Module 1
Module 1
Introduction to HTML
1.1 A Brief Introduction to the Internet,
1.2 WWW,
1.3 Web Browsers and Web Servers,
1.4 URLs,
1.5 MIME,
1.6 HTTP,
1.7 Security,
1.8 The Web Programmers Toolbox.
1.9 XHTML: Basic syntax,
1.10 Standard structure,
1.11 Basic text markup,
1.12 Images,
1.13 Hypertext Links.
[Link]
1.1.1 Origins:
1960s
o U.S. Department of Defence (DoD) became interested in developing a new large-scale
computer network
o The purposes of this network were communications, program sharing, and remote computer
access for researchers working on defence-related contracts.
o The DoD’s Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) funded the construction of the first
such network. Hence it was named as ARPAnet.
o The primary early use of ARPAnet was simple text-based communications through e-mail.
late 1970s and early 1980s
Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
o BITNET, which is an acronym for Because It’s Time NETwork, began at the City University
of New York. It was built initially to provide electronic mail and file transfers.
o CSNET is an acronym for Computer Science NETwork. Its initial purpose was to provide
electronic mail.
1990s
o NSFnet which was created in 1986 replaced ARPAnet by 1990.
o It was sponsored by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
o By 1992 NSFnet, connected more than 1 million computers around the world.
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o In 1995, a small part of NSFnet returned to being a research network. The rest became known
as the Internet.
[Link]
Although people nearly always type domain names into their browsers, the IP works just as well.
For example, the IP for United Airlines ([Link]) is [Link]. So, if a browser is pointed
at [Link] it will be connected to the United Airlines Web site.
[Link]
The proposed new system was designed to allow a user anywhere on the Internet to search for and
retrieve documents from the databases on any number of different document-serving computers.
The system used hypertext, which is text with embedded links to text in other documents to allow
non-sequential browsing of textual material.
The units of web are referred as pages, documents and resources.
Web is merely a vast collection of documents, some of which are connected by links.
These documents can be accessed by web browsers and are provided by web servers.
It is important to understand that the Internet and the Web is not the same thing.
The Internet is a collection of computers and other devices connected by equipment that allows
them to communicate with each other.
The Web is a collection of software and protocols that has been installed on most, if not all, of the
computers on the Internet.
1.3 Web Browsers
Documents provided by servers on the Web are requested by browsers, which are programs running
on client machines.
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They are called browsers because they allow the user to browse the resources available on servers.
Mosaic was the first browser with a graphical user interface.
A browser is a client on the Web because it initiates the communication with a server, which waits
for a request from the client before doing anything.
In the simplest case, a browser requests a static document from a server.
The server locates the document among its servable documents and sends it to the browser, which
displays it for the user.
Sometimes a browser directly requests the execution of a program stored on the server. The output of
the program is then returned to the browser.
Examples: Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, Netscape Navigator, Google Chrome, Opera etc.,
[Link]
possibly data to the server, receives information from the server and closes the connection.
The primary task of web server is to monitor a communication port on host machine, accept HTTP
commands through that port and perform the operations specified by the commands.
When the URL is received, it is translated into either a filename or a program name.
The files stored directly in the document root are those available to clients through top level URLs
The secondary areas from which documents can be served are called virtual document trees.
Many servers can support more than one site on a computer, potentially reducing the cost of each site
and making their maintenance more convenient. Such secondary hosts are called virtual hosts.
Some servers can serve documents that are in the document root of other machines on the web; in
this case they are called as proxy servers
1.4.3 Apache
Apache is the most widely used Web server.
The primary reasons are as follows: Apache is an excellent server because it is both fast and reliable.
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Furthermore, it is open-source software, which means that it is free and is managed by a large team
of volunteers, a process that efficiently and effectively maintains the system.
Finally, it is one of the best available servers for Unix-based systems, which are the most popular for
Web servers.
Apache is capable of providing a long list of services beyond the basic process of serving documents
to clients.
When Apache begins execution, it reads its configuration information from a file and sets its
parameters to operate accordingly.
1.4.4 IIS
Microsoft IIS server is supplied as part of Windows—and because it is a reasonably good server—
most Windows-based Web servers use IIS.
With IIS, server behaviour is modified by changes made through a window-based management
program, named the IIS snap-in, which controls both IIS and ftp.
This program allows the site manager to set parameters for the server.
Under Windows XP and Vista, the IIS snap-in is accessed by going to Control Panel, Administrative
Tools, and IIS Admin.
[Link]
1.5 Uniform Resource Locators
Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) are used to identify different kinds of resources on Internet.
