Misplaced Pages

Uniform Resource Identifier: Difference between revisions

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.
Browse history interactively← Previous editContent deleted Content addedVisualWikitext
Revision as of 09:08, 23 April 2016 editCodename Lisa (talk | contribs)55,077 edits Syntax: Let's see if I can deliver Reschke's meaning without contradicting the sentence itself and misleading the reader.← Previous edit Latest revision as of 15:59, 15 October 2024 edit undoDrchriswilliams (talk | contribs)Autopatrolled, Extended confirmed users33,532 edits Undid revision 1251317633 by Nothing happens (talk) reverted unconstructive editTag: Undo 
(763 intermediate revisions by more than 100 users not shown)
Line 1: Line 1:
{{short description|String used to identify a name of a web or internet resource}}
{{Redirect|URI}} {{Redirect|URI}}
{{Distinguish|URL}}
{{More footnotes|date=February 2024}}
{{Infobox technology standard
| title = Uniform Resource Identifier
| long_name =
| native_name = RFC 3986
| native_name_lang = en
| status = Active
| year_started = 2005
| first_published = {{Start date|2005|01|}}
| organization = RFC
| image =
| caption =
| abbreviation = URI
| authors = ]; ]; ]
| domain = ]
| website = https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3986#section-1.1
}}
A '''Uniform Resource Identifier''' ('''URI'''), formerly '''Universal Resource Identifier''', is a unique sequence of characters that identifies an abstract or physical resource,{{Sfn|Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry|2005|p=1|ps=, "Abstract"}} such as resources on a webpage, mail address, phone number,{{Sfn|Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry|2005|p=7|ps=; "1.1.2. Examples", "1.1.3. URI, URL, and URN"}} books, real-world objects such as people and places, concepts.{{Sfn|Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry|2005|p=5|ps=, "Resource: the term "resource" is used in a general sense for whatever might be identified by a URI"}} URIs are used to identify anything described using the ] (RDF), for example, concepts that are part of an ] defined using the ] (OWL), and people who are described using the ] would each have an individual URI.


URIs which provide a means of locating and ] information resources on a network (either on the Internet or on another private network, such as a computer filesystem or an ]) are ]s ('''URLs'''). Therefore, URLs are a subset of URIs, ie. every URL is a URI (and not necessarily the other way around).{{Sfn|Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry|2005|p=7|ps=; "1.1.2. Examples", "1.1.3. URI, URL, and URN"}} Other URIs provide only a unique name, without a means of locating or retrieving the resource or information about it; these are ]s (URNs). The web technologies that use URIs are not limited to ].
In ], a '''Uniform Resource Identifier''' ('''URI''') is a ] of ]s used to ] a ]. Such identification enables interaction with representations of the resource over a network, typically the ], using specific ]s. Schemes specifying a concrete ] and associated protocols define each URI. The most common form of URI is the ], frequently referred to informally as a ''web address.'' More rarely seen in usage is the ], which was designed to complement URLs by providing a mechanism for the identification of resources in particular ]s.


== History ==
==Relationships among URIs, URLs, and URNs==
] showing that a '''Uniform Resource Identifier (URI)''' can be either a Uniform Resource Locator (URL), a Uniform Resource Name (URN), or both.]]


=== Conception ===
A Uniform Resource Name (URN) functions like a person's name, while a Uniform Resource Locator (URL) resembles that person's street address. In other words: the URN defines an item's identity, while the URL provides a method for finding it.


URIs and URLs have a shared history. In 1990, ] proposals for ] implicitly introduced the idea of a URL as a short string representing a resource that is the target of a ].<ref>{{cite web |last1=Palmer |first1=Sean |title=The Early History of HTML |url=http://infomesh.net/html/history/early/ |website=infomesh.net |access-date=6 December 2020}}</ref> At the time, people referred to it as a "hypertext name"<ref>{{cite web |title=W3 Naming Schemes |url=https://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/Addressing/Addressing.html |website=www.w3.org |date=1992 |access-date=6 December 2020}}</ref> or "document name".
===URLs===
{{Main|Uniform Resource Locator}}
A URL is a URI that, in addition to identifying a web resource, specifies the means of acting upon or obtaining the representation of it, i.e. specifying both its primary access mechanism and network location. For example, the URL <tt><nowiki>http://example.org/Main_Page</nowiki></tt> refers to a resource identified as <tt><nowiki>/Main_Page</nowiki></tt> whose representation, in the form of ] and related code, is obtainable via ] (<tt>http</tt>) from a network host whose ] is <tt><nowiki>example.org</nowiki></tt>.


Over the next three and a half years, as the ] core technologies of ], ], and ] developed, a need to distinguish a string that provided an address for a resource from a string that merely named a resource emerged. Although not yet formally defined, the term ''Uniform Resource Locator'' came to represent the former, and the more contentious ''Uniform Resource Name'' came to represent the latter. In July 1992 Berners-Lee's report on the ] (IETF) "UDI (Universal Document Identifiers) ]" mentions URLs (as Uniform Resource Locators), URNs (originally, as Unique Resource Numbers), and the need to charter a new working group.<ref>{{cite web |title=Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Internet Engineering Task Force |page=193 |url=https://www.ietf.org/proceedings/24.pdf |access-date=27 July 2021}}</ref> In November 1992 the IETF "URI Working Group" met for the first time.<ref>{{cite web |title=Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Internet Engineering Task Force |page=501 |url=https://www.ietf.org/proceedings/25.pdf |access-date=27 July 2021}}</ref>
===URNs===
{{Main|Uniform Resource Name}}
A URN is a URI that identifies a resource by name in a particular namespace. A URN may be used to talk about a resource without implying its location or how to access it.


During the debate over defining URLs and URNs, it became evident that the concepts embodied by the two terms were merely aspects of the fundamental, overarching, notion of resource ''identification''. In June 1994, the IETF published Berners-Lee's first ''Request for Comments'' that acknowledged the existence of URLs and URNs. Most importantly, it defined a formal syntax for ''Universal Resource Identifiers'' (i.e. URL-like strings whose precise syntaxes and semantics depended on their schemes). In addition, the {{IETF RFC|1630}} attempted to summarize the syntaxes of URL schemes in use at the time. It acknowledged -- ''but did not standardize''—the existence of relative URLs and fragment identifiers.{{Ref RFC|1630}}
The ] system for uniquely identifying books provides a typical example of the use of URNs. ISBN 0-486-27557-4 cites unambiguously a specific edition of Shakespeare's play '']''. The URN for that edition would be ''urn:isbn:0-486-27557-4. ''To gain access to this object and read the book, its location is needed, for which a URL would have to be specified.


===Conceptual distinctions=== === Refinement ===
Technical publications, especially standards produced by the ] and by the ], normally reflect a view outlined in a W3C Recommendation of 2001, which acknowledges the precedence of the term URI rather than endorsing any formal subdivision into URL and URN. {{quotation|URL is a useful but informal concept: a URL is a type of URI that identifies a resource via a representation of its primary access mechanism (e.g., its network "location"), rather than by some other attributes it may have.{{sfnp|Joint W3C/IETF URI Planning Interest Group|2001}}}} A URL is simply a URI that happens to point to a physical resource over a network.{{efn|A report published in 2002 by a joint W3C/IETF working group aimed to normalize the divergent views held within the IETF and W3C over the relationship between the various 'UR*' terms and standards. While not published as a full standard by either organization, it has become the basis for the above common understanding and has informed many standards since then.{{sfnp|Joint W3C/IETF URI Planning Interest Group|2002}}}}


