WSD - MSc-IT 2nd sem

The Web vs. the Internet

There is an often-overlooked distinction between the Web and the Internet. The line
between the two is often blurred, partially because theWeb is rooted in the fundamental
protocols associated with the Internet. Today, the lines are even more blurred, as
notions of the Web go beyond the boundaries of pages delivered to Web browsers,

THE ORIGINS OF THE WEB

Tim Berners-Lee originally promoted theWorldWideWeb as a virtual library, a
document
control system for sharing information resources among researchers. Online
documents could be accessed via a unique document address, a Universal Resource
Locator (URL). These documents could be cross-referenced via hypertext links.

Hypertext
Ted Nelson, father of the Xanadu Project, coined the term hypertext over 30 years
ago, as a way of describing non-sequential writingtext that branches and allows
choice to the reader. Unlike the static text of print media, it is intended for use with
an interactive computer screen. It is open, fluid and mutable, and can be connected to
other pieces of hypertext by links.
The term was extended under the name hypermedia to refer not only to text, but to
other media as well, including graphics, audio, and video. However, the original term
hypertext persists as the label for technology that connects documents and information
resources through links.

Internet Protocols are the Foundation of Web Technology

It should be noted that the Web did not come into existence in a vacuum. The Web is
built on top of core Internet protocols that had been in existence for many years prior to
the Webs inception. Understanding the relationship between Web technology and the
underlying Internet protocols is fundamental to the design and implementation of true
Web applications. In fact, it is the exploitation of that relationship that distinguishes
a Web page or Web site from a Web application.

FROM WEB PAGES TO WEB SITES

The explosively exponential growth of the Web can at least partially be attributed to
its grass roots proliferation as a tool for personal publishing. The fundamental
technology
behind the Web is relatively simple. A computer connected to the Internet,
running a Web server, was all that was necessary to serve documents. Both CERN
and the National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA) at the University
of Illinois had developed freely available Web server software. A small amount of
HTML knowledge (and the proper computing resources) got you something that
could be called a Web site.

FROM WEB SITES TO WEB APPLICATIONS

Initially, what people shared over the Internet consisted mostly of static information
found in files. They might edit these files and update their content, but there were
few truly dynamic information services on the Internet. Granted, there were a few

exceptions: search applications for finding files found on FTP archives and Gopher
servers; and services that provided dynamic information directly, like the weather,
or the availability of cans from a soda dispensing machine. (One of the first Web
applications that Tim Berners-Lee demonstrated at CERN was a gateway for looking
up numbers from a phone book database using a Web browser.)

Definition of a Web Application

What is a Web application? By definition, it is something more than just a Web site.
It is a client/server application that uses a Web browser as its client program, and performs
an interactive service by connecting with servers over the Internet (or Intranet).
A Web site simply delivers content from static files. A Web application presents
dynamically tailored content based on request parameters, tracked user behaviors, and
security considerations.

Web page design resources

For Web page design, there is a variety of books available. Beyond the tutorial
books that purport to teach HTML, JavaScript, and CGI scripting overnight, there
are some good books discussing the deeper issues associated with designing Web
pages. One of the better choices is The Non-DesignersWeb Book by RobinWilliams
(not the comedian). Williams books are full of useful information and guidelines
for those constructing Web pages, especially those not explicitly schooled in design
or typography.

Web site design resources

When it comes to Web sites, there are far fewer resources available. Information
Architecture for the World Wide Web, by Louis Rosenfeld and Peter Morville, was
one of the rare books covering the issues of designing Web sites as opposed to Web
pages. It is unfortunately out of print

Web application design resources

When we examined the current literature available on the subject of Web application
development, we found there were three main categories of books currently
available.
Technical Overviews. The first category is the technical overview. These books
are usually at a very high level, describing terminology and technology in broad
terms. They do not go into enough detail to enable the reader to design and
build serious Web applications. They are most often intended for managers and
executives who want a surface understanding of the terminology without going
too deeply into specific application development issues. Frequently, they attempt
to cover technology in huge brushstrokes, so that you see books whose focus is
simply Java, XML, or The Web.
Such books approach the spectrum of technology so broadly that the coverage
of any specific area is too shallow to be significant. Serious application developers
usually find these books far too superficial to be of any use to them.
In-Depth Technical Resources. The second category is comprised of in-depth
technical resources for developing Web applications using specific platforms.
The books in this category provide in-depth coverage of very narrow areas,
concentrating on the how-tos of using a particular language or platform without

