M1 - Role of web architecture in website communications

Introduction

The massive improvement in technology within the past decade has meant that functionality within the web has also increased. An improved functionality of the web would be website communications. The improvement is due to faster internet connections that are available nowadays such as fibre optic connection and the improved reliability and affordability of internet connection.

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is simply the new range of usage of the web which is based around interactivity, user content and information sharing. (Reilly, 2015) The technologies involved in the development of the Web 2.0 are rich web technologies which include Adobe flash, Microsoft Silverlight, JavaScript and many more (AJAX). Web 2.0 allows users to add information to an existing web content, this feature was not available with Web 1.0. The technology that allows the Web 2.0 to have this feature is developer’s usage of AJAX programming which uses JavaScript and the Document Object Model (Cross-platform language convention for HTML and XML) to update specific region of a web page without having to complete a full reload. (Wikipedia, 2015)

The overall performance of sites has improved due to the Web 2.0 technology that separates communication such as data requests going to the server and data coming from the server. If there wasn’t a separation user would have to wait before they can do anything on the page, this will decrease the usability of the web page. Most of all, it all wouldn’t be possible if not for the faster internet connection that is available to us and the higher bandwidth used by developers so more users can access their web pages at a time so there isn’t an online queue formed.

Web 2.0 still uses languages such as PHP, Ruby, Perl, Python and Microsoft.NET Framework to output data in a dynamic way retrieving the information from files and databases. Markup language HTML-5 is used in Web 2.0 to integrate the latest multimedia in web pages. (Wikipedia, 2015)

Web 2.0 is the edge that brings websites to life. Web 2.0 gives site platforms that are based on interaction for example, blogging, wikis and Flickr. (Reilly, 2015) The web 1.0 didn’t allow other users to add information to existing content on the internet, so this meant that only the developers of the websites can add information to their site. This meant that with the web 1.0 user couldn’t do things like add information to a Wikipedia page and add to encyclopaedia. Furthermore, with the advancement of the web and the release of the web 2.0 other users are now allowed to add more information to the encyclopaedia that has existed on a site. This whole development of the web 2.0 is what gave social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter their breakthrough

Cloud Computing Distributing Networks

The use of cloud distributing network within the web architecture world is something that has increased rapidly within the past few years. This is simply the medium of using a network of remote servers hosted on the internet to store, save, manage and edit data that has been processed. (wikipedia, 2015) The reason why most organisations use this method to control their data is the feature that it has that allows various people on the network to share the same resources.  The main purpose of cloud distributing network is to make sure that information stored at a location can be accessed from various different devices at the same time. Unlike if the data was stored on a personal computer. This type of information sharing also offers security to users due to the fact that the information that is stored on the network server hosted by the internet cannot be affected by physical problem such as the information store broken. An example cloud computing would be the Apple cloud system where data can added and retrieved from anywhere in the world as long as there is an internet connection. You can take a picture on your IPad and it will be retrievable on your IPhone.

Web storage

Web storage is the concept of being able to save, edit and manages files on a web server. Web storage was introduced as a result of the development of Web 2.0. (Wiki, 2015)Web storage allows users to save files, photos and video on web servers for site like Google drive and OneDrive. Users can save their work through these servers and access it on computers anywhere in the world as long as there is an internet connection. An advantage of this is that there is a minimal chance of you losing the work saved unlike pen drive and user areas. On the other hand, the disadvantage is that there is a security risk which is that hackers can gain access to your work if they have the correct malicious tools. Also there is a chance that the provider’s server can go down when you need to access your work. The web 2.0 has also allowed users on OneDrive to share their files saved via a link created.

Packet switching network

Packet switching is a protocol that allows either messages to be sent or sites to be requested through the means of dividing the data being sent into bits of 65KB per packet data. For example when a message is sent from one client to another. The data is not sent all in one go instead the protocol divides the data into packets and equips each packet with an order number so the message arrives in the same order that it was sent and on one end of the packet it stores information of the IP address that the data is coming from and on the other end it stores information on the IP address that the information is going to. The packets then get sent through different packet switch routes in order to reach its destination. Once all the packets have reached its destination they are then recompiled in the original order that the message was sent so the original message can be shown.