In December 1994, {{IETF RFC|1738}} formally defined relative and absolute URLs, refined the general URL syntax, defined how to resolve relative URLs to absolute form, and better enumerated the URL schemes then in use.{{Ref RFC|1738}} The agreed definition and syntax of URNs had to wait until the publication of IETF {{IETF RFC|2141}}{{Ref RFC|2141}} in May 1997.
However, in non-technical contexts and in software for the World Wide Web, the term ''URL'' remains widely used. Additionally, the term ''web address'' (which has no formal definition) often occurs in non-technical publications as a synonym for a URI that uses the 'http' or 'https' scheme. Such assumptions can lead to confusion, for example when viewing ] source: the normal means of identifying unique XML vocabularies within an XML document is to declare ]s whose names are URIs that begin with 'http' and use the syntax of a genuine ] followed by a ], but which have no need to point to any specific file locations that actually exist.{{sfnp|Morrison|2006}}


The publication of IETF {{IETF RFC|2396}}{{Ref RFC|2396}} in August 1998 saw the URI syntax become a separate specification{{Ref RFC|2396}} and most of the parts of RFCs 1630 and 1738 relating to URIs and URLs in general were revised and expanded by the IETF. The new RFC changed the meaning of ''U'' in ''URI'' from "Universal" to "Uniform."
While most URI schemes were originally designed to be used with a particular ], and often have the same name (such as the <code>http</code> scheme, which is generally used for interacting with ]s using ]), they should not be referred to as ''protocols''. Some URI schemes are not associated with any specific protocol (e.g. <code>]</code>) and many others do not use the name of a protocol as their prefix (e.g. <code>]</code>).

In December 1999, {{IETF RFC|2732}}{{Ref RFC|2732}} provided a minor update to <nowiki>RFC 2396</nowiki>, allowing URIs to accommodate ] addresses. A number of shortcomings discovered in the two specifications led to a community effort, coordinated by <nowiki>RFC 2396</nowiki> co-author ], that culminated in the publication of IETF {{IETF RFC|3986}}{{Ref RFC|3986}} in January 2005. While obsoleting the prior standard, it did not render the details of existing URL schemes obsolete; <nowiki>RFC 1738</nowiki> continues to govern such schemes except where otherwise superseded. IETF {{IETF RFC|2616}}{{Ref RFC|2616}} for example, refines the <code>http</code> scheme. Simultaneously, the IETF published the content of <nowiki>RFC 3986</nowiki> as the full standard STD 66, reflecting the establishment of the URI generic syntax as an official Internet protocol.

In 2001, the ] (W3C) Technical Architecture Group (TAG) published a guide to ] and canonical URIs for publishing multiple versions of a given resource.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Raman |first1=T.V. |title=On Linking Alternative Representations To Enable Discovery And Publishing |url=https://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/alternatives-discovery.html |website=www.w3.org |access-date=6 December 2020 |date=1 November 2006}}</ref> For example, content might differ by language or by size to adjust for capacity or settings of the device used to access that content.

In August 2002, IETF {{IETF RFC|3305}}{{Ref RFC|3305}} pointed out that the term "URL" had, despite widespread public use, faded into near obsolescence, and serves only as a reminder that some URIs act as addresses by having schemes implying network accessibility, regardless of any such actual use. As URI-based standards such as ] make evident, resource identification need not suggest the retrieval of resource representations over the Internet, nor need they imply network-based resources at all.

The ] uses the HTTP URI scheme to identify both documents and concepts for practical uses, a distinction which has caused confusion as to how to distinguish the two. The ''TAG'' published an e-mail in 2005 with a solution of the problem, which became known as the ''httpRange-14 resolution''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Fielding |first1=Roy |title= Resolved |url=https://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/2005Jun/0039.html |website=lists.w3.org |access-date=6 December 2020 |date=18 Jun 2005}}</ref> The W3C subsequently published an Interest Group Note titled ''Cool URIs for the Semantic Web'', which explained the use of ] and the ] response code for redirections in more detail.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Sauermann |first1=Leo |title=Cool URIs for the Semantic Web |url=https://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/ |website=www.w3.org |access-date=6 December 2020 |date=December 2008}}</ref>

== Design ==

=== URLs and URNs ===

A ] (URN) is a URI that identifies a resource by name in a particular namespace. A URN may be used to talk about a resource without implying its location or how to access it. For example, in the ] (ISBN) system, ''<nowiki>ISBN</nowiki> 0-486-27557-4'' identifies a specific edition of the ] play '']''. The URN for that edition would be ''<nowiki>urn:isbn:0-486-27557-4</nowiki>''. However, it gives no information as to where to find a copy of that book.

A ] (URL) is a URI that specifies the means of acting upon or obtaining the representation of a resource, i.e. specifying both its primary access mechanism and network location. For example, the URL <code><nowiki>http://example.org/Main_Page</nowiki></code> refers to a resource identified as <code><nowiki>/Main_Page</nowiki></code>, whose representation is obtainable via the ] (''http:'') from a network host whose ] is <code><nowiki>example.org</nowiki></code>. (In this case, HTTP usually implies it to be in the form of ] and related code. In practice, that is not necessarily the case, as HTTP allows specifying arbitrary formats in its header.)

A URN is analogous to a person's name, while a URL is analogous to their street address. In other words, a URN identifies an item and a URL provides a method for finding it.

Technical publications, especially standards produced by the IETF and by the W3C, normally reflect a view outlined in a ] of 30 July 2001, which acknowledges the precedence of the term URI rather than endorsing any formal subdivision into URL and URN. {{cquote|URL is a useful but informal concept: a URL is a type of URI that identifies a resource via a representation of its primary access mechanism (e.g., its network "location"), rather than by some other attributes it may have.<ref>{{cite web |last1=((URI Planning Interest Group, W3C/IETF)) |title=URIs, URLs, and URNs: Clarifications and Recommendations 1.0 |url=https://www.w3.org/TR/uri-clarification/ |website=www.w3.org |publisher=W3C/IETF |access-date=8 December 2020 |date=September 2001}}</ref>}}

As such, a URL is simply a URI that happens to point to a resource over a network.{{efn|A report published in 2002 by a joint W3C/IETF working group aimed to normalize the divergent views held within the IETF and W3C over the relationship between the various 'UR*' terms and standards. While not published as a full standard by either organization, it has become the basis for the above common understanding and has informed many standards since then.}}{{Ref RFC|3305}} However, in non-technical contexts and in software for the World Wide Web, the term "URL" remains widely used. Additionally, the term "web address" (which has no formal definition) often occurs in non-technical publications as a synonym for a URI that uses the ''http'' or ''https'' schemes. Such assumptions can lead to confusion, for example, in the case of XML namespaces that have a ].

Specifications produced by the ] prefer ''URL'' over ''URI'', and so newer HTML5 APIs use ''URL'' over ''URI''.<ref>{{cite web |title=URL Standard: 6.3. URL APIs elsewhere |url=https://url.spec.whatwg.org/#url-apis-elsewhere}}</ref> {{cquote|Standardize on the term URL. URI and IRI are just confusing. In practice a single algorithm is used for both so keeping them distinct is not helping anyone. URL also easily wins the search result popularity contest.<ref>{{cite web |title=URL Standard: Goals |url=https://url.spec.whatwg.org/#goals}}</ref>}}

While most URI schemes were originally designed to be used with a particular ], and often have the same name, they are semantically different from protocols. For example, the scheme ''http'' is generally used for interacting with ]s using HTTP, but the scheme '']'' has no protocol.

