How Do Web Browsers Work

How do web browsers work?
A web browser takes you anywhere on the internet. It retrieves information from
other parts of the web and displays it on your desktop or mobile device. The
information is transferred using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, which defines
how text, images and video are transmitted on the web. This information needs
to be shared and displayed in a consistent format so that people using any
browser, anywhere in the world can see the information.
A browser is a software application used to locate, retrieve and display content

on the World Wide Web, including Web pages, images, video and other files. As
a client/server model, the browser is the client run on a computer that contacts
the Web server and requests information. The Web server sends the information
back to the Web browser which displays the results on the computer or other
Internet-enabled device that supports a browser.
A browser is a group of structured codes which together performs a series of

tasks to display a web page on the screen. According to the tasks they perform,
these codes are made as different components.
High-level architecture of browser
The below image shows the main components of a web browser:

Main components of the browser
1. The User Interface: The user interface is the space where User interacts
with the browser. It includes the address bar, back and next buttons, home
button, refresh and stop, bookmark option, etc. Every other part, except the
window where requested web page is displayed, comes under it.
2. The Browser Engine: The browser engine works as a bridge between the
User interface and the rendering engine. According to the inputs from
various user interfaces, it queries and manipulates the rendering engine.
3. The Rendering Engine: The rendering engine, as the name suggests is

responsible for rendering the requested web page on the browser screen. The
rendering engine interprets the HTML, XML documents and images that are
formatted using CSS and generates the layout that is displayed in the User
Interface. However, using plugins or extensions, it can display other types
data also. Different browsers user different rendering engines:
* Internet Explorer: Trident
* Firefox & other Mozilla browsers: Gecko
* Chrome & Opera 15+: Blink
* Chrome (iPhone) & Safari: Webkit
4. Networking: Component of the browser which retrieves the URLs using the
common internet protocols of HTTP or FTP. The networking component
handles all aspects of Internet communication and security. The network
component may implement a cache of retrieved documents in order to
reduce network traffic.
5. JavaScript Interpreter: It is the component of the browser which interprets

and executes the javascript code embedded in a website. The interpreted
results are sent to the rendering engine for display. If the script is external
then first the resource is fetched from the network. Parser keeps on hold until
the script is executed.
6. UI Backend: UI backend is used for drawing basic widgets like combo

boxes and windows. This backend exposes a generic interface that is not
platform specific. It underneath uses operating system user interface
methods.
7. Data Persistence/Storage: This is a persistence layer. Browsers support

storage mechanisms such as localStorage, IndexedDB, WebSQL and
FileSystem. It is a small database created on the local drive of the computer
where the browser is installed. It manages user data such as cache, cookies,
bookmarks and preferences.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VEDjg9zGEk
WEB SERVER
A web server is software and hardware that uses HTTP (Hypertext Transfer
Protocol) and other protocols to respond to client requests made over the World
Wide Web. The main job of a web server is to display website content through
storing, processing and delivering webpages to users. Besides HTTP, web
servers also support SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) and FTP (File
Transfer Protocol), used for email, file transfer and storage.
Web server hardware is connected to the internet and allows data to be

exchanged with other connected devices, while web server software controls
how a user accesses hosted files. The web server process is an example of
the client/server model. All computers that host websites must have web server
software.
Web servers are used in web hosting, or the hosting of data for websites and
web-based applications -- or web applications.
How do web servers work?

Web server software is accessed through the domain names of websites and
ensures the delivery of the site's content to the requesting user. The software
side is also comprised of several components, with at least an HTTP server. The
HTTP server is able to understand HTTP and URLs. As hardware, a web server
is a computer that stores web server software and other files related to a
website, such as HTML documents, images and JavaScript files.
When a web browser, like Google Chrome or Firefox, needs a file that's hosted
on a web server, the browser will request the file by HTTP. When the request is
received by the web server, the HTTP server will accept the request, find the
content and send it back to the browser through HTTP.
More specifically, when a browser requests a page from a web server, the
process will follow a series of steps. First, a person will specify a URL in a web
browser's address bar. The web browser will then obtain the IP address of the
domain name -- either translating the URL through DNS (Domain Name
System) or by searching in its cache. This will bring the browser to a web
server. The browser will then request the specific file from the web server by an
HTTP request. The web server will respond, sending the browser the requested
page, again, through HTTP. If the requested page does not exist or if something
goes wrong, the web server will respond with an error message. The browser
will then be able to display the webpage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rhFU_gJ6XQ

How Do Web Browsers Work

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How Do Web Browsers Work

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How do web browsers work?

A browser is a software application used to locate, retrieve and display content

A browser is a group of structured codes which together performs a series of

High-level architecture of browser

The below image shows the main components of a web browser:

3. The Rendering Engine: The rendering engine, as the name suggests is

5. JavaScript Interpreter: It is the component of the browser which interprets

6. UI Backend: UI backend is used for drawing basic widgets like combo

7. Data Persistence/Storage: This is a persistence layer. Browsers support

Web server hardware is connected to the internet and allows data to be

How do web servers work?

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