explaining what is going on under the hood. While such books may be
useful in teaching programmers to develop applications for a specific platform,
they provide little or no information about the underlying technologies, focusing
instead on the platform-specific implementation of those technologies. Should
developers be called upon to rewrite an application for another platform, the
knowledge they acquired from reading these books would rarely be transferable
to that new platform.
Given the way Web technology changes so rapidly, todays platform of choice
is tomorrows outdated legacy system. When new development platforms emerge,
developers without a fundamental understanding of the inner workings of Web
applications have to learn their inner workings from the ground up, because
they lacked an understanding of first principlesof what the systems they wrote
really did. Thus, the ability to use fundamental technological knowledge across
platforms is critical.
Reference Books. These form a third category. Such books are useful, naturally,
as references, but not for the purpose of learning about the technology.
What we found lacking was a book that provides an in-depth examination of
the basic concepts and general principles of Web application development. Such

Principles of web application design

What do we mean when we discuss the general principles that need to be understood
to properly design and develop Web applications?
We mean the core set of protocols and languages associated with Web applications.
This includes, of course, HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) and HTML
(HyperText Markup Language), which are fundamental to the creation and
transmission
of Web pages. It also includes the older Internet protocols like Telnet and
FTP, protocols used for message transfer like SMTP and IMAP, plus advanced
protocols
and languages like XML. Additionally, it includes knowledge of databases
and multimedia presentation, since many sophisticated Web applications make use
of these technologies extensively.
The ideal Web application architect must in some sense be a jack of all trades.
People who design Web applications must understand not only HTTP and HTML,
but the other underlying Internet protocols as well. They must be familiar with
JavaScript, XML, relational databases, graphic design and multimedia. They must
be well versed in application server technology, and have a strong background in
information architecture. If you find people with all these qualifications, please let us
knowwe would love to hire them! Rare is the person who can not only architect
a Web site, but also design the graphics, create the database schema, produce the
multimedia programs, and configure the e-commerce transactions.

Before the Web: TCP/IP

In this chapter, we examine the core Internet protocols that make up the TCP/IP
protocol suite, which is the foundation for Web protocols, discussed in the next
chapter. We begin with a brief historical overview of the forces that led to the
creation of TCP/IP. We then go over the layers of the TCP/IP stack, and show where
various protocols fit into it. Our description of the client-server paradigm used by
TCP/IP applications is followed by a discussion of the various TCP/IP application

services, including Telnet, electronic mail, message forums, live messaging, and
file servers.

The client/server paradigm

TCP/IP applications tend to operate according to the client/server paradigm. This
simply means that, in these applications, servers (also called services and daemons,
depending on the language of the underlying operating system) execute by
(1) waiting for requests from client programs to arrive, and then (2) processing
those requests.

Telnet
The Telnet protocol operates within the Application layer. It was developed to
support Network Virtual Terminal functionality, which means the ability to log in
to a remote machine over the Internet. The latest specification for the Telnet protocol
is defined in Internet RFC 854.
Remember that before the advent of personal computers, access to computing
power was limited to those who could connect to a larger server or mainframe
computer, either through a phone dialup line or through a direct local connection.
Whether you phoned in remotely or sat down at a terminal directly connected to
the server, you used a command-line interface to log in. You connected to a single
system and your interactions were limited to that system.
With the arrival of Internet services, you could use the Telnet protocol to log
in remotely to other systems that were accessible over the Internet. As mentioned
earlier, Telnet clients are configured by default to connect to port 23 on the server
machine, but the target port number can be over-ridden in most client programs.
This means you can use a Telnet client program to connect and talk to any TCP
server by knowing its address and its port number.

Electronic mail
Electronic mail, or e-mail, was probably the first killer app in what we now call
cyberspace. Since the net had its roots in military interests, naturally the tone of
electronic mail started out being formal, rigid, and business-like. But once the body
of people using e-mail expanded, and once these people realized what it could be
used for, things lightened up quite a bit.

SMTP
SMTP stands for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol. As an application layer protocol,
SMTP normally runs on top of TCP, though it can theoretically use any underlying
transport protocol. The application called sendmail is an implementation of the
SMTP protocol for UNIX systems. The latest specification for the SMTP protocol
is defined in Internet RFC 821, and the structure of SMTP messages is defined in
Internet RFC 822.