===<span class="anchor" id="syntax"></span> Syntax ===
{{see also|List of URI schemes}}
A URI has a scheme that refers to a specification for assigning identifiers within that scheme. As such, the URI syntax is a federated and extensible naming system wherein each scheme's specification may further restrict the syntax and semantics of identifiers using that scheme. The URI generic syntax is a superset of the syntax of all URI schemes. It was first defined in {{IETF RFC|2396}}, published in August 1998,{{Ref RFC|2396}} and finalized in {{IETF RFC|3986}}, published in January 2005.{{Sfn|Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry|2005|p=46|ps=; "9. Acknowledgements"}}

A URI is composed from an allowed set of ] characters consisting of ] (gen-delims: <code>:</code>, <code>/</code>, <code>?</code>, <code>#</code>, <code></code>, and <code>@</code>; sub-delims: <code>!</code>, <code>$</code>, <code>&</code>, <code>'</code>, <code>(</code>, <code>)</code>, <code>*</code>, <code>+</code>, <code>,</code>, <code>;</code>, and <code>=</code>),{{Sfn|Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry|2005|ps=; "2.2. Reserved Characters", "2.3. Unreserved Characters"|pp=13-14}} unreserved characters (], ], <code>-</code>, <code>.</code>, <code>_</code>, and <code>~</code>),{{Sfn|Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry|2005|ps=; "2.2. Reserved Characters", "2.3. Unreserved Characters"|pp=13-14}} and the character <code>%</code>.{{Sfn|Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry|2005|ps=; "2.1. Percent-Encoding"|pp=12}} Syntax components and subcomponents are separated by ''delimiters'' from the reserved characters (only from generic reserved characters for components) and define ''identifying data'' represented as unreserved characters, reserved characters that do not act as delimiters in the component and subcomponent respectively,{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=2}} and ]s when the corresponding character is outside the allowed set or is being used as a delimiter of, or within, the component. A percent-encoding of an identifying data ] is a sequence of three characters, consisting of the character <code>%</code> followed by the two hexadecimal digits representing that octet's numeric value.{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=2.1}}

<section begin="syntax"/><!-- This section is transcluded in other articles. See Help:Labeled section transclusion -->The URI generic syntax consists of five ''components'' organized hierarchically in order of decreasing significance from left to right:{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=3}}

<pre>
URI = scheme ":" path
</pre>

A component is ''undefined'' if it has an associated delimiter and the delimiter does not appear in the URI; the scheme and path components are always defined.{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=5.2.1}} A component is ''empty'' if it has no characters; the scheme component is always non-empty.{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=3}}

The authority component consists of ''subcomponents'':

<pre>
authority = host
</pre>

This is represented in a ] as:

]

The URI comprises:
* A non-empty '''{{visible anchor|scheme}}''' component followed by a colon (<code>:</code>), consisting of a sequence of characters beginning with a letter and followed by any combination of letters, digits, plus (<code>+</code>), period (<code>.</code>), or hyphen (<code>-</code>). Although schemes are case-insensitive, the canonical form is lowercase and documents that specify schemes must do so with lowercase letters. Examples of popular schemes include <code>]</code>, <code>]</code>, <code>]</code>, <code>]</code>, <code>]</code>, <code>]</code> and <code>]</code>. URI schemes should be registered with the ], although non-registered schemes are used in practice.{{efn|The procedures for registering new URI schemes were originally defined in 1999 by {{IETF RFC|2717}}, and are now defined by {{IETF RFC|7595|link=no}}, published in June 2015.{{Ref RFC|7595}}}}
* An optional '''{{visible anchor|authority}}''' component preceded by two slashes (<code>//</code>), comprising:
** An optional '''{{visible anchor|userinfo}}''' subcomponent followed by an at symbol (<code>@</code>), that may consist of a ] and an optional ] preceded by a colon (<code>:</code>). Use of the format <code>username:password</code> in the userinfo subcomponent is deprecated for security reasons. Applications should not render as clear text any data after the first colon (<code>:</code>) found within a userinfo subcomponent unless the data after the colon is the empty string (indicating no password).
** A '''{{visible anchor|host}}''' subcomponent, consisting of either a registered name (including but not limited to a ]) or an ]. ] addresses must be in ], and ] addresses must be enclosed in brackets (<code></code>).{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=3.2.2}}{{efn|For URIs relating to resources on the World Wide Web, some web browsers allow {{code|.0}} portions of dot-decimal notation to be dropped or raw integer IP addresses to be used.{{sfnp|Lawrence|2014}}}}
** An optional '''{{visible anchor|port}}''' subcomponent preceded by a colon (<code>:</code>), consisting of decimal digits.
* A '''{{visible anchor|path}}''' component, consisting of a sequence of path segments separated by a slash (<code>/</code>). A path is always defined for a URI, though the defined path may be empty (zero length). A segment may also be empty, resulting in two consecutive slashes (<code>//</code>) in the path component. A path component may resemble or map exactly to a ] but does not always imply a relation to one. If an authority component is defined, then the path component must either be empty or begin with a slash (<code>/</code>). If an authority component is undefined, then the path cannot begin with an empty segment—that is, with two slashes (<code>//</code>)—since the following characters would be interpreted as an authority component.{{Ref RFC|2396|rsection=3.3}}
: By convention, in '''http''' and '''https''' URIs, the last part of a ''path'' is named '''{{visible anchor|pathinfo}}''' and it is optional. It is composed by zero or more path segments that do not refer to an existing physical resource name (e.g. a file, an internal module program or an executable program) but to a logical part (e.g. a command or a qualifier part) that has to be passed separately to the first part of the path that identifies an executable module or program managed by a ]; this is often used to select dynamic content (a document, etc.) or to tailor it as requested (see also: ] and PATH_INFO, etc.).
: Example:
:: URI: {{code|1="http://www.example.com/questions/3456/my-document"}}
:: where: {{code|1="/questions"}} is the first part of the ''path'' (an executable module or program) and {{code|1="/3456/my-document"}} is the second part of the ''path'' named ''pathinfo'', which is passed to the executable module or program named {{code|1="/questions"}} to select the requested document.
: An '''http''' or '''https''' URI containing a ''pathinfo'' part without a ] part may also be referred to as a '],' whose last part may be a '].'


==Syntax==
The syntax of generic URIs and absolute URI references was first defined in ] 2396, published in August 1998,{{sfnp|RFC 2396|1998}} and finalized in <nowiki>RFC</nowiki> 3986, published in January 2005.{{sfnp|RFC 3986|2005}}
<section begin=syntax /><!-- This section is transcluded in other articles. See Help:Labeled section transclusion -->
A generic URI is of the form:
'''scheme''':'''host''']'''path'''
It is composed of the following components:
* The '''scheme''' consists of a sequence of characters beginning with a letter and followed by any combination of letters, digits, plus (<code>+</code>), period (<code>.</code>), or hyphen (<code>-</code>). Although schemes are case-insensitive, the canonical form is lowercase and documents that specify schemes must do so with lowercase letters. It is followed by a colon (<code>:</code>). Examples of popular schemes include <code>]</code>, <code>]</code>, <code>]</code>, <code>]</code>, and <code>]</code>. URI schemes should be registered with the ], although non-registered schemes are used in practice.{{efn|The procedures for registering new URI schemes were originally defined in 1999 by <nowiki>RFC 2717</nowiki>, and are now defined by <nowiki>RFC 7595</nowiki>, published in June 2015.{{sfnp|IETF|2015}}}}
* Two slashes (<code>//</code>): This is required by some schemes and not required by some others. When the authority component (explained below) is absent, the path component cannot begin with two slashes.{{sfnp|RFC 3986|2005|pp = 6,15}}
* An '''authority part''', comprising:
** An optional ] section of a ] and ], separated by a colon, followed by an at symbol (<code>@</code>)
** A "'''host'''", consisting of either a registered name (including but not limited to a ]), or an ]. ] addresses must be in ], and ] addresses must be enclosed in brackets (<code></code>).{{sfnp|RFC 3986|2005|pp = 18—21}} For URIs relating to resources on the World Wide Web, some ] allow ".0" portions of dot-decimal notation to be dropped and even raw integer IP addresses to be used.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Lawrence|first1=Eric|title=Browser Arcana: IP Literals in URLs|url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ieinternals/archive/2014/03/06/browser-arcana-ipv4-ipv6-literal-urls-dotted-va-dotless.aspx|website=IEInternals|publisher=]|date=6 March 2014}}</ref>
** An optional ], separated from the hostname by a colon
* A '''path''', which contains data, usually organized in hierarchical form, that appears as a sequence of segments separated by slashes. Such a sequence may resemble or map exactly to a ], but does not always imply a relation to one.{{sfnp|RFC 2396|1998}} The path must begin with a single slash (<code>/</code>) if an authority part was present, and may also if one was not, but must not begin with a double slash.
{| class="wikitable" style="float: right; font-size: 0.9em; margin-left: 1em" {| class="wikitable" style="float: right; font-size: 0.9em; margin-left: 1em"
|- |-
Line 46: Line 110:
| <code>key1=value1&key2=value2</code> | <code>key1=value1&key2=value2</code>
|- |-
| Semicolon (<code>;</code>){{efn|<nowiki>RFC 1866</nowiki> encourages CGI authors to support ';' in addition to '&'.{{sfnp|RFC 1866|1995}}}} | Semicolon (<code>;</code>){{efn|Historic {{IETF RFC|1866}} (obsoleted by {{IETF RFC|2854|link=no}}) encourages CGI authors to support ';' in addition to '&'.{{Ref RFC|1866|rsection=8.2.1}}}}
| <code>key1=value1;key2=value2</code> | <code>key1=value1;key2=value2</code>
|} |}
* An optional '''query''', separated from the preceding part by a question mark (<code>?</code>), containing a ] of non-hierarchical data. Its syntax is not well defined, but by convention is most often a sequence of ]s separated by a ]. * An optional '''{{visible anchor|query}}''' component preceded by a question mark (<code>?</code>), consisting of a ] of non-hierarchical data. Its syntax is not well defined, but by convention is most often a sequence of ]s separated by a ].
* An optional '''fragment''', separated from the preceding part by a ] (<code>#</code>). The fragment contains a ] providing direction to a secondary resource, such as a section heading in an article identified by the remainder of the URI. When the primary resource is an ] document, the fragment is often an ] of a specific element, and web browsers will scroll this element into view.<section end=syntax /> * An optional '''{{visible anchor|fragment}}''' component preceded by a ] (<code>#</code>). The fragment contains a ] providing direction to a secondary resource, such as a section heading in an article identified by the remainder of the URI. When the primary resource is an ] document, the fragment is often an ] of a specific element, and web browsers will scroll this element into view.<section end="syntax"/>


