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URL: Uniform Resource Locator

Uniform Resource Location (URL) is the syntax and semantics for a compact string representation for a resource available via the Internet. For example, we use URL to locate web addresses and FTP site addresses. The generic syntax for URLs provides a framework for new schemes to be established using protocols other than those defined in this document.

URLs are used to `locate' resources, by providing an abstract identification of the resource location. Having located a resource, a system may perform a variety of operations on the resource, as might be characterized by such words as `access', `update', `replace', `find attributes'. In general, only the `access' method needs to be specified for any URL scheme.

Protocol Structure - URL: Uniform Resource Locator

URLs are sequences of characters, i.e., letters, digits, and special characters. URLs are written as follows:

 <scheme>:<scheme-specific-part>

A URL contains the name of the scheme being used (<scheme>) followed by a colon and then a string (the <scheme-specific-part>) whose interpretation depends on the scheme.

Scheme names consist of a sequence of characters. The lower case letters "a"--"z", digits, and the characters plus ("+"), period ("."), and hyphen ("-") are allowed. For resiliency, programs interpreting URLs should treat upper case letters as equivalent to lower case in scheme names (e.g., allow "HTTP" as well as "http").

Related Protocols
HTTP , WWW, FTP

Sponsor Source

URL is defined by IETF (http://www.ietf.org ) RFC 1738



Reference

http://www.javvin.com/protocol/rfc1738.pdf : Uniform Resource Locator (URL)