What is a URL and what is its purpose?

Answer 1

A URL, or Universal Resource Locator (also known as a URI, a Uniform Resource Identifier) is a string of characters which is used to identify or name a resource, the main purpose being to enable interaction with a representation of the resource, typically the World Wide Web.

Answer

Universal Resource Locator

Answer 2

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a piece of text that identifies a file (and possibly a bookmark, called an anchor, within the file). The parts of a URL are the protocol, username, password, domain name, port, path, file, query string, and anchor.

Example:

http://user:pass@www.somesite.com:1234/path/to/file/filename.ext?key1=value1&key2=value2#specific-paragraph

Protocol: "http" in this case, is an HTTP protocol link.

User: "user" is the user name for this resource.

Password: "pass" is the password for this resource.

Domain Name: "www.somesite.com" is the server where the file is found.

Port: "1234" is the TCP/IP "port" that will handle this request.

Path: "/path/to/file/" is the path (folder, directory, etc) where the file is found.

File: "filename.ext" is the name of the file.

Query String: "key1=value1&key2=value2" are two parameters that will be supplied to the file during server-side processing.

Anchor: "specific-paragraph" is the unique identifier in this file; when opened, the application should navigate to that specific location in the file.

Not all URLs will contain all parts; most URLs contain only a protocol, server name, file path, and file name. The other parts all have default values, or are not supplied, if that part is missing. Other types of URLs may have a different syntax. For example, file URLs might have a drive letter instead of a server name. Mailto protocols use a format that can include a recipient, subject, and body.

Answer 3

URL strings consist of three parts (substrings):1. network protocol

2. host name or address

3. file or resource location

These substrings are separated by special characters as follows: protocol :// host / location

URL ProtocolThe 'protocol' substring defines a network protocol to be used to access a resource. These strings are short names followed by the three characters '://' (a simple naming convention to denote a protocol definition). Typical URL protocols include http://, ftp://, and mailto://. URL HostThe 'host' substring identifies a computer or other network device. Hosts come from standard internet databases such as DNS and can be names or IP addresses. For example, compnetworking.about.comis the host for this Web page. URL LocationThe 'location' substring contains a path to one specific network resource on the host. Resources are normally located in a host directory or folder. For example, /od/internetaccessbestuses/bldef-url.htm is the location of this Web page including two subdirectories and the file name.

When the location element is omitted such as in http://compnetworking.about.com/, the URL conventionally points to the root directory of the host and often a home page (like 'index.htm').

Answer 4

A URL does three things: Tell the browser what protocol to use, tell the web server what page the user wants, and (optionally) tell the browser where in the page to go.

For more information, go to

http://www.pierobon.org/iis/url.htm

Answer 5

A URL or Uniform Resource Locator is broken in 6 parts:

scheme name://registered domain name.top level domain:optional port number/file path&query string (eg: http://somesite.com:80/file.php&file_name=file.pdf)

A basic URL has only the scheme name, registered domain name, and top level domain name (eg. http://Google.com)

The scheme name (sometimes called a resource type) defines the purpose and syntax of the remaining part of the URL. The most common is http: however other options include https:, ftp:, file: and others.

Examples:

http://www.somesite.com/

ftp://username@password:ftp.somesite.com:21/

The registered domain name is the DNS name of the site linked to the IP address of the webserver. For example "google" or "answers" in the case of this website. [Note: Sub-domains may prefix the domain name such as wiki.answers or mail.google].

The top level domain name is the highest level of domain name in the DNS system and includes things like com, org, net, gov and various country codes. Examples include google.com, cia.gov and somesite.tk.

The optional port number defines the port with which to connect to the server or service (this is specified by the server and you can only connect to a special port if one exists on the server). By default websites communicate over port 80 so when no port is specified port 80 is assumed however other ports can be defined in the following format: http://somesite.com:port/ (eg. http://somesite.com:1010/).

The file path defines the path to the page or file to be viewed. When you load a website without the file path ie. http://www.google.com/ you are directed to the root level of the Public_Html or www folder and if it exists the file in that directory named index.htm, index.html, index.asp or index.php. Defining a file path will take you to a different location such as http://www.somesite.com/My_pet_photos.htm.

Finally, the optional query string defines any variables when the file path is a script such as php, asp or cgi. Query strings can cause the script to react in different ways. For example: http://www.somewiki.com/wiki/Page_Name&Action=edit.

Answer 6

A URL is made up of five parts: the protocol, the domain name, the path, the directory and the file name. Consider the URL http://coolexample.com/funky/music.html. The protocol is http://, the domain name is coolexample.com, the path is /funky/music.html, the directory is /funky/ and the file name is /music.html.

Answer 7

A URL tells your internet browser, such as Internet Explorer or Google Chrome, where to go to find the website and display it for you.

Answer 8

A URL is short for uniform resource locator . A URL tells the web browser to find the content on internet. To map a URL web server uses hyper text transfer protocol.