If the web browser wants some document from web server, just giving domain name is not sufficient
because domain name can only be used for locating the server.
It does not have information about which document client needs. Therefore, URL should be
provided.
The general format of URL is: scheme: object-address
Example: [Link]
The scheme indicates protocols being used. (http, ftp, telnet...)
Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
In case of http, the full form of the object address of a URL is as follows:
//fully-qualified-domain-name/path-to-document
URLs can never have embedded spaces
It cannot use special characters like semicolons, ampersands and colons
The path to the document for http protocol is a sequence of directory names and a filename, all
separated by whatever special character the OS uses. (forward or backward slashes)
The path in a URL can differ from a path to a file because a URL need not include all directories on
the path
A path that includes all directories along the way is called a complete path.
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Example: [Link]
In most cases, the path to the document is relative to some base path that is specified in the
configuration files of the server. Such paths are called partial paths.
Example: [Link]
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The format of a header field is the field name followed by a colon and the value of the field. There are four
categories of header fields:
1. General: For general information, such as the date
2. Request: Included in request headers
3. Response: For response headers
4. Entity: Used in both request and response headers
A wildcard character, the asterisk (*), can be used to specify that part of a MIME type can be anything.
Accept: text/plain
Accept: text/html Can be written as Accept: text/*
The Host: host name request field gives the name of the host. The Host field is required for HTTP 1.1. The
[Link]
If-Modified-Since: date request field specifies that the requested file should be sent only if it has been
modified since the given date. If the request has a body, the length of that body must be given with a
Content-length field. The header of a request must be followed by a blank line, which is used to separate the
header from the body of the request.
3. Blank line
4. Response body
The status line includes the HTTP version used, a three-digit status code for the response, and a short textual
explanation of the status code. For example, most responses begin with the following:
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
The status codes begin with 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. The general meanings of the five categories specified by these
first digits are shown in Table 1.2.
Table 1.2 First digits of HTTP status codes
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One of the more common status codes is one user never want to see: 404 Not Found, which means the
requested file could not be found.
1.8 Security
Security is one of the major concerns in the Internet. The server system can be accessed easily with basic
hardware support, internet connection & web browser. The client can retrieve very important information
from the server. Similarly, the server system can introduce virus on the client system. These viruses can
destroy the hardware and software in client. While programming the web, following requirements should be
considered:
Privacy: it means message should be readable only to communicating parties and not to intruder.
[Link]
Integrity: it means message should not be modified during transmission.
Authentication: it means communicating parties must be able to know each other’s identity
Non-repudiation: it means that it should be possible to prove that message was sent and received
properly
Security can be provided using cryptographic algorithm. Ex: private key, public key Protection against
viruses and worms is provided by antivirus software, which must be updated frequently so that it can detect
and protect against the continuous stream of new viruses and worms.
Web programmers use several languages to create the documents that servers can provide to
browsers.
The most basic of these is XHTML, the standard mark-up language for describing how Web
documents should be presented by browsers. Tools that can be used without specific knowledge of
XHTML are available to create XHTML documents.
A plug-in is a program that can be integrated with a word processor to make it possible to use the
word processor to create XHTML. A filter converts a document written in some other format to
XHTML.
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XML is a meta-mark-up language that provides a standard way to define new mark-up languages.
JavaScript is a client-side scripting language that can be embedded in XHTML to describe simple
computations. JavaScript code is interpreted by the browser on the client machine; it provides access
to the elements of an XHTML document, as well as the ability to change those elements
dynamically.
Flash is a framework for building animation into XHTML documents. A browser must have a Flash
player plug-in to be able to display the movies created with the Flash framework.
Ajax is an approach to building Web applications in which partial document requests are handled
asynchronously. Ajax can significantly increase the speed of user interactions, so it is most useful for
building systems that have frequent interactions.
PHP is the server-side equivalent of JavaScript. It is an interpreted language whose code is
embedded in XHTML documents. PHP is used primarily for form processing and database access
from browsers.
Servlets are server-side Java programs that are used for form processing, database access, or
building dynamic documents. JSP documents, which are translated into servlets, are an alternative
approach to building these applications. JSF is a development framework for specifying forms and
their processing in JSP documents.
[Link] is a Web development framework. The code used in [Link] documents, which is
[Link]
executed on the server, can be written in any .NET programming language.
Ruby is a relatively recent object-oriented scripting language that is introduced here primarily
because of its use in Rails, a Web applications framework.
Rails provides a significant part of the code required to build Web applications that access databases,
allowing the developer to spend his or her time on the specifics of the application without the
drudgery of dealing with all of the housekeeping details.