The reason why it is better to divide the data into packets is because if the message is sent at once the message will be sent at a slower speed as the size of the packet would be bigger resulting in bad latency and also when the message is sent at once it is more likely for loss of data during the process and when it gets to its destination the message would not be readable because not all data had been sent. (Beal, 2015) Another advantage of packet switching is that the packets can go through different routes, this means that if one packet switch route is not working the packet can re-route to use other working routes in order to get to its destination.

Bibliography

Anon., 2015. Web 2.0. [Online]
Available at: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/W/Web_2_point_0.html
[Accessed 27 11 2015].

Beal, V., 2015. Packet switching. [Online]
Available at: http://www.webopedia.com/TERM/P/packet_switching.html
[Accessed 29 11 2015].

Reilly, T., 2015. Web 2.0. [Online]
Available at: http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/web2/archive/what-is-web-20.html
[Accessed 27 11 2015].

Wiki, 2015. Web storage. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_storage
[Accessed 27 11 2015].

wikipedia, 2015. Cloud computing. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_computing
[Accessed 27 11 2015].

Wikipedia, 2015. HTML-5. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5
[Accessed 29 11 2015].

Wikipedia, 2015. Web 2.0. [Online]
Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0
[Accessed 29 11 2015].

 

U20 P1 HTML VS CSS

CSS vs HTML

Introduction

This document is going to describe how HTML and CSS is used in the role of developing of a site. I will explain what HTML is and how it used when developing a site. I am also going to explain what CSS is and how it is used effectively by web developers. To conclude, I am going to make comparisons between the two site development languages.

HTML

HTML is the generic writing language used for web development it stands for Hyper-text Mark-up Language. HTML it is used to develop web pages. The language helps with the building/creating of the web page. Web developers use HTML for web page creation. Tags such as external links, headings, subheadings and paragraphs are used for specific reasons. The HTML language structure is clearly specified on how to build/create a webpage. HTML helps specifically with the overall structure of the webpage.

CSS

Cascading Style Sheets is a language that is responsible for the presentation of the output of the web page. CSS simply makes the web page easier to understand because it allows a developer to make something bold and to position content on the web page. The language also supports the changing of text colour in order for the web page to look appealing. It helps for the formatting of text.

HTML and CSS are used by developers to make the webpages that they create look more presentable and it promotes the ease of use. CSS helps the development stage easier as you can easily apply a presentation all throughout the script without having to type the CSS code in again. This saves time for the developers.

Comparison and Contrast

The difference between HTML and CSS is that CSS focuses on the styling and the formatting of the webpage. This language mainly works on the styling and the overall look of the webpage that is being developed. The main difference between CSS and HTML is that CSS focuses on features such as font size, font colour, and font type and page layout. CSS cannot be used effectively if HTML is not used to structure the webpage that is being developed so CSS is dependent on HTML.

While HTML is the back bone of the web page that allows developers to structure the web pages in a professional format. HTML will be needed by developers when it is time to input messages, text, videos and website links. The main difference is that HTML is the base of the webpage while CSS is used for the presentation.

Another difference is that HTML allows the developer to make some mistakes when writing the script for the webpage. The HTML will still work if the developer forgets to close some tags but with CSS it doesn’t really give the developer any room to make mistakes.

 

Bibliography

Heng, C. (2015). What is HTML? What are CSS, JavaScript, PHP and Perl? Do I Need to Learn Them to Create a Website? (thesitewizard.com). [online] Thesitewizard.com. Available at: http://www.thesitewizard.com/html-tutorial/what-is-html.shtml [Accessed 5 Nov. 2015].

W3.org, (2014). HTML & CSS - W3C. [online] Available at: http://www.w3.org/standards/webdesign/htmlcss [Accessed 5 Nov. 2015].

W3schools.com, (2015). CSS Tutorial. [online] Available at: http://www.w3schools.com/css/ [Accessed 5 Nov. 2015].

Codecademy, (2015). HTML Basics. [online] Available at: https://www.codecademy.com/courses/web-beginner-en-HZA3b/0/1?curriculum_id=50579fb998b470000202dc8b [Accessed 5 Nov. 2015].

Wikipedia, (2015). HTML. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML [Accessed 5 Nov. 2015].