The scheme- or implementation-specific reserved character <code>+</code> may be used in the scheme, userinfo, host, path, query, and fragment, and the scheme- or implementation-specific reserved characters <code>!</code>, <code>$</code>, <code>&</code>, <code>'</code>, <code>(</code>, <code>)</code>, <code>*</code>, <code>,</code>, <code>;</code>, and <code>=</code> may be used in the userinfo, host, path, query, and fragment. Additionally, the generic reserved character <code>:</code> may be used in the userinfo, path, query and fragment, the generic reserved characters <code>@</code> and <code>/</code> may be used in the path, query and fragment, and the generic reserved character <code>?</code> may be used in the query and fragment.{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=A}}
Strings of data ] within a URI are represented as characters. Permitted characters within a URI are the ] characters for the lowercase and uppercase letters of the modern ], the ], ], ], ], and ].{{sfnp|RFC 3986|2005}} Octets represented by any other character of the ASCII character set must be ]; e.g. <code>%26</code> for an ampersand (<code>&</code>). Among those that should be percent-encoded, 18 are reserved characters that have semantic roles in URI: <code>/ ? # @ ! $ & ' ( ) * + , ; : =</code>.{{sfnp|RFC 3986|2005}}


===Examples=== === Example URIs ===


The following figure displays two example URIs and their component parts. <!-- based on format of examples in RFC 3986 --> The following figure displays example URIs and their component parts.
<pre>
hierarchical part
┌───────────────────┴─────────────────────┐
authority path
┌───────────────┴───────────────┐┌───┴────┐
abc://username:password@example.com:123/path/data?key=value#fragid1
└┬┘ └───────┬───────┘ └────┬────┘ └┬┘ └───┬───┘ └──┬──┘
scheme user information host port query fragment


{{Pre|<nowiki/>
urn:example:mammal:monotreme:echidna
{{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|userinfo}} {{color|rgb(0, 177, 17)|host}} {{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|port}}
└┬┘ └──────────────┬───────────────┘
{{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|┌──┴───┐}} {{color|rgb(0, 177, 17)|┌──────┴──────┐}} {{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|┌┴─┐}}
scheme path</pre>
<nowiki>https://john.doe@www.example.com:1234/forum/questions/?tag=networking&order=newest#top</nowiki>
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|└─┬─┘}} {{color|rgb(176, 0, 177)|└─────────────┬─────────────┘}}{{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|└───────┬───────┘}} {{color|rgb(0, 178, 17)|└────────────┬────────────┘}} {{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|└┬┘}}
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|scheme}} {{color|rgb(176, 0, 177)|authority}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|path}} {{color|rgb(0, 178, 17)|{{color|rgb(0, 178, 17)|query}}}} {{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|fragment}}
{{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|userinfo}} {{color|rgb(0, 177, 17)|host}} {{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|port}}
{{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|┌──┴───┐}} {{color|rgb(0, 177, 17)|┌──────┴──────┐}} {{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|┌┴─┐}}
<nowiki>https://john.doe@www.example.com:1234/forum/questions/?tag=networking&order=newest#:~:text=whatever</nowiki>
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|└─┬─┘}} {{color|rgb(176, 0, 177)|└─────────────┬─────────────┘}}{{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|└───────┬───────┘}} {{color|rgb(0, 178, 17)|└────────────┬────────────┘}} {{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|└───────┬───────┘}}
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|scheme}} {{color|rgb(176, 0, 177)|authority}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|path}} {{color|rgb(0, 178, 17)|{{color|rgb(0, 178, 17)|query}}}} {{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|fragment}}


<nowiki>ldap:///c=GB?objectClass?one</nowiki>
==History==
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|└┬─┘}} {{color|rgb(176, 0, 177)|└─────┬─────┘}}{{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|└─┬─┘}} {{color|rgb(0, 178, 17)|└──────┬──────┘}}
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|scheme}} {{color|rgb(176, 0, 177)|authority}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|path}} {{color|rgb(0, 178, 17)|query}}


<nowiki>mailto:John.Doe@example.com</nowiki>
===Naming, addressing, and identifying resources===
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|└─┬──┘}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|└────┬─────────────┘}}
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|scheme}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|path}}


<nowiki>news:comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix</nowiki>
URIs and URLs have a shared history. In 1994, ] proposals for ]{{sfnp|Palmer|2001}} implicitly introduced the idea of a URL as a short string representing a resource that is the target of a ]. At the time, people referred to it as a "hypertext name"{{sfnp|W3C|1992}} or "document name".
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|└┬─┘}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|└─────────────┬─────────────────┘}}
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|scheme}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|path}}


<nowiki>tel:+1-816-555-1212</nowiki>
Over the next three and a half years, as the World Wide Web's core technologies of ] (the HyperText ]), ], and ]s developed, a need to distinguish a string that provided an address for a resource from a string that merely named a resource emerged. Although not yet formally defined, the term ''Uniform Resource Locator'' came to represent the former, and the more contentious ''Uniform Resource Name'' came to represent the latter.
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|└┬┘}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|└──────┬──────┘}}
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|scheme}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|path}}


<nowiki>telnet://192.0.2.16:80/</nowiki>
During the debate over defining URLs and URNs it became evident that the two concepts embodied by the terms were merely aspects of the fundamental, overarching notion of resource ''identification''. In June 1994, the ] published Berners-Lee's RFC 1630: the first ] that (in its non-normative text) acknowledged the existence of URLs and URNs, and, more importantly, defined a formal syntax for ''Universal Resource Identifiers'' — URL-like strings whose precise syntaxes and semantics depended on their schemes. In addition, this RFC attempted to summarize the syntaxes of URL schemes in use at the time. It also acknowledged, but did not standardize, the existence of relative URLs and ]s.
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|└─┬──┘}} {{color|rgb(176, 0, 177)|└─────┬─────┘}}{{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|│}}
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|scheme}} {{color|rgb(176, 0, 177)|authority}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|path}}


<nowiki>urn:oasis:names:specification:docbook:dtd:xml:4.1.2</nowiki>
===Refinement of specifications===
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|└┬┘}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|└──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┘}}
In December 1994, RFC 1738 formally defined relative and absolute URLs, refined the general URL syntax, defined how to resolve relative URLs to absolute form, and better enumerated the URL schemes then in use. The agreed definition and syntax of URNs had to wait until the publication of RFC 2141 in May 1997.
{{color|rgb(178, 111, 0)|scheme}} {{color|rgb(0, 76, 178)|path}}
}}


DOIs (]s) fit within the ] and fit within the URI system, ].<!--Per the ] and ] articles, which see.-->
The publication of RFC 2396 in August 1998 saw the URI syntax become a separate specification{{sfnp|RFC 2396|1998}} and most of the parts of RFCs 1630 and 1738 relating to URIs and URLs in general were revised and expanded by the ]. The new RFC changed the significance of the "U" in "URI": it came to represent "Uniform" rather than "Universal".


