Building A Simple Web Server

Setting Up Your Environment

Before we start building a simple web server, let’s first ensure that we have the necessary tools and environment set up. You will need a computer with an internet connection, a text editor, and a web browser.

Begin by opening your preferred text editor. A popular choice is Visual Studio Code, but you can use any text editor that you are comfortable with. Make sure to save your files with a .html extension.

HTML Basics

HTML, or Hypertext Markup Language, is the standard language for creating web pages. It provides the structure and content of a webpage. Let’s start with the basic HTML structure:

This is a simple web server created using HTML.

The declaration is necessary to tell the browser that we are using HTML5. The element is the root element of an HTML page, and it contains the entire document. The

Creating a Local Server

To test our web server locally, we can use a built-in feature of Python called SimpleHTTPServer. Open your command prompt or terminal and navigate to the directory where your HTML file is located.

Next, enter the following command:

python -m SimpleHTTPServer

This will start a local server on port 8000. You can now open your web browser and enter “http://localhost:8000” in the address bar. Voila! You should see your simple web server in action.

Customizing Your Web Server

Now that you have a basic web server up and running, let’s explore how to customize it further. You can add additional HTML elements, such as images, links, and styling.

To add an image, place the following code inside the

Make sure to replace “image.jpg” with the path to your image file. The alt attribute specifies an alternative text to be displayed if the image cannot be loaded.

To add a link, use the element:

Visit Example.com

Replace “https://www.example.com” with the desired URL. You can also add styling to your web server using CSS. Simply add a