Bowen, R., 2010. bright hub .com. [Online]
Available at: http://www.brighthub.com/internet/web-development/articles/25619.aspx
[Accessed 26 10 2015].

 

P1 Glossary

Web server

A web server is the hardware part of the system that sends services to end users over the internet. This is where the copy of the web page is held and anyone with a browser can gain access to the information on the web server if it is publicly available and they have the ‘url’. (Techopedia, 2015) For example, when we type in ‘www.google.com’ on our search bar and we click enter the browser request information about google from the web server and the server delivers google to the client.

Mail server

A Mail server is what allows us to send e-mails to each other. The mail server makes sure that the e-mail gets sent to the correct recipient and to no one else. The mail server also allow us to send e-mails to different domains so e.g. yahoo.com can send an email to Hotmail.com. Without this server this would be impossible.

Proxy server

This is a server that acts as a connector to other servers, either for security and speed. Proxy server also have a firewall function where it acts as an intermediary between client network devices on the web so when a client request for information from another network the proxy server mirrors the request and receives the information in a way that stop the other network from knowing the location of the request, this is done to avoid intruders.

Protocol

Protocol is the agreed language that is used to communicate between systems. Protocol allows network devices to make connections with each other and to know when the connection is being made.

Browsers

Browsers is another important aspect of e-commerce, this technology is used to convert the information received from the web server in a visual display. Browsers such as Google chrome are used nowadays to buy and sell online. Features of browsers includes history list so a user can easily find a site they previously visited which had a product they wanted to buy. The layout of browsers also make it easy to navigate around e-commerce sites such as eBay. Browsers cache sites which means that webpages previously visited are stored in the RAM which makes it quicker to load up items that have been visited previously. This comes in handy when you are on eBay and you are switching through seller profiles and you want to go back to a certain one, you can just click on the back button instead of typing in a link for that seller.

TCP/IP addresses

Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol is a standard protocol used by the internet to transmit data over a network. It is important that the computers on the same network use the same protocol or else it will be impossible for data two be transmitted between both parties. The computers on the network are identified through their unique IP address, through this unique number the systems would be able to identify the correct system to send the data to. This means that when we type into our search bar www.argos.com what the browser is actually looking for is an IP address – particular computer on the internet where the Argos site information is saved so that it can be retrieved.

 

 

 Application layer

Application layer which is the highest layer that contains the following protocols:

HTTP – This is used to send out a request to the client in order for data to be transferred. So when you type in google.com this sends a request to the server in order for data to be received by the browser.

HTTPS – This does the same thing as HTTP but the S stands for secure so when you see HTTPS on banking and e-commerce sites it means that the site verified and secure to use.

SMTP – This is the main protocol for transferring of e-mail, this is what most mail domains use to transfer data between them.  Other protocol used regarding receiving and sending of e-mails would include Post Office Protocol 3 (POP3) and Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP).

References

Amazon.com, (2015). Amazon.com General Help Forum. [online] Available at: http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/forums?ie=UTF8&cdForum=Fx2NFGOONPZEXIP&cdThread=Tx36UD4X84IF3P6 [Accessed 9 Oct. 2015].

Darrow, B. (2012). How Oracle (yes Oracle!) helped Amazon suck the cost out of database backup. [online] Gigaom.com. Available at: https://gigaom.com/2012/10/10/how-oracle-yes-oracle-helped-amazon-suck-the-cost-out-of-database-backup/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2015].

Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, (2013). Mobile Technology Fact Sheet. [online] Available at: http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/ [Accessed 9 Oct. 2015].

Techopedia.com, (2015). What is a Web Server? - Definition from Techopedia. [online] Available at: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/4928/web-server [Accessed 9 Oct. 2015].

 

M2 - Notepad vs Komodo Edit - Task 1/6

Introduction

Notepad and komodo edit are both software that can be used to develop webpages. They both have their good and bad aspect. For this reason, this document would be based on the advantages and disadvantages of both komodo and notepad, then based on the pros and cons a conclusion can be derived at which software is most suitable.

Notepad

Notepad is plain text editor that come pre-installed with the operating system Windows. The program can be used for different activities on the computer e.g. you can run batch files on them through command prompt and the fact that it has no format tags means it can be used to develop web pages by adding .html extension when saved.

