

The web pages are the places where users find all sorts of information. The hyperlinks to many other pages allowing users to switch and explore. And a collection of these pages make up a website. Web pages are also of two types like websites – Static and Dynamic. The brief for them is the same as above.<\/p>\n

Under dynamic web pages, they can be either Server-side dynamic web pages or Client-side dynamic web pages. The server-side dynamic page has server-side scripting while the other one has client-side scripting using the Document Object Model. The scripting has become quite common nowadays and some of them are –<\/p>\n

Client-Side Web Scripting<\/h5>\n

1. JavaScript <\/b>– prototype-based scripting that inherits its name from java and is saved as a .js extension.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. ActionScript <\/b>– an object-oriented language used to target adobe flash player for website development.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

3. Dart <\/b>– source to source compiler and is the open-source language by Google.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. VBScript <\/b>– open source web language by Microsoft that has static typing class-based object programming.<\/span><\/p>\n

Server-side Web Scripting<\/h5>\n

1. Active Server Pages<\/b> – supports Component Object Model that uses functions of DLL.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. ActiveVFP <\/b>– uses native Visual Foxpro language and database for website creation<\/span><\/p>\n

3. ASP<\/b>.net – develops websites, web applications, and web services<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Java <\/b>– Java code with byte code creates the website<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Python <\/b>–\u00a0 object-oriented and functional programming for website creation<\/span><\/p>\n

6. WebDNA <\/b>– uses an embedded database system<\/span><\/p>\n

Features and Functions of Web Browser<\/h3>\n