=== URI references ===
In December 1999, RFC 2732 provided a minor update to <nowiki>RFC 2396</nowiki>, allowing URIs to accommodate ] addresses. Some time later, a number of shortcomings discovered in the two specifications led to the development of a number of draft revisions under the title rfc2396bis. This community effort, coordinated by <nowiki>RFC 2396</nowiki> co-author ], culminated in the publication of RFC 3986 in January 2005. This RFC, {{as of | 2009 | alt = as of 2009}} the current version of the URI syntax recommended for use on the Internet, renders <nowiki>RFC 2396</nowiki> obsolete. It does not, however, render the details of existing URL schemes obsolete; <nowiki>RFC 1738</nowiki> continues to govern such schemes except where otherwise superseded – RFC 2616 for example, refines the "http" scheme. Simultaneously, the IETF published the content of <nowiki>RFC 3986</nowiki> as the full standard STD 66, reflecting the establishment of the URI generic syntax as an official Internet protocol.


A ''URI reference'' is either a URI or a ''relative reference'' when it does not begin with a scheme component followed by a colon (<code>:</code>).{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=4.1}} A path segment that contains a colon character (e.g., <code>foo:bar</code>) cannot be used as the first path segment of a relative reference if its path component does not begin with a slash (<code>/</code>), as it would be mistaken for a scheme component. Such a path segment must be preceded by a dot path segment (e.g., <code>./foo:bar</code>).{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=4.2}}
In August 2002, <nowiki>RFC 3305</nowiki> pointed out that the term "URL" has, despite its widespread use in the vernacular of the Internet-aware public at large, faded into near obsolescence. It now serves only as a reminder that some URIs act as addresses because they have schemes that imply some kind of network accessibility, regardless of whether systems actually use them for that purpose. As URI-based standards such as ] make evident, resource identification need not suggest the retrieval of resource representations over the Internet, nor need they imply network-based resources at all.


Web document ]s frequently use URI references to point to other resources, such as external documents or specific portions of the same logical document:{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=4.4}}
In 2001, the W3C's Technical Architecture Group (TAG) published a guide to ] and canonical URIs for publishing multiple versions of a given resource.{{sfnp|W3C|2001}} For example, content might differ by language or by size to adjust for capacity or settings of the device used to access that content.
* in ], the value of the <code>src</code> attribute of the <code>img</code> element provides a URI reference, as does the value of the <code>href</code> attribute of the <code>a</code> or <code>link</code> element;
* in ], the ] appearing after the <code>SYSTEM</code> keyword in a ] is a fragmentless URI reference;
* in ], the value of the <code>href</code> attribute of the <code>xsl:import</code> element/instruction is a URI reference; likewise the first argument to the <code>document()</code> function.


<pre>
The ] uses the HTTP URI scheme to identify both documents and concepts in the real world, a distinction which has caused confusion as to how to distinguish the two. The TAG published an e-mail in 2005 on how to solve the problem, which became known as the ''httpRange-14 resolution''.{{sfnp|Fielding|2005}} The W3C subsequently published an Interest Group Note titled ''Cool URIs for the Semantic Web'',{{sfnp|W3C|2008}} which explained the use of ] and the ] response code for redirections in more detail.
https://example.com/path/resource.txt#fragment
//example.com/path/resource.txt
/path/resource.txt
path/resource.txt
../resource.txt
./resource.txt
resource.txt
#fragment
</pre>


==URI reference== === Resolution ===


''Resolving'' a URI reference against a ''base URI'' results in a ''target URI''. This implies that the base URI exists and is an ''absolute URI'' (a URI with no fragment component). The base URI can be obtained, in order of precedence, from:{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=5.1}}
A URI reference may take the form of a full URI, or just the scheme-specific portion of one, or even some trailing component thereof – even the empty string. An optional fragment identifier, preceded by #, may be present at the end of a URI reference. The part of the reference before the # indirectly identifies a resource, and the fragment identifier identifies some portion of that resource.


* the reference URI itself if it is a URI;
To derive a URI from a URI reference, software converts the URI reference to 'absolute' form by merging it with an absolute 'base' URI according to a fixed algorithm. The system treats the URI reference as relative to the base URI, although in the case of an absolute reference, the base has no relevance. The base URI typically identifies the document containing the URI reference, although this can be overridden by declarations made within the document or as part of an external data transmission protocol. If the base URI includes a fragment identifier, it is ignored during the merging process. If a fragment identifier is present in the URI reference, it is preserved during the merging process.
* the content of the representation;
* the entity encapsulating the representation;
* the URI used for the actual retrieval of the representation;
* the context of the application.


Within a representation with a well defined base URI of
Web document ]s frequently use URI references to point to other resources, such as external documents or specific portions of the same logical document.


<pre>
===Uses of URI references in markup languages===
http://a/b/c/d;p?q
* In ], the value of the <code>src</code> attribute of the <code>img</code> element provides a URI reference, as does the value of the <code>href</code> attribute of the <code>a</code> or <code>link</code> element.
</pre>
* In ], the ] appearing after the <code>SYSTEM</code> keyword in a ] is a fragmentless URI reference.
* In ], the value of the <code>href</code> attribute of the <code>xsl:import</code> element/instruction is a URI reference; likewise the first argument to the <code>document()</code> function.


a relative reference is resolved to its target URI as follows:{{Ref RFC|3986|rsection=5.4}}
===Examples of absolute URIs===
* <tt><nowiki>https://example.org/absolute/URI/with/absolute/path/to/resource.txt</nowiki></tt>
* <tt><nowiki>ftp://example.org/resource.txt</nowiki></tt>
* <tt><nowiki>urn:</nowiki>]<nowiki>:1535-3613</nowiki></tt>


<pre>
===Examples of URI references===
"g:h" -> "g:h"
* <tt><nowiki>https://example.org/absolute/URI/with/absolute/path/to/resource.txt</nowiki></tt>
"g" -> "http://a/b/c/g"
* <tt><nowiki>//example.org/scheme-relative/URI/with/absolute/path/to/resource.txt</nowiki></tt>
"./g" -> "http://a/b/c/g"
* <tt>/relative/URI/with/absolute/path/to/resource.txt</tt>
"g/" -> "http://a/b/c/g/"
* <tt>relative/path/to/resource.txt</tt>
"/g" -> "http://a/g"
* <tt>../../../resource.txt</tt>
"//g" -> "http://g"
* <tt>./resource.txt#frag01</tt>
"?y" -> "http://a/b/c/d;p?y"
* <tt>resource.txt</tt>
"g?y" -> "http://a/b/c/g?y"
* <tt>#frag01</tt>
"#s" -> "http://a/b/c/d;p?q#s"
"g#s" -> "http://a/b/c/g#s"
"g?y#s" -> "http://a/b/c/g?y#s"
";x" -> "http://a/b/c/;x"
"g;x" -> "http://a/b/c/g;x"
"g;x?y#s" -> "http://a/b/c/g;x?y#s"
"" -> "http://a/b/c/d;p?q"
"." -> "http://a/b/c/"
"./" -> "http://a/b/c/"
".." -> "http://a/b/"
"../" -> "http://a/b/"
"../g" -> "http://a/b/g"
"../.." -> "http://a/"
"../../" -> "http://a/"
"../../g" -> "http://a/g"
</pre>


==URI resolution== === URL munging ===
URL munging is a technique by which a ] is appended to a URL, usually at the end, after a "?" ]. It is commonly used in ] as a mechanism of adding functionality to ]. In a versioning system, for example, to add a "checkout" command to a URL, it is written as <code><nowiki>http://editing.com/resource/file.php?command=checkout</nowiki></code>. It has the advantage of both being easy for ] and also acts as an intermediary between HTTP and underlying resource, in this case.{{sfn|Whitehead|1998|p=38}}
To ''resolve'' a URI means either to convert a relative URI reference to absolute form, or to ] or URI reference by attempting to obtain a representation of the resource that it identifies. The 'resolver' component in document processing software generally provides both services.


