Helpful terms and concepts to know for interacting with the Internet.
The internet is essentially a global framework of networks that can communicate with any number of remote devices. The internet contains multitudes of information and tools for clients including documents, applications, e-mail, file sharing, and of course, TikTok videos wherein cat owners take advantage of their pets for fame and don’t pay them a fair wage for their labor. Here are a few terms and concepts you’ll need to be familiar with before introducing your remote project to the complex structure of the internet.
The Request-Response Cycle, or “Loop” is essentially how a user’s requests (“clicks” or any actions taken to receive specific information) flow through an application.
- Request: what you ask the server to do for you.
- GET Requests are those that your application uses to facilitate the user receiving, “reading” information.
- POST Requests are essentially those that the user makes in order to create an entry with an application, like a blog post or an instagram post.
2. Client: the person (“user”) or bot that makes a request to the server via the application.
3. Server: the destination of the request, where the request goes in order to retrieve/send the information.
4. API (Application Programming Interface): a software intermediary, essentially an external database, that helps applications interact with each other and use one another’s information.
- an API defines the kinds of calls or requests that can be made, how to format the requests, and the ways in which the data sent or received should be formatted.
- they solve issues of security and database complexity, by only sending/receiving specific inquiry information.
- an API Key is a required bit of information containing credentials, verification, fees for a given request etc. that is meant to provide specific details in exchange for an API’s information. They are unique to both user and interface.
5. HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol): a means with which servers and web browsers communicate with one another.
- protocols or contracts are essentially conversations between browsers and servers to transfer specific information.
- the server will get requests from the browser that follow HTTP then respond in an HTTP response that all browsers are able to parse. This is essentially the language that browsers speak.
6. URI: a website identifier resource.
7. URL: a specific type of URI, that gives information on how to locate a resource.
- URLs have three parts:
1) http:// ← the protocol (the means by which we’re sending the request)
2) google.com. ← the domain (a string of characters that identifies the unique server location of a particular website)
3) /home ← the resource (the part of a website, the path, we want to load)
8. JSON: JSON(JavaScript Object Notation) is a data-interchangeble notation that employs human-readable text to hold and transfer data objects stored in attribute-value pairs and arrays.
- everything on the internet is sent (in its response) as a String. and then parsed into a JSON sequence.
- it can be then translated by the browser into a navigable user interface display.
9. Status Codes: codes that communicate the success or failure of a web page load.
- 100s = informational
- 200s = successful
- 300s = redirect
- 400s = error (client-side)
- 500s = server error (host-side)
10. Static Applications: static web apps’ content doesn’t change unless someone opens up an HTML file and modifies its content. Mostly informative and no interactive user interface.
11. Dynamic Applications: dynamic web apps’ content changes based on user input via the interface (think Instagram, Medium)
- the flow of request-response changes based on whether or not the application is static or dynamic.