POP
POP, the Post Office Protocol, gives users direct access to their e-mail messages
stored on remote systems. POP3 is the most recent version of the POP protocol.
Most of the popular e-mail clients (including Eudora, Microsoft Outlook, and
Netscape Messenger) use POP3 to access user e-mail. (Even proprietary systems
like Lotus Notes offer administrators the option to configure remote e-mail access
through POP.) POP3 was first defined in Internet RFC 1725, but was revised in
Internet RFC 1939.

Message forums
Message forums are online services that allow users to write messages to be posted
on the equivalent of an electronic bulletin board, and to read similar messages that
others have posted. These messages are usually organized into categories so that
people can find the kinds of messages they are looking for.
For years, online message forums existed in various forms.

File servers
E-mail and live messaging services represent fleeting, transitory communications
over the Internet. Once an instant message or e-mail message has been read, it is
usually discarded. Even forum-based messages, even if they are archived,

FTP
An FTP server operates in a manner similar to an e-mail server. Commands exist to
authenticate the connecting user, provide the user with information about available
files, and allow the user to retrieve selected files. However, e-mail servers let you
access only a preset collection of folders (like the inbox), solely for purposes of
downloading message files. FTP servers also allow users to traverse to different
directories within the servers local file system, and (if authorized) to upload files
into those directories.

Birth of the World Wide Web: HTTP

The main subject of this chapter is the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP). We
begin with a short foray into the history of the World Wide Web, followed by a
discussion of its core components, with the focus on HTTP. No matter how Web
technology evolves in the future, it will always be important to understand the basic
protocols that enable communication between Web programs. This understanding is
critical because it provides important insights into the inner workings of the wide
range of Web applications.

HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
For all practical purposes, it all started at CERN back in 1989. That is when Tim
Berners-Lee wrote a proposal for a hypertext-based information management
system,
and distributed this proposal among the scientists at CERN. Although initially
interest in the proposal was limited, it sparked the interest of someone else at CERN,
Robert Cailliau, who helped Berners-Lee reformat and redistribute the proposal,

referring to the system as a World Wide Web.

By the end of 1990, Berners-Lee had implemented a server and a command-line
browser using the initial version of the HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) that
he designed for this system. By the middle of 1991, this server and browser were
made available throughout CERN. Soon thereafter, the software was made available
for anonymous FTP download on the Internet. Interest in HTTP and the Web grew,
and many people downloaded the software. A newsgroup, comp.infosystems.www,
was created to support discussion of this new technology.
Just one year later, at the beginning of 1993, there were about 50 different sites
running HTTP servers. This number grew to 200 by the autumn of that year. In
addition, since the specification for the HTTP protocol was openly available

BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE WEB

There were three basic components devised by Tim Berners-Lee comprising the
essence of Web technology:
1. A markup language for formatting hypertext documents.
2. A uniform notation scheme for addressing accessible resources over the network.
3. A protocol for transporting messages over the network.
The markup language that allowed cross-referencing of documents via hyperlinks was
the HyperText Markup Language (HTML).We shall discuss HTML in a later chapter.
The uniform notation scheme is called the Uniform Resource Identifier (URI).
For historic reasons, it is most often referred to as the Uniform Resource Locator
(URL). We shall cover the fundamentals of the URL specification in Section 3.3.
HTTP is a core foundation of the World Wide Web. It was designed for transporting
specialized messages over the network. The simplicity of the protocol does not
always apply to HTTP interactions, which are complicated in the context of
sophisticated
Web applications. This will become apparent when we discuss the complex
interactions between HTML, XML, and web server technologies (e.g. servlets and
Java Server Pages).
Understanding of HTTP is just as critical in maintaining complex applications.
You will realize it the first time you try to analyze and troubleshoot an elusive
problem. Understanding the HTTP messages passed between servers, proxies and
browsers leads to deeper insights into the nature of underlying problems.

THE UNIFORM RESOURCE LOCATOR

Tim Berners-Lee knew that one piece of the Web puzzle would be a notation scheme
for referencing accessible resources anywhere on the Internet. He devised this
notational
scheme so that it would be flexible, so that it would be extensible, and so that
it would support other protocols besides HTTP. This notational scheme is known
as the URL or Uniform Resource Locator.