=== Relation to XML namespaces ===
One can regard a URI reference as a same document reference: a reference to the document containing the URI reference itself. Document processing software can efficiently use its current representation of the document to satisfy the resolution of a same document reference without fetching a new representation. This is only a recommendation, and document processing software can alternatively use other mechanisms to determine whether to obtain a new representation.


In ], a ] is an abstract domain to which a collection of element and attribute names can be assigned.<!-- who or what can do such assignation? --> The namespace name is a character string which must adhere to the generic URI syntax.{{sfnp|Morrison|2006}} However, the name is generally not considered to be a URI,{{sfnp|Harold|2004}} because the URI specification bases the decision not only on lexical components, but also on their intended use. A namespace name does not necessarily imply any of the semantics of URI schemes; for example, a namespace name beginning with ''http:'' may have no connotation to the use of the ].
The current URI specification {{as of|2009|lc = on}}, <nowiki>RFC 3986</nowiki>, defines a URI reference as a same document reference if, when resolved to absolute form, it equates exactly to the base URI in effect for the reference. Typically, the base URI is the URI of the document containing the reference. XSLT 1.0, for example, has a <code>document()</code> function that, in effect, implements this functionality. <nowiki>RFC 3986</nowiki> also formally defines URI equivalence, which can be used to determine that a URI reference, while not identical to the base URI, still represents the same resource and thus can be considered to be a same document reference.


Originally, the namespace name could match the syntax of any non-empty URI reference, but the use of relative URI references was deprecated by the W3C.{{sfnp|W3C|2009}} A separate W3C specification for namespaces in XML 1.1 permits ] (IRI) references to serve as the basis for namespace names in addition to URI references.{{sfnp|W3C|2006}}
<nowiki>RFC 2396</nowiki> prescribed a different method for determining same document references; <nowiki>RFC 3986</nowiki> made <nowiki>RFC 2396</nowiki> obsolete, but <nowiki>RFC 2396</nowiki> still serves as the basis of many specifications and implementations. This specification defines a URI reference as a same document reference if it is an empty string or consists of only the # character followed by an optional fragment.


==See also==
==Relation to XML namespaces==
] has a concept of a ], an abstract domain to which a collection of element and attribute names can be assigned.<!-- who or what can do such assignation? --> The namespace name (a character string which must adhere to the generic URI syntax) identifies an XML namespace. However, the namespace name is generally not considered{{sfnp|Harold|2004}} to be a URI, because the "URI-ness" of strings is, according to the URI specification, based on their intended use, not just their lexical components. A namespace name also does not necessarily imply any of the semantics of URI schemes; a namespace name beginning with 'http:', for example, may have nothing to do with the ] protocol.


* ]
Initially, the namespace name could match the syntax of any non-empty URI reference, but the use of relative URI references was later deprecated by the W3C.{{sfnp|W3C|2009}} A separate W3C specification for namespaces in XML 1.1 permits ] references to serve as the basis for namespace names in addition to URI references.{{sfnp|W3C|2006}}
* ]
* ]
* ] (IRI)
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]


==See also== == Notes ==
{{div col|3}}
* ] (Compact URI)
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ]
* ], a descriptive language to provide machine- and human-readable information about a particular namespace and about the XML documents that use it
* ]
{{div col end}}


{{Notelist}}
==Notes==
{{notelist}}


==References== == References ==
{{reflist|3}}


{{reflist}}
===Cited works===

{{refbegin|3}}
=== Works cited ===
* {{cite web|first=Roy T.|last=Fielding|authorlink=Roy Fielding|title= Resolved|url =http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/www-tag/2005Jun/0039.html|date=18 June 2005|accessdate=24 July 2009|ref=harv}}

* {{cite book|first=Elliotte Rusty|last=Harold|authorlink=Elliotte Rusty Harold|year=2004|title=XML 1.1 Bible|edition=Third|publisher=]|page=291|isbn=0764549863}}
* {{cite IETF|last=]; ]; ] |rfc=3986 |title=RFC 3986 Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax |date=January 2005 |publisher=Internet Engineering Task Force |language=en |access-date=2024-02-16 }}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/uri-clarification/|author=Joint W3C/IETF URI Planning Interest Group|title=URIs, URLs, and URNs: Clarifications and Recommendations 1.0|date=21 September 2001|accessdate=2009-07-27|ref={{SfnRef|Joint W3C/IETF URI Planning Interest Group|2001}}}}

* {{cite web|url=https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3305|title=Report from the Joint W3C/IETF URI Planning Interest Group: Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), URLs, and Uniform Resource Names (URNs): Clarifications and Recommendations|editor1-first=M.|editor1-last=Mealling|editor2-first=R.|editor2-last=Denenberg|publisher=]|date=August 2002|accessdate=13 September 2015|ref={{SfnRef|Joint W3C/IETF URI Planning Interest Group|2002}}}}
== Further reading ==
* {{cite web|url=https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7595|title=Guidelines and Registration Procedures for URI Schemes|editor-first=D.|editor-last=Thaler|author1-first=T.|author1-last=Hansen|author2-first=T.|author2-last=Hardie|publisher=]|date=June 2015|issn=2070-1721|ref={{SfnRef|IETF|2015}}}}
* {{cite book|last=Morrison|first=Michael|year=2006|title=Sams Teach Yourself XML|publisher=]|chapter=Hour 5: ''Putting Namespaces to Use''|page=91|ref=harv}}
* {{cite web|first=Sean B.|last=Palmer|title=The Early History of HTML|url=http://infomesh.net/html/history/early/|year=2001|accessdate=2009-04-30|ref=harv}}
* {{cite web|author = URI Planning Interest Group, W3C/IETF|title= URIs, URLs, and URNs: Clarifications and Recommendations 1.0|url= http://www.w3.org/TR/uri-clarification/ | date = 21 September 2001|accessdate=2009-07-27|ref={{SfnRef|URI Planning Interest Group|2009}}
}}
* {{cite web|url= http://www.w3.org/History/19921103-hypertext/hypertext/WWW/Addressing/Addressing.html|title=W3 Naming Schemes|publisher=]|year=1992|accessdate=2009-07-24|ref={{SfnRef|W3C|1992}}}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/alternatives-discovery.html |title=On Linking Alternative Representations To Enable Discovery And Publishing|publisher=]|year=2006|orig-year=2001|accessdate=2012-04-03|ref={{SfnRef|W3C|2001}}}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/#iri-use|title=Namespaces in XML 1.1 (Second Edition)|date=16 August 2006|at=2.2 Use of URIs as Namespace Names|editor1-first=Tim|editor1-last=Bray|editor1-link=Tim Bray|editor2-first=Dave|editor2-last=Hollander|editor3-first=Andrew|editor3-last=Layman|editor4-first=Richard|editor4-last=Tobin|publisher=]|accessdate=31 August 2015|ref={{SfnRef|W3C|2006}}}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/|title=Cool URIs for the Semantic Web|editor1-first=Leo|editor1-last=Sauermann|editor2-first=Richard|editor2-last=Cyganiak|author1-first=Danny|author1-last=Ayers|author2-first=Max|author2-last=Völkel|publisher=]|date=3 December 2008|accessdate=2012-04-03|ref={{SfnRef|W3C|2008}}}}
* {{cite web|url=http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/#iri-use|title=Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Third Edition)|date=8 December 2009|at=2.2 Use of URIs as Namespace Names|editor1-first=Tim|editor1-last=Bray|editor1-link=Tim Bray|editor2-first=Dave|editor2-last=Hollander|editor3-first=Andrew|editor3-last=Layman|editor4-first=Richard|editor4-last=Tobin|editor5-first=Henry S.|editor5-last=Thompson|publisher=]|accessdate=31 August 2015|ref={{SfnRef|W3C|2009}}}}
* {{cite web|url=https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc1866#section-8.2.1|title=Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0|author1-first=Tim|author1-last=Berners-Lee|author1-link=Tim Berners-Lee|author2-first=Dan|author2-last=Connolly|publisher=]|date=November 1995|accessdate=13 September 2015}}
* {{cite web|url=http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2396|title=Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax|author1-first=Tim|author1-last=Berners-Lee|author1-link=Tim Berners-Lee|author2-first=Roy|author2-last=Fielding|author2-link=Roy Fielding|author3-first=Larry|author3-last=Masinter|publisher=]|date=August 1998|accessdate=31 August 2015|ref={{SfnRef|RFC 2396|1998}}}}
* {{cite web|url=http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3986|title=Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax|author1-first=Tim|author1-last=Berners-Lee|author1-link=Tim Berners-Lee|author2-first=Roy|author2-last=Fielding|author2-link=Roy Fielding|author3-first=Larry|author3-last=Masinter|publisher=]|date=January 2005|accessdate=31 August 2015|ref={{SfnRef|RFC 3986|2005}}}}


