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What Browsers Do
When you enter a web address (URL) into your browser it checks to see whether what you asked for is on your own computer (local) or out on the internet somewhere (remote) and asks the computer that has the information requested to send it. If it is on your computer this is easy. If it is a computer on the internet, the browser has to figure out where the computer to ask is, see When your browser gets the requested resource, it checks whether it is of a content type that it can handle itself - such as HTML, text, and certain types of image files. If not, it checks to see if it knows what program can handle that content type - such as a Macromedia Flash player, Real Audio plugin, Microsoft Office, etc. If it still doesn't know what to do, it will usually ask you what to use or return an error message. If the content is a web page, the web page will usually contain references to other content stored in other files such as images, JavaScript, or CSS. Your browser will check for these and send a separate request out to retrieve each of these files. If you have recently visited this site, you may still have copies of these files stored in your cache ( Temporary Internet Files). If you do, and the browser thinks that they are up-to-date, then it will reuse those files instead of sending out new internet requests. If the web page contains links, browsers won't go fetch all of those files when they load the page. They will only do that when you follow (click on) a link. Because browsers can look at local files, you can practice writing and viewing your web pages on your own computer. To view local files you can use the Open command in the File menu of your browser, or even simpler - with most common home operating systems and browsers you can simply drag and drop the webpage file into an open browser window. To show someone else to see your work, or for you to see it from another computer, you will need to be publish it by uploading it to a web server. Any images, JavaScript, CSS, or other files referenced in your page will need to be uploaded to the server also. |
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