[Link]
Tag names must be written in all lowercase letters.
Most tags appear in pairs: an opening tag and a closing tag.
The name of a closing tag is the name of its corresponding opening tag with a slash attached to the
beginning. For example, if the tag’s name is p, the corresponding closing tag is named /p.
Whatever appears between a tag and its closing tag is the content of the tag. Not all tags can have
content.
The opening tag and its closing tag together specify a container for the content they enclose.
The container and its content together are called an element.
Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
Example: <p> This is ATME Web Programming Notes. </p>
The paragraph tag, <p>, marks the beginning of the content; the </p> tag marks the end of the
content of the paragraph element.
Attributes, which are used to specify alternative meanings of a tag, can appear between an opening
tag’s name and its right angle bracket.
They are specified in keyword form, which means that the attribute’s name is followed by an equal’s
sign and the attribute’s value.
Attribute names, like tag names, are written in lowercase letters.
Attribute values must be delimited by double quotes.
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Comments in programs increase the readability of those programs. Comments in XHTML have the
same purpose. They can appear in XHTML in the following form:
<!- - anything except two adjacent dashes - ->
Browsers ignore XHTML comments—they are for people only. Comments can be spread over as
many lines as are needed. For example, you could have the following comment:
<!- - [Link]
This notes is prepared by Kswamy of Computer Science Department ATME, Mysore - ->
[Link]
specifies the particular SGML document-type definition (DTD) with which the document complies,
among other things.
The following command states that the document in which it is included complies with the XHTML
1.0 Strict standard:
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN"
"[Link]
An XHTML document must include the four tags <html>, <head>, <title>, and <body>.
The <html> tag identifies the root element of the document. So, XHTML documents always have an
Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
<html> tag immediately following the DOCTYPE command, and they always end with the closing
html tag, </html>.
The html element includes an attribute, xmlns, that specifies the XHTML namespace, as shown in
the following element:
<html xmlns = "[Link]
Although the xmlns attribute’s value looks like a URL, it does not specify a document. It is just a
name that happens to have the form of a URL.
An XHTML document consists of two parts, named the head and the body.
The <head> element contains the head part of the document, which provides information about the
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document and does not provide the content of the document.
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The body of a document provides the content of the document.
The content of the title element is displayed by the browser at the top of its display window, usually
in the browser window’s title bar.
</ht
</html> ml>
PLEASE NOTE: From here onwards programming in XHTML will begin. Please add the following
compulsory document structure to all programs in the first 4 lines and skip the simple <html> tag of
first line because I have begun the coding part directly .
1.11.1 Paragraphs:
It begins with <p> and ends with </p>. Multiple paragraphs may appear in a single document.
<html>
<head>
<title> Paragraph </title>
</head>
<body>
<p> Paragraph 1 </p>
<p> Paragraph 2 </p>
<p> Paragraph 3 </p>
</body>
</html>
[Link]
1.11.2 Line Breaks:
The break tag is specified as <br />. The slash indicates that the tag is both an opening and closing tag.
<html>
<head>
<title> br tag </title> Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
</head>
<body>
<p> My Name is Chethan <br/>
I am from CSE Department <br/>
ATME, Mysore </p>
</body>
</html>
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1.11.3 Preserving White Space:
Sometimes it is desirable to preserve the white space in text—that is, to prevent the browser from
eliminating multiple spaces and ignoring embedded line breaks. This can be specified with the <pre> tag.
<html>
<head>
<title> Pre Tag </title>
</head>
<body>
<p><pre> My Name is Chethan
I am from CSE Department
ATME, Mysore </pre></p>
</body>
[Link]
</html>
1.11.4 Headings:
Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
In XHTML, there are six levels of headings, specified by the tags <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, <h4>, <h5>,
and <h6>, where <h1> specifies the highest-level heading.
Headings are usually displayed in a boldface font whose default size depends on the number in the
heading tag.
On most browsers, <h1>, <h2>, and <h3> use font sizes that are larger than that of the default size of
text, <h4> uses the default size, and <h5> and <h6> use smaller sizes.
The heading tags always break the current line, so their content always appears on a new line.
Browsers usually insert some vertical space before and after all headings.
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<html>
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<head>
<title> Headings </title>
</head>
<body>
<h1> Heading 1 </h1>
<h2> Heading 2 </h2>
<h3> Heading 3 </h3>
<h4> Heading 4 </h4>
<h5> Heading 5 </h5>
<h6> Heading 6 </h6>
</body>
</html>
[Link]
1.11.5 Block Quotations:
Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
The <blockquote> tag is used to make the contents look different from the surrounding text.
