Hey, we are once again standing on the threshold of yet another effortless lesson! And for this lesson you do not even need your HTML document. A break from HTML tags, this tutorial purely deals with one of the most principal addressing schemes – the URL.
So folks...
Welcome to Lesson 9 (b) – URL – The Gateway to the World of Web
As conveyed previously, this lesson is purely dedicated to help you identify and recognise the functions and behaviour patterns of the URLs.
For all this time, I've constantly been using the abbreviated term – URL. What does URL stand for? A coined form of 'Uniform Resource Locator' or even at times termed as 'Universal Resource Locator', URL is the address of documents and other informational resources on a global platform – the World Wide Web. You open up any document or file over the internet, and on your web browser screen, you see the URL for the document typically displayed in the address bar of your browser. Address bar per se refers to the topmost part of a Web browser window. And what comprises a URL? It is the protocol identifier in the first place, specifying the protocol to be used, followed by the resource name – the one that defines the IP address or the domain name, and finally the file path is on display. The protocol identifier and the resource name along with the file path are separated by a colon and two forward slashes.
Basics of the URL Framework
Following the aforesaid discussion a proposed URL and its attribute, it’s time that we do a little homework in respect to the structure of the URL. A site’s addressing structure (URL framework) should be as simple and as precise as possible. The general format of the structure of a URL is:
protocol://resourcename/directory/sub-directory/.../filename
“Protocol” refers to the type of Internet server being accessed. It can be HTTP or FTP, GOPHER or TELENET, WAIS or FILE (when working on the local host). A brief discussion session on the aforesaid protocols:
HTTP: Stands for HyperText Transfer Protocol – a web server.
FTP: Platform independent File Transfer Protocol (FTP) site.
GOPHER: An Internet Gopher site.
TELENET: A server that initiates the session to log on remotely to another computer.
WAIS: Wide Area Indexed Server – a site that helps you to locate subject oriented documents by keywords.
FILE: A folder on your local computer system.
The protocol is always followed by "://", thus extricating it from the resource name and the file path. An example: http://www.f26.net/bot_images/site/photoshop_effects_pencilsketch.gif , wherein http is the protocol followed by “://”, www.f26.net is the resource name/ internet address that is once again followed by a front slash “/” and then comes the actual file path – bot_images/site/photoshop_effects_pencilsketch.gif.
It must however be noted, that if you want the URL to just point to the home page, then the address would have ended with a slash "/". But when linking to a file (which is bot_images/site/photoshop_effects_pencilsketch.gif in the example above), then the path name ought to be mentioned.
And after having read this much, you may want to try experimenting with some real-time URLs. Visit some online sites, move your mouse over the hypertext links provided in the web pages and check the URL being displayed.
And if you want to copy the URL for a link in any of the web pages, that is even easier. Simply right click the mouse button, select ‘Copy This Link Location’, jump over to the text document wherein you want the link to be displayed, and select Paste. That’s all! Original Authors: Roz
Edit Update Authors: M.A.Harris
Updated On: 27/05/2009
