Web document
Encyclopedia
A web document is similar in concept to a web page
, but also satisfies the following broader (W3C) definition:
The term "web document" has been used as a fuzzy term in many sources (see
,
,
,
,
,
and others), but in all of them the W3C definition given above applies.
Recent research in fields like "Web Document Retrieval" and "Web Document Analysis" (see p. ex.,
,
,
,
,
) has revived interest in clarifying the correct use of the term.
The key idea is that a single underlying resource in an HTTP system, may have several different representations, which can be exposed by mechanisms such as content negotiation
.
Web page
A web page or webpage is a document or information resource that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a monitor or mobile device. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext...
, but also satisfies the following broader (W3C) definition:
- "... Every Web document has its own URIUniform Resource IdentifierIn computing, a uniform resource identifier is a string of characters used to identify a name or a resource on the Internet. Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network using specific protocols...
. Note that a Web document is not the same as a fileComputer fileA computer file is a block of arbitrary information, or resource for storing information, which is available to a computer program and is usually based on some kind of durable storage. A file is durable in the sense that it remains available for programs to use after the current program has finished...
: a single Web document can be available in many different formats and languages, and a single file, for example a PHP script, may be responsible for generating a large number of Web documents with different URIs. A Web document is defined as something that has a URI and can return representations (responses in a format such as HTML or JPEG or RDF) of the identified resource in response to HTTP requests. In technical literature ... the term Information Resource is used instead of Web document.".
The term "web document" has been used as a fuzzy term in many sources (see
,
,
,
,
,
and others), but in all of them the W3C definition given above applies.
Recent research in fields like "Web Document Retrieval" and "Web Document Analysis" (see p. ex.,
,
,
,
,
) has revived interest in clarifying the correct use of the term.
The key idea is that a single underlying resource in an HTTP system, may have several different representations, which can be exposed by mechanisms such as content negotiation
Content negotiation
Content negotiation is a mechanism defined in the HTTP specification that makes it possible to serve different versions of a document at the same URI, so that user agents can specify which version fit their capabilities the best...
.