{{refbegin|32em}}
* {{cite book |author-first=Elliotte Rusty |author-last=Harold |author-link=Elliotte Rusty Harold |date=2004 |title=XML 1.1 Bible |edition=Third |publisher=] |page=291 |isbn=978-0-7645-4986-1}}
* {{cite IETF|rfc=7595 |title=Guidelines and Registration Procedures for URI Schemes |editor-first=Dave |editor-last=Thaler |author-first1=Tony |author-last1=Hansen |author-first2=Ted |author-last2=Hardie |journal=IETF Request for Comments (RFC) Pages - Test |publisher=] |date=June 2015 |issn=2070-1721 |ref={{SfnRef|IETF|2015}}}}
* {{cite book |author-last=Morrison |author-first=Michael Wayne |author-link=Michael Wayne Morrison |date=2006 |title=Sams Teach Yourself XML |publisher=] |chapter=Hour 5: ''Putting Namespaces to Use'' |page=91}}
* {{cite web |author=((URI Planning Interest Group, W3C/IETF)) |title=URIs, URLs, and URNs: Clarifications and Recommendations 1.0 |url=http://www.w3.org/TR/uri-clarification/ |date=21 September 2001 |access-date=2009-07-27 |ref={{SfnRef|URI Planning Interest Group|2009}}}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.w3.org/2001/tag/doc/alternatives-discovery.html |title=On Linking Alternative Representations To Enable Discovery And Publishing |publisher=] |date=2006 |orig-year=2001 |access-date=2012-04-03 |ref={{SfnRef|W3C|2001}}}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/#iri-use |title=Namespaces in XML 1.1 (Second Edition) |date=16 August 2006 |at=2.2 Use of URIs as Namespace Names |editor-first1=Tim |editor-last1=Bray |editor-link1=Tim Bray |editor-first2=Dave |editor-last2=Hollander |editor-first3=Andrew |editor-last3=Layman |editor-first4=Richard |editor-last4=Tobin |publisher=] |access-date=31 August 2015 |ref={{SfnRef|W3C|2006}}}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.w3.org/TR/cooluris/ |title=Cool URIs for the Semantic Web |editor-first1=Leo |editor-last1=Sauermann |editor-first2=Richard |editor-last2=Cyganiak |author-first1=Danny |author-last1=Ayers |author-first2=Max |author-last2=Völkel |publisher=] |date=3 December 2008 |access-date=2012-04-03 |ref={{SfnRef|W3C|2008}}}}
* {{cite web |url=http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-xml-names/#iri-use |title=Namespaces in XML 1.0 (Third Edition) |date=8 December 2009 |at=2.2 Use of URIs as Namespace Names |editor-first1=Tim |editor-last1=Bray |editor-link1=Tim Bray |editor-first2=Dave |editor-last2=Hollander |editor-first3=Andrew |editor-last3=Layman |editor-first4=Richard |editor-last4=Tobin |editor-first5=Henry S. |editor-last5=Thompson |publisher=] |access-date=31 August 2015 |ref={{SfnRef|W3C|2009}}}}
* {{cite IETF|rfc=1866|section=8.2.1 |title=Hypertext Markup Language – 2.0 |author-first1=Tim |author-last1=Berners-Lee |author-link1=Tim Berners-Lee |author-first2=Daniel "Dan" |author-last2=Connolly |author-link2=Daniel Connolly (computer scientist) |publisher=] |date=November 1995 |s2cid=6628570 |access-date=13 September 2015 |ref={{SfnRef|RFC 1866|1995}} }}
* {{cite IETF |title=Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax |rfc=2396 |author-first1=Tim |author-last1=Berners-Lee |author-link1=Tim Berners-Lee |author-first2=Roy T. |author-last2=Fielding |author-link2=Roy T. Fielding |author-first3=Larry |author-last3=Masinter |author-link3=Larry Masinter |publisher=] |date=August 1998 |access-date=31 August 2015 |ref={{SfnRef|RFC 2396|1998}}}}
* {{cite IETF |title=Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax |rfc=3986 |author-first1=Tim |author-last1=Berners-Lee |author-link1=Tim Berners-Lee |author-first2=Roy T. |author-last2=Fielding |author-link2=Roy T. Fielding |author-first3=Larry |author-last3=Masinter |author-link3=Larry Masinter |publisher=] |date=January 2005 |access-date=31 August 2015 |ref={{SfnRef|RFC 3986|2005}}}}
* {{cite IETF |rfc=3986|section=3 |title=Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax|sectionname=Syntax Components |author-first1=Tim |author-last1=Berners-Lee |author-link1=Tim Berners-Lee |author-first2=Roy T. |author-last2=Fielding |author-link2=Roy T. Fielding |author-first3=Larry |author-last3=Masinter |author-link3=Larry Masinter |publisher=] |date=January 2005 |access-date=31 August 2015 |ref={{SfnRef|RFC 3986, section 3|2005}}}}
* {{cite web |author-last1=Lawrence |author-first1=Eric |title=Browser Arcana: IP Literals in URLs |url=http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ieinternals/archive/2014/03/06/browser-arcana-ipv4-ipv6-literal-urls-dotted-va-dotless.aspx |website=IEInternals |publisher=] |date=6 March 2014 |access-date=2016-04-25}}
{{refend}} {{refend}}
* {{cite journal|journal=]|year=1998|doi= 10.1109/4236.722228|issn=1941-0131|volume=2|issue=5|title=WebDAV: IEFT standard for collaborative authoring on the Web|first=E.J|last=Whitehead|pages=34–40 |url=https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/722228|access-date=12 October 2021}}


==External links== ==External links==
* – ]-maintained registry of URI Schemes * &nbsp;– ]-maintained registry of URI Schemes
* *
* – by W3C * &nbsp;– by W3C
* *


{{Semantic Web|state=collapsed}} {{Semantic Web|state=collapsed}}
Line 187: Line 289:


{{Authority control}} {{Authority control}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2020|cs1-dates=y|}}


] ]
] ]
] ]
]
] ]
]

Latest revision as of 15:59, 15 October 2024

String used to identify a name of a web or internet resource "URI" redirects here. For other uses, see URI (disambiguation). Not to be confused with URL.
This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)
Uniform Resource Identifier
AbbreviationURI
Native nameRFC 3986
StatusActive
Year started2005
First publishedJanuary 2005 (2005-01)
OrganizationRFC
AuthorsTim Berners-Lee; Roy Thomas Fielding; Larry Masinter
DomainWorld Wide Web
Websitehttps://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc3986#section-1.1

A Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), formerly Universal Resource Identifier, is a unique sequence of characters that identifies an abstract or physical resource, such as resources on a webpage, mail address, phone number, books, real-world objects such as people and places, concepts. URIs are used to identify anything described using the Resource Description Framework (RDF), for example, concepts that are part of an ontology defined using the Web Ontology Language (OWL), and people who are described using the Friend of a Friend vocabulary would each have an individual URI.