<html>
<head>
<title> Blockquotes </title>
</head>
<body>
<p> Swami Vivekananda says </p>
<blockquote>
<p> "Arise..!! Awake..!!" </p>
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</blockquote>
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<p> He is my Role model </p>
</body>
</html>
[Link]
<html>
<head>
<title> font styles and sizes </title>
</head>
<body>
<p>
<pre> Illustration of Font Styles
<b> This is Bold </b>
<i> This is Italics </i> Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
[Link]
cannot be typed as themselves.
In some cases, these characters are used in XHTML in some special way—for example, >, <, and &.
In other cases, the characters do not appear on keyboards, such as the small raised circle that
represents “degrees” in a reference to temperature.
These special characters are defined as entities, which are codes for the characters. An entity in a
document is replaced by its associated character by the browser.
<html>
<head>
<title> Character Entities </title>
Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
</head>
<body>
<p>
<pre> Illustration of character entities
if you get > 70%, then you will get FCD
if you get < 35%, then you are Fail
½ of my classmates get very good marks
Now, the temperature in Bangalore is 30° C
</pre>
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</p>
</body>
</html>
[Link]
<html>
<head>
<title> Horizontal Rule </title>
</head>
<body>
<p>
The ATME Trust was founded in the year 2007 <hr/>
It was founded by our Chairman Mr. L Arun Kumar <hr/>
Mr.K. Shiva Shankar is our Member <hr/>
Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
</p>
</body>
</html>
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1.11.9 The meta Element:
The meta element is used to provide additional information about a document. The meta tag has no
content; rather, all of the information provided is specified with attributes.
The two attributes that are used to provide information are name and content. The user makes up a
name as the value of the name attribute and specifies information through the content attribute.
One commonly chosen name is keywords; the value of the content attribute associated with the
keywords are those which the author of a document believes characterizes his or her document.
An example is
o <meta name = "Title" content = "Programming the Web" />
o <meta name = "Author" content = "Divya K" />
[Link]
Web search engines use the information provided with the meta element to categorize Web
documents in their indices.
1.12 IMAGES
Image can be displayed on the web page using <img> tag.
When the <img> tag is used, it should also be mentioned which image needs to be displayed. This is
done using src attribute.
Attribute means extra information given to the browser
Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
NOTE:
JPEG Joint Photographic Experts Group
[Link]
GIF Graphic Interchange Format
PNG Portable Network Graphics
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OUT PUT:
[Link]
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Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
1.13 HYPERTEXT LINKS
1.13.1 Links:
Hyperlinks are the mechanism which allows the navigation from one page to another.
The term “hyper” means beyond and “link” means connection
Whichever text helps in navigation is called hypertext
Hyperlinks cam be created using <a> (anchor tag)
The attribute that should be used for <a> is href
Program: [Link]
<html>
<head>
<title> hyperlink </title>
</head>
<a href = "[Link]"> CLICK HERE
</a>
</html>
Program: [Link]
<html>
[Link]
<body> This is Web Programming
</body>
</html>
After clicking on the above text, we can navigate to another page “[Link]” as shown below
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1.13.2 Targets within Documents:
If the target of a link is not at the beginning of a document, it must be some element within the document, in
which case there must be some means of specifying it.
The target element can include an id attribute, which can then be used to identify it in an href attribute.
(observe the scroll bar in the outputs given)
<html>
<head>
<title> target link</title>
</head>
<body>
<h2 id = “avionics”> Avionics </h2>
<a href = “#avionics”> What about avionics? </a>
<a href = “[Link]#avionics”> Avionics </a>
</body>
</html>
1) Give syntax and an example for each of the following tags. 1.<pre> 2.<a> 3.<img> 4.<sub> 5.<p>
[Link]
(10 M)
2) Explain with an example the following tags [Link] [Link] [Link] [Link] button [Link] class
selector (10 M)
3) Give and explain syntax of following tags 1.<blockquote> [Link] (03 M)
4) Explain the following tags with examples i. <img> ii. <a> (04 M)
5) Syntax and an example for each of the following tags. 1.<pre> 2.<p> 3.<sup> 4.<sub>
5.<blackquote> (10 m)
6) Give the standard structure of XHTML document. How line breaks, heading and fonts are handled in Module 1 : Introduction to HTML
XHTML? (10 M)
7) Explain standard XHTML document structure (08 M)
8) Explain the different image formats, write XHTML document to illustrate use of <img> (with all its
attributes) (08 M)
9) Give the syntactic difference between HTML and XHTML (08 M)
10) Discuss the following tags with syntax and example i) <pre> ii. <meta> (04 M)
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