Chapter 2. URLs of Dyna Web Servers

Every document on the World Wide Web has its own, unique URL (or Uniform Resource Locator). A URL is a text string containing addressing information and, optionally, application information. To access the server you are currently using, you supplied a URL to your Web client.

The format of URLs depends to some extent on the communication protocol they access. DynaWeb servers use the HTTP protocol and HTTP URL syntax:

http://host-name[:port][/document-path][?application-information]

Where:

host-name (host name) 


The host name is the name of a Web server and is preceded by a double slash (//); for example:

http://www.ebt.com

port 

If a server uses a port number other than 80 (the http default port number), a port number is necessary. The port number is preceded by a colon (:); for example:

http://www.inc.com:8080

You do not need to state port 80 if it is used.

document-path  

A document path identifies the directory and, sometimes, the filename of a specific document; for example:

http://www.someone.com/usrbooks/reader

Note that the directory of a homepage is often implicit; for example, the URL of the EBT homepage is:

http://www.ebt.com/

Even though the homepage address is not supplied, the homepage is still displa

application-information 


Application information can be any sort of information that a server or client uses internally. Application information is introduced by a question mark(?); for example:

http://univ.edu/medref/Grey/827?DWEB_..

A DynaWeb server uses the application information segment of a URL, as needed, to pass the current settings of configuration parameters (whose names begin with the characters, DWEB_). You can ignore this application information.