Unit 1: Introduction to the Web

What is the World Wide Web?

  • Invented by Tim Berners-Lee at CERN (1989)
  • A system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet
  • Key enabling technologies: HTTP, HTML, CSS, JavaScript

The HTTP Protocol

HTTP follows a request-response model between client and server. Every interaction begins with a client request and ends with a server response.

GET /index.html HTTP/1.1
Host: www.example.com
Accept: text/html

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/html
Content-Length: 1234

URLs & Resources

A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) identifies a resource on the Web.

  • Scheme: https://
  • Host: www.example.com
  • Path: /products/item
  • Query: ?id=42
Unit 2: HTML5 & Semantic Markup

HTML Document Structure

Every HTML document follows a defined structure with a DOCTYPE, a <head> (metadata) and a <body> (visible content).

<!DOCTYPE html>
<html lang="en">
  <head>
    <meta charset="UTF-8">
    <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0">
    <title>My Page</title>
  </head>
  <body>
    <h1>Hello World!</h1>
  </body>
</html>

Semantic Elements

Semantic HTML conveys meaning about the content:

  • <header> — introductory content or navigation
  • <nav> — navigation links
  • <main> — dominant content of the page
  • <article> — self-contained composition
  • <section> — thematic grouping
  • <footer> — footer for its nearest ancestor