FUNDAMENTALS OF HTTP
HTTP is the foundation protocol of the World Wide Web. It is simple, which is
both a limitation and a source of strength. Many people in the industry criticized
HTTP for its lack of state support and limited functionality, but HTTP took the

world by storm while more advanced and sophisticated protocols never realized
their potential.
HTTP is an application level protocol in the TCP/IP protocol suite, using TCP
as the underlying Transport Layer protocol for transmitting messages. The
fundamental
things worth knowing about the HTTP protocol and the structure of HTTP
messages are:
1. The HTTP protocol uses the request/response paradigm, meaning that an HTTP
client program sends an HTTP request message to an HTTP server, which returns
an HTTP response message.
2. The structure of request and response messages is similar to that of e-mail
messages;
they consist of a group of lines containing message headers, followed by
a blank line, followed by a message body.
3. HTTP is a stateless protocol, meaning that it has no explicit support for the
notion of state. An HTTP transaction consists of a single request from a client
to a server, followed by a single response from the server back to the client.
In the next few sections, we will elaborate on these fundamental aspects of the
HTTP protocol.

HTTP servers, browsers, and proxies

Web servers and browsers exchange information using HTTP, which is why Web
servers are often called HTTP servers. Similarly, Web browsers are sometimes
referred to as HTTP clients, but their functionality is not limited to HTTP support.
It was Tim Berners-Lees intent that web browsers should enable access to a wide
variety of content, not just content accessible via HTTP. Thus, even the earliest
web browsers were designed to support other protocols including FTP and Gopher.
Today, web browsers support not only HTTP, FTP, and local file access, but e-mail
and netnews as well.
HTTP proxies are programs that act as both servers and clients, making requests
to web servers on behalf of other clients. Proxies enable HTTP transfers across
firewalls. They also provide support for caching of HTTP messages and filtering
of HTTP requests. They also fill a variety of other interesting roles in complex
environments.
When we refer to HTTP clients, the statements we make are applicable to
browsers, proxies, and other custom HTTP client programs.

Web Browsers
In this chapter, we go over the fundamental considerations in designing and building
a Web browser, as well as other sophisticated Web clients. When discussing Web
browsers, our focus will not be on the graphical aspects of browser functionality
(i.e. the layout of pages, the rendering of images). Instead, we shall concentrate
on the issues associated with the processing of HTTP requests and responses. The
value of this knowledge will become apparent as we proceed to our discussion of
more sophisticated Web applications.

JavaScript
JavaScript is used in millions of Web pages to improve the design, validate forms, detect
browsers, create cookies, and much more.
JavaScript is the most popular scripting language on the internet, and works in all major
browsers, such as Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Firefox, Netscape, and Opera.

What You Should Already Know

Before you continue you should have a basic understanding of the following:

HTML / XHTML

If you want to study these subjects first, find the tutorials on our Home page.

What

is JavaScript?
JavaScript was designed to add interactivity to HTML pages
JavaScript is a scripting language
A scripting language is a lightweight programming language
A JavaScript consists of lines of executable computer code
A JavaScript is usually embedded directly into HTML pages
JavaScript is an interpreted language (means that scripts execute without preliminary
compilation)
Everyone can use JavaScript without purchasing a license

Are Java and JavaScript the Same?

NO!
Java and JavaScript are two completely different languages in both concept and design!
Java (developed by Sun Microsystems) is a powerful and much more complex programming language - in the same category
as C and C++.

What can a JavaScript Do?

JavaScript gives HTML designers a programming tool - HTML authors are normally
not programmers, but JavaScript is a scripting language with a very simple syntax! Almost
anyone can put small "snippets" of code into their HTML pages

JavaScript can put dynamic text into an HTML page - A JavaScript statement like this:
document.write("<h1>" + name + "</h1>") can write a variable text into an HTML page
JavaScript can react to events - A JavaScript can be set to execute when something
happens, like when a page has finished loading or when a user clicks on an HTML element
JavaScript can read and write HTML elements - A JavaScript can read and change the
content of an HTML element
JavaScript can be used to validate data - A JavaScript can be used to validate form
data before it is submitted to a server. This saves the server from extra processing
JavaScript can be used to detect the visitor's browser - A JavaScript can be used to
detect the visitor's browser, and - depending on the browser - load another page specifically
designed for that browser
JavaScript can be used to create cookies - A JavaScript can be used to store and
retrieve information on the visitor's computer

The Real Name is ECMAScript

JavaScript's official name is "ECMAScript". The standard is developed and maintained by the ECMA organisation.
ECMA-262 is the official JavaScript standard. The standard is based on JavaScript (Netscape) and JScript (Microsoft).
The language was invented by Brendan Eich at Netscape (with Navigator 2.0), and has appeared in all Netscape and Microsoft
browsers since 1996.
The development of ECMA-262 started in 1996, and the first edition of was adopted by the ECMA General Assembly in June
1997.
The standard was approved as an international ISO (ISO/IEC 16262) standard in 1998.
The development of the standard is still in progress

