The components of a web application

Web applications are a type of client/server application.

In a client/server application, a user at a client computer accesses an application at a servercomputer.

For a web application, the client and server computers are connected via the Internet or an intranet.

In a web application, the web browser provides the user interface for the application.

A web application runs on the server computer under the control of web server software.

For most web applications, the server computer also runs a database management system(DBMS).

How static web pages work

Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML, is the language that the web browser converts into the web pages of a web application.

A static web page is an HTML document thats stored in a file and does not change in response to user input.

Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, is the protocol that web browsers and web servers use to communicate.

A web browser requests a page from a web server by sending the server a message known as an HTTP request. For a static web page, the HTTP request includes the name of the HTML file thats requested.

A web server replies to an HTTP request by sending a message known as an HTTP responseback to the browser. For a static web page, the HTTP response includes the HTML document.

How dynamic web pages work

A dynamic web page is an HTML document thats generated by a web application. Often, the web page changes according to parameters that are sent to the web application by the web browser.

When a web server receives a request for a dynamic web page, the server passes the request to the web application. Then, the application generates a response, which is usually an HTML document, and returns it to the web server.

The web server, in turn, wraps the generated HTML document in an HTTP response and sends it back to the browser.

The browser doesnt know or care whether the HTML was retrieved from a static HTML file or was dynamically generated by the web application. Either way, the browser displays the HTML document that is returned.

DISCUSS EXAMPLES OF STATIC AND DYNAMIC WEB PAGES.

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