INTERNET BASED PROGRAMMING

Definition of Terms
a. Internet
AKA the net, is a large a group of millions of computers around the world that are connected to one another.
These can either be private, public, academic, business, and government networks. The networks can also span
local, regional or global boundaries.

The networks are linked through a broad array of electronic, wireless and optical networking technologies such
as:
• Phone Lines,
• Fiber Optic Lines,
• Coaxial Cable,
• Satellites, and
• Wireless Connections.

The Internet can also be viewed to consist of two major groups of networks:
• Intranet
• Extranet

Intranet
Network that is accessed by members within a single organization.

Extranet
Network that is accessed by groups through cross-enterprise boundaries.
It can be viewed as part of a company’s intranet that is extended to users outside the company via the internet.

Internet Access
Connect to a computer system that is already on the Internet, usually one run by an Internet Service Provider
(ISP). A client (user) computer can connect to the Internet via:
• Dial-Up using a telephone line,or an Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN),
• Digital Subscriber Line (DSL),
• Cable TV
• Satellite
• Wireless

b. Programming
Computers do what we tell them to do, NOT what we want them to do. Computer Programming, thus, involves
writing instructions and giving them to the computer to complete a task. Programming is the process of
designing, writing, testing, debugging and marinating the source code of computer programs.
Programming Languages
A programming language are the set of rules that instruct the computer on how to accomplish a task.

Examples of Programming Languages

• Basic
• C++
• Pascal
• Java

c. Internet Based Programming

The design of web pages and applications that run on Internet-enabled devices.
IBP can be of two types:
• Client-Side Programming: Done on the user’s web browser.
• Server-Side Programming: Occurs in the web server.

World Wide Web

The web, is an interconnection of webpages/websites. A webpage is hypertext document (containing hyperlinks)
that is accessed via the internet using a web browser. Hyperlinks are references to data. A set of related
webpages served by a single web domain form a website.

Components of a Website
At its core, website is a dialog between the server (the web host) and the client (the browser); the client requests
data and the server responds. The simplest model would consist of just the server, a document, and a browser,
but in practice web sites use few other components as shown below, and more.
How Websites Work
The process begins when the browser requests a page from the server. The server delivers static HTML pages
directly from its hard drive; dynamic pages are generated on-the-fly by scripts executed in a language
interpreter, such as PHP, but likewise delivered by the server to the client, usually in the form of HTML
markup. For example, a server-side database can store the items of a catalog, and a PHP script can look up those
data records and mark them up as HTML when requested by the browser.

The downloaded page may contain the addresses of other components: style sheets, JavaScript files, images,
and other assets. The browser requests each of these, in turn, from the server, combining them into the final
rendering of the page.

Role of Websites in Today’s Organizations

A website also known as a web site or simply a site, is a set of related web pages served/hosted from a single
web domain. Since their inception, websites have acquired a myriad of uses in most spheres our lives. Some of
the areas websites are used include:
• Online shopping,
• Advertising,
• Education,
• Communication e.g. VoIP,
• Entertainment (online radio and TV broadcast),
• Chat and Send mail,
• Access information,
• Read newspaper etc.