Advantages of notepad	Disadvantages of notepad
An advantage of notepad is that there is no training needed since the layout is so simple to use. This means that web developers don’t have to spend money on training themselves on how to use the software as it is straightforward. The Microsoft interface that most people are familiar with is another reason why it is easy to use.	A major disadvantage when it comes to notepad is that it is very easy to make errors in the webpage since there is no auto correct and there is no support given in terms of auto complete of html references compared to komodo where it closes the tags for you. Another disadvantage is that you have to already have a browser installed before you can execute the html coding.
Notepad is a free application that comes with your operating system so it helps you save money and it means that you can gain access to it anytime.	Another problem of notepad is that it is only compatible with windows which means that if you tried to open your html on an iMac this would be difficult to do.
The fact that notepad is a pre-installed application means that it is quick to load up and the coding for webpages is executed quickly.	There is not any support given in terms of finding out where you’ve have made a mistake in your html coding if it is not working. This can be difficult for amateur website developers because they wouldn’t be able to find where their mistakes are if the html does not work properly.
Due to the fact that notepad has being available since the earlier version of Windows means that it is a trusted application and it is unlikely to see glitches or viruses run with the program.	Notepad doesn’t give user the opportunity to preview the output webpage of the script while coding. This is a problem because it means that user would not be able to spot mistakes as soon as they make it. So you could be writing a 50 line html and make a mistake halfway and not realise.

 

 

 

 

Komodo Edit

Komodo edit is a program vended by Active State and it is a multi-language editor which makes it compatible with different writing style such as HTML, Python and JavaScript. It is tailored to make webpage development as easy and efficient as possible. It has lots of features to help developers create a good webpage.

Advantages of komodo edit	Disadvantages of komodo edit
Ease of use is strong advantage that komodo edit has due to its formatting where the statements are colour coded, this makes it easy for the user to understand the different part of the scripts . Komodo edit is also an application that is available on most operating system unlike notepad. This makes it easier to use when working in an organisation because you can work on different operating system at work compared to home.	A major disadvantage when it comes to Komodo edit is that the application takes long. This is a problem because when you have a huge html script it is very likely to crash due to the slow speed that the information is being processed.
Auto correct is an available feature so html scripts don’t get executed with mistakes in them. Also suggestion means that tags are used properly and the ones that need a close tag have a close tag i.e <body> </body>	The complexity of the software application makes another disadvantage. The user interface is not simple enough for anyone to just start using the software, you might to go through some tutorials or use the help support.
This software has a good support system that is available in different languages. There are questions and answers so common problems that come up can be resolved by just going to the support area of the software.	Another disadvantage of the software is that before you can use it you’re going to have to install it which can be a problem because it is very easy to download it from an untrusted source which can come with a virus and damage your system.
There is also internal preview of html script available which means that you don’t have to install a browser like chrome before you preview your webpage, also with this feature it is easier to spot mistakes since you can see where you are going wrong as you are developing the page.	The fact that there is also a lot of tabs on the application makes it quite confusing for a beginner. The setting up of template is not easy to understand as well and the wrong template would lead to error being created in the script.

 

Conclusion

It can be concluded that they are both good software applications to use when developing webpages but as a first hand user I believe that komodo edit is better because the application is tailored to developing webpages while notepad can be used for any sort of word processing. Another reason why I think komodo edit is better to use is because of the support that is given and you can learn more about developing webpages from using it because the support pages explain the use of tags and when to use them. Notepad on the other hand doesn’t have this feature.

 

References

Komodoide.com, (2015). Komodo IDE -- One Cross-Platform IDE, All Your Languages. [online] Available at: http://komodoide.com/ [Accessed 8 Oct. 2015].

Notepad-plus-plus.org, (2015). Notepad++ Home. [online] Available at: https://notepad-plus-plus.org/ [Accessed 5 Oct. 2015].

Wikipedia, (2015). Komodo Edit. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Komodo_Edit [Accessed 6 Oct. 2015].

Wikipedia, (2015). Notepad (software). [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Notepad_(software) [Accessed 6 Oct. 2015].