An URL is a string of characters that contains information about how to fetch a resource from its location. An URL specifies the primary access mechanism and the network location of a resource. A typical URL consists of the following components:
- the protocol used to connect to the server (e.g. HTTPS)
- the server hostname (e.g. geek-university.com)
- the document path (e.g. /course)
Here is a graphical representation of these components:
URLs can also be used to reference documents other than the web sites. Here are some examples of using URLs to reference an FTP resource, mail address and local files:
- ftp://www.geek-university.com/uploads.zip – refers to the uploads.zip file on the geek-university.com server that can be accessed using FTP
- mailto:tuna@geek-university.com – a hyperlink that allows users to to send emails to tuna@geek-university.com using their default email client program.
- file://C:\images – used to open the C:\images folder on the local computer