DYNAMIC - HTML
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and JavaScript Style Sheets used in
concert with
Scripting is what puts the dynamism in Dynamic HTML. It allows you to
precisely format, embellish, and position the content in your
documents instead of acquiescing to the whims of each browser's
rendering choices. You can also create documents that change by
themselves, or in response to user interaction, and have inline
animations contained within them. Inline is the key word here because
that means faster downloading and no plug-ins to load or have
compatibility issues with or annoy the user because, if after
downloading
seventy-five plug-ins, the one for your content isn't on his/her system.
It also means that
you can have an image that not only animates but can move around
the page instead of
being confined to a stationary rectangular space.
You embellish your content by making stylistic choices that affect the
color, size,
font face, boldness, and other aspects of text markup, and you can
create margins and

borders for your text. Then you can position your content exactly
where you want it to
appear in the page instead of the old inline flow method. Transparent
and opaque blocks
of content are now possible which you can change, move, resize, make
appear or disappear on-the-fly, or respond to user input. If so inclined,
you could let each user custom design how the website will appear for
them.
Time will definitely be saved if you have a particular style that you
want to use for
your whole site or section of it by creating the Style Sheet just once
and saving it in its own file and then accessing it multiple times with
one line of code. You just LINK to the Style Sheet when you want it to
apply to that specific page.
The text layout paradigm of Style Sheets has been directly ported from
the desktop
publishing world where programs like QuarkXpress have had Style
Sheets for years. If
you are familiar with that then you're already halfway home to
understanding Cascading
Style Sheets in HTML. There are two main differences between Style
Sheets as used in
Quark and those used in Navigator. The first is that in Quark you are
working in a
WYSIWYG environment so you just make your choices from radio
buttons, text-boxes, and pop-up menus in a dialog window and then
Quark does all the post-script coding for you. In HTML with Cascading
Style Sheets you have to do the coding yourself but you're doing the
same thing to your content and you get very similar results. In fact,
getting HTML pages to behave more like documents in the publishing
world is half the point. The other difference, and this one goes way
beyond desktop publishing, is the dynamic and interactive aspects of
Cascading Style Sheets.
When you use the <STYLE> Element, you have to declare with the TYPE Attribute
which type of Style Sheet it is, either TYPE="text/CSS" or TYPE="text/JavaScript".
For the purposes of clarity and brevity CSS syntax (Cascading Style Sheet syntax)
refers to syntax declared as:
TYPE="text/CSS"
When the term JavaScript syntax is used it refers to syntax declared as:
TYPE="text/JavaScript"

E-Commerce
What is e-commerce?
Electronic commerce or e-commerce refers to a wide range of online business
activities
for products and services.1 It also pertains to any form of business transaction in
which the parties interact electronically rather than by physical exchanges or direct

physical contact.2
E-commerce is usually associated with buying and selling over the Internet, or
conducting
any transaction involving the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods or
services through a computer-mediated network.3 Though popular, this definition is
not comprehensive enough to capture recent developments in this new and
revolutionary
business phenomenon. A more complete definition is: E-commerce is the
use of electronic communications and digital information processing technology in
business transactions to create, transform, and redefine relationships for value
creation
between or among organizations, and between organizations and individuals.4
Is e-commerce the same as e-business?
While some use e-commerce and e-business interchangeably, they are distinct
concepts.
In e-commerce, information and communications technology (ICT) is used in
inter-business or inter-organizational transactions (transactions between and among
firms/organizations) and in business-to-consumer transactions (transactions between
firms/organizations and individuals).
In e-business, on the other hand, ICT is used to enhance ones business. It includes
any process that a business organization (either a for-profit, governmental
or non-profit entity) conducts over a computer-mediated network. A more
comprehensive
definition of e-business is: The transformation of an organizations processes to
deliver additional customer value through the application of technologies,
philosophies
and computing paradigm of the new economy.
What are the different types of e-commerce?
The major different types of e-commerce are: business-to-business (B2B); businesstoconsumer (B2C); business-to-government (B2G); consumer-to-consumer (C2C);
and mobile commerce (m-commerce).
What is B2B e-commerce?
B2B e-commerce is simply defined as e-commerce between companies. This is the
type of e-commerce that deals with relationships between and among businesses.
About 80% of e-commerce is of this type, and most experts predict that B2B
ecommerce
will continue to grow faster than the B2C segment.
How are business relationships transformed through e-commerce?
E-commerce transforms old economy relationships (vertical/linear relationships) to
new economy relationships characterized by end-to-end relationship management
solutions (integrated or extended relationships).
How does e-commerce link customers, workers, suppliers, distributors and
competitors?
E-commerce facilitates organization networks, wherein small firms depend on
partner
firms for supplies and product distribution to address customer demands more
effectively.

