Why Are There Web Servers?

Front 1

A web server is server software or what, that can satisfy what?

Back 1

A web server is server software, or hardware dedicated to running said software, that can satisfy World Wide Web client requests.

Hint 1

1st Q - asking about the physical definition of what a web server is

2nd Q - asking what is the main function of a web server

Front 2

A web server, can in general, contain how many websites? Over what protocols does a web server process incoming network requests

Back 2

A web server can, in general, contain one or more websites. A web server processes incoming network requests over HTTP and several other related protocols.

Front 3

What are the 3 primary functions of a web server?(to do with pages)

The communication between client and server takes place using what?(a specific technology )

Pages delivered are most frequently what documents, which may include what 3 types of elements in addition to text content?

Back 3

The primary function of a web server is to store, process and deliver web pages to clients. The communication between client and server takes place using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). Pages delivered are most frequently HTML documents, which may include images, style sheets and scripts in addition to the text content.

Front 4

Multiple web servers may be used for what?

Back 4

Multiple web servers may be used for a high traffic website

Front 5

A user agent, commonly what two programs?, initiates communication by doing what? using HTTP and the server responds with what?

Back 5

A user agent, commonly a web browser or web crawler, initiates communication by making a request for a specific resource using HTTP and the server responds with the content of that resource or an error message if unable to do so.

Front 6

The resource is typically a what on the server?

Back 6

The resource is typically a real file on the server's secondary storage, but this is not necessarily the case and depends on how the web server is implemented.

Front 7

While the primary function is to serve content, a full implementation of HTTP also includes ways of doing what? This feature is used for what?

Back 7

While the primary function is to serve content, a full implementation of HTTP also includes ways of receiving content from clients. This feature is used for submitting web forms, including uploading of files.

Front 8

Many generic web servers support what using ASP, PHP or other scripting languages?

Back 8

Many generic web servers also support server-side scripting using Active Server Pages (ASP), PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor), or other scripting languages.

Front 9

What does a server being able to support server side scripting mean?

Back 9

This means that the behaviour of the web server can be scripted in separate files, while the actual server software remains unchanged. .

Front 10

The behaviour of the web server can be scripted in separate files, while the actual server software remains unchanged. What is this function used to achieve? And why?

Back 10

Usually, this function is used to generate HTML documents dynamically ("on-the-fly") as opposed to returning static documents. The former is primarily used for retrieving or modifying information from databases. The latter is typically much faster and more easily cached but cannot deliver dynamic content

Front 11

Web servers can frequently be found embedded in what devices? and serve what sort of a network? The web server may then be used as a what(how will it be used with the devices)?

Back 11

Web servers can frequently be found embedded in devices such as printers, routers, webcams and serving only a local network. The web server may then be used as a part of a system for monitoring or administering the device in question.

Front 12

This usually means what(the fact that a web server is embedded into devices, and used to monitor and administer the device)?

Back 12

This usually means that no additional software has to be installed on the client computer since only a web browser is required (which now is included with most operating systems).

Front 13

Web servers are able to map the path component of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into what 2 things(that have to do with the resources that would bw returned to the client)?

Back 13

Web servers are able to map the path component of a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) into:A local file system resource (for static requests)An internal or external program name (for dynamic requests)

Front 14

For a static request(made to a server), the URL path specified by the client is related to what on the web server?

Back 14

For a static request the URL path specified by the client is relative to the web server's root directory.

Front 15

Example;

Consider the following URL as it would be requested by a client over HTTP:http://www.example.com/path/file.html

How would this request be translated into one that points to a resource on the directory of the server?

Back 15

The client's user agent will translate it into a connection to www.example.com with the following HTTP 1.1 request:GET /path/file.html HTTP/1.1Host: www.example.com

The web server on www.example.com will append the given path to the path of its root directory. On an Apache server, this is commonly /home/www (on Unix machines, usually /var/www). The result is the local file system resource:/home/www/path/file.html

The web server then reads the file, if it exists, and sends a response to the client's web browser. The response will describe the content of the file and contain the file itself or an error message will return saying that the file does not exist or is unavailable.