Uniform Resource Locators

URLs are the way software knows where to go. There are three distinct parts to every URL. Let take a look at the URL   for our table of  contents as it exists on the Online Internet Institute version of CyberU.

http://oii.org/cyberu/contents.htm

There are three distinct sections to every URL.

The first section tells Netscape what type of software operation  to perform. In this case the http:// indicates a WWW function. Other possible entries would be ftp:// for a jump to an ftp site, gopher:// for a trip to a gopher, telnet:// to attach to another computer, wais:// to conduct a WAIS  search at a specific site, or mailto: to send email to a specific address.

The second section is the name and domain of the computer housing the specific information being sought. The name is a  series of two of more words separated by periods. In this case the name is oii and the domain is org.

The third section is a word or series of words separated by slashes. They represent the subdirectories (or  folders for the Mac) and the file name of the information you seek. It ends with a word that has an .htm or .html extension. That word is the name of the actual file being retrieved. So cyberu is a subdirectory and contents.htmis the file that will be viewed.

Understanding this structure can help you explore a site and uncover valuable information that might have been missed. For example, suppose you wanted to get a piece of software named mailman.zip, and you were told that you could retrieve it by using the following URL.

ftp://decca.sytems.com/pub/software/mac/util/mailman.zip

After you download the program you can  begin exploring the site by chopping off sections of the URL beginning on the right hand side.  I call this cutting back on the URL.  In many instances each attempt will reveal resources waiting in the same directory. If you remove mailman.zip  you would probably see a list of all the Mac utilities available. Continue by removing the word util and you will see a list of directories containing other types of Mac software. Each successive move to the left may reveal even more of the computer's treasures. Some systems are set up to hide the contents of directories and cutting back will result in an error message of some type.

For a more complete look at URL's check out A Beginner's Guide to URL's

[ Previous ] [ Next ]

[ OII Home Page ]