XML
What is XML?

XML: eXtensible Markup Language

XML is a framework for defining markup languages:
l there is no fixed collection of markup tags - we may define our
own tags,
tailored for our kind of information
l each XML language is targeted at its own application domain, but the
languages will share many features
l there is a common set of generic tools for processing documents
XML is not a replacement for HTML:
l HTML should ideally be just another XML language
l in fact, XHTML is just that
l XHTML is a (very popular) XML language for hypertext markup
XML is designed to:
l separate syntax from semantics to provide a common framework
for
structuring information (browser rendering semantics is completely
defined
by stylesheets);
l allow tailor-made markup for any imaginable application domain
l support internationalization (Unicode) and platform
independence
l be the future of structured information, including databases
17
Abstract
This paper gives an overview of XML and XSL, and presents three approaches for processing XML
documents. It also gives brief details of how XML is being used in some final year projects at the
University of Durham.
1
XML
1.1
What is XML?
Although originally HTML was a language in which much of the details of how a WWW
page was displayed by a browser was left to the browser to decide, over the years, HTML
has evolved so that the author has more and more control over the appearance of a page.
This means that a WWW page is an intermingling mix of text giving the data to be
displayed together with other text describing how it is to be displayed.
<table border=1>
<tr>
<td><b>inkjet cartridges</b></td>
<td><em>HP Deskjet print cartridge 51645A</em></td>

<td bgcolor="yellow">19.50</td>
</tr>
...
</table>
XML is another markup language. However, an XML document does not usually contain
presentation details: instead, it is just used to describe data. And the tags of the language
are chosen by the author of the document rather than being determined by the language.
For this reason, it is called the eXtensible Markup Language:
<consumables>
<product>
<category>inkjet cartridges</category>
<item>HP Deskjet print cartridge 51645A</item>
<price>19.50</price>
</product>
...
</consumables>
The WWW page
http://www.dur.ac.uk/barry.cornelius/java/xml.processing/cod
e/consumables.xml contains a complete XML document. Elsewhere in this paper, a
URL like this will be abbreviated to CODE/consumables.xml, where CODE is an
abbreviation of
http://www.dur.ac.uk/barry.cornelius/java/xml.processing/cod
e.
1.2

Some jargon

Here is some jargon:

<price>19.50</price>
is called an element. It is introduced by a start tag. In this example, the start tag is:
<price>
And it is terminated by an end tag:
</price>
A start tag may have one or more attributes as in:
<price units="pounds" country="UK">19.50</price>
An element may be empty as in:
<price amount="19.50"></price>

and this can be abbreviated to:

<price amount="19.50"/>

Another example is:

<unknown_price></unknown_price>

and this can be abbreviated to:

<unknown_price/>

The main goals of XML

As I see it, there are three main goals of XML:
1. 1. To provide a language that just describes some data. If it is necessary to
describe how this data is to be displayed (and in some situations this is not the
case), then this is described in a separate document.
2. 2. To allow the author to use their own tags. In this way, it is possible for an
author to choose tags that are appropriate to the data.
3. 3. To insist on the language being used in a correct manner rather than being
tolerant, e.g.,
o
o
each start tag must have an end tag;
o
o
the values of attributes must be quoted.

ASP
To participate in the Web application world, Microsoft developed Active
Server Pages (ASP). ASP was a quick and easy way to develop Web
pages. ASP pages consisted of a single page that contained a mix of
markup and languages. The power of ASP was that you could include
VBScript or JScript code instructions in the page executed on the Web
server before the page was sent to the end users Web browser. This
was an easy way to create dynamic Web pages customized based on
parameters dictated by the
developer. ASP used script between brackets and percentage signs<
% %>to control server-side behaviors. A developer could then build
an ASP page by starting with a set of static HTML. Any dynamic
element

needed by the page was defined using a scripting language (such as

VBScript or JScript). When a user requested the page from the server
by using a browser, the asp.dll (an ISAPI application that provided
a bridge between the scripting language and the Web server) would
take hold of the page and define all the dynamic aspects of the page
on-the-fly based on the programming logic specified in the script. After
all the dynamic aspects of the page were defined, the result was an
HTML page output to the browser of the requesting client.