Typical Transaction

The simplest form of a Web transaction is this:

Client browser specifies a URL (Uniform Resource Locator) of the form

http://system_name/document/path

where /document/path is the name of a document on the Web server system named system_name. The user could do this by clicking on a hypertext link that specified that URL or by entering the URL manually into the browser.

The server on system.name translates the document/path to a real path on one of its local file systems. The server only has access to a document tree that is defined as part of the local file system.

The server then sends the entire file containing the document back to the client system where it is displayed by the client's browser.

This simple form of transaction supports the serving of a wide variety of information in text, graphic, audio and other forms, including bulk file transfers of binary data such as programs or program fixes.

Reducing the Cost of Doing Business [Previous][Next]