URIs which provide a means of locating and retrieving information resources on a network (either on the Internet or on another private network, such as a computer filesystem or an Intranet) are Uniform Resource Locators (URLs). Therefore, URLs are a subset of URIs, ie. every URL is a URI (and not necessarily the other way around). Other URIs provide only a unique name, without a means of locating or retrieving the resource or information about it; these are Uniform Resource Names (URNs). The web technologies that use URIs are not limited to web browsers.

History

Conception

URIs and URLs have a shared history. In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee's proposals for hypertext implicitly introduced the idea of a URL as a short string representing a resource that is the target of a hyperlink. At the time, people referred to it as a "hypertext name" or "document name".

Over the next three and a half years, as the World Wide Web's core technologies of HTML, HTTP, and web browsers developed, a need to distinguish a string that provided an address for a resource from a string that merely named a resource emerged. Although not yet formally defined, the term Uniform Resource Locator came to represent the former, and the more contentious Uniform Resource Name came to represent the latter. In July 1992 Berners-Lee's report on the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) "UDI (Universal Document Identifiers) BOF" mentions URLs (as Uniform Resource Locators), URNs (originally, as Unique Resource Numbers), and the need to charter a new working group. In November 1992 the IETF "URI Working Group" met for the first time.

During the debate over defining URLs and URNs, it became evident that the concepts embodied by the two terms were merely aspects of the fundamental, overarching, notion of resource identification. In June 1994, the IETF published Berners-Lee's first Request for Comments that acknowledged the existence of URLs and URNs. Most importantly, it defined a formal syntax for Universal Resource Identifiers (i.e. URL-like strings whose precise syntaxes and semantics depended on their schemes). In addition, the RFC 1630 attempted to summarize the syntaxes of URL schemes in use at the time. It acknowledged -- but did not standardize—the existence of relative URLs and fragment identifiers.

Refinement

In December 1994, RFC 1738 formally defined relative and absolute URLs, refined the general URL syntax, defined how to resolve relative URLs to absolute form, and better enumerated the URL schemes then in use. The agreed definition and syntax of URNs had to wait until the publication of IETF RFC 2141 in May 1997.

The publication of IETF RFC 2396 in August 1998 saw the URI syntax become a separate specification and most of the parts of RFCs 1630 and 1738 relating to URIs and URLs in general were revised and expanded by the IETF. The new RFC changed the meaning of U in URI from "Universal" to "Uniform."

In December 1999, RFC 2732 provided a minor update to RFC 2396, allowing URIs to accommodate IPv6 addresses. A number of shortcomings discovered in the two specifications led to a community effort, coordinated by RFC 2396 co-author Roy Fielding, that culminated in the publication of IETF RFC 3986 in January 2005. While obsoleting the prior standard, it did not render the details of existing URL schemes obsolete; RFC 1738 continues to govern such schemes except where otherwise superseded. IETF RFC 2616 for example, refines the http scheme. Simultaneously, the IETF published the content of RFC 3986 as the full standard STD 66, reflecting the establishment of the URI generic syntax as an official Internet protocol.

In 2001, the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) Technical Architecture Group (TAG) published a guide to best practices and canonical URIs for publishing multiple versions of a given resource. For example, content might differ by language or by size to adjust for capacity or settings of the device used to access that content.

In August 2002, IETF RFC 3305 pointed out that the term "URL" had, despite widespread public use, faded into near obsolescence, and serves only as a reminder that some URIs act as addresses by having schemes implying network accessibility, regardless of any such actual use. As URI-based standards such as Resource Description Framework make evident, resource identification need not suggest the retrieval of resource representations over the Internet, nor need they imply network-based resources at all.

The Semantic Web uses the HTTP URI scheme to identify both documents and concepts for practical uses, a distinction which has caused confusion as to how to distinguish the two. The TAG published an e-mail in 2005 with a solution of the problem, which became known as the httpRange-14 resolution. The W3C subsequently published an Interest Group Note titled Cool URIs for the Semantic Web, which explained the use of content negotiation and the HTTP 303 response code for redirections in more detail.

Design

URLs and URNs

A Uniform Resource Name (URN) is a URI that identifies a resource by name in a particular namespace. A URN may be used to talk about a resource without implying its location or how to access it. For example, in the International Standard Book Number (ISBN) system, ISBN 0-486-27557-4 identifies a specific edition of the William Shakespeare play Romeo and Juliet. The URN for that edition would be urn:isbn:0-486-27557-4. However, it gives no information as to where to find a copy of that book.

A Uniform Resource Locator (URL) is a URI that specifies the means of acting upon or obtaining the representation of a resource, i.e. specifying both its primary access mechanism and network location. For example, the URL http://example.org/Main_Page refers to a resource identified as /Main_Page, whose representation is obtainable via the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (http:) from a network host whose domain name is example.org. (In this case, HTTP usually implies it to be in the form of HTML and related code. In practice, that is not necessarily the case, as HTTP allows specifying arbitrary formats in its header.)

A URN is analogous to a person's name, while a URL is analogous to their street address. In other words, a URN identifies an item and a URL provides a method for finding it.

Technical publications, especially standards produced by the IETF and by the W3C, normally reflect a view outlined in a W3C Recommendation of 30 July 2001, which acknowledges the precedence of the term URI rather than endorsing any formal subdivision into URL and URN.

URL is a useful but informal concept: a URL is a type of URI that identifies a resource via a representation of its primary access mechanism (e.g., its network "location"), rather than by some other attributes it may have.

As such, a URL is simply a URI that happens to point to a resource over a network. However, in non-technical contexts and in software for the World Wide Web, the term "URL" remains widely used. Additionally, the term "web address" (which has no formal definition) often occurs in non-technical publications as a synonym for a URI that uses the http or https schemes. Such assumptions can lead to confusion, for example, in the case of XML namespaces that have a visual similarity to resolvable URIs.

Specifications produced by the WHATWG prefer URL over URI, and so newer HTML5 APIs use URL over URI.

Standardize on the term URL. URI and IRI are just confusing. In practice a single algorithm is used for both so keeping them distinct is not helping anyone. URL also easily wins the search result popularity contest.

While most URI schemes were originally designed to be used with a particular protocol, and often have the same name, they are semantically different from protocols. For example, the scheme http is generally used for interacting with web resources using HTTP, but the scheme file has no protocol.

Syntax

See also: List of URI schemes

A URI has a scheme that refers to a specification for assigning identifiers within that scheme. As such, the URI syntax is a federated and extensible naming system wherein each scheme's specification may further restrict the syntax and semantics of identifiers using that scheme. The URI generic syntax is a superset of the syntax of all URI schemes. It was first defined in RFC 2396, published in August 1998, and finalized in RFC 3986, published in January 2005.

A URI is composed from an allowed set of ASCII characters consisting of reserved characters (gen-delims: :, /, ?, #, , and @; sub-delims: !, $, &, ', (, ), *, +, ,, ;, and =), unreserved characters (uppercase and lowercase letters, decimal digits, -, ., _, and ~), and the character %. Syntax components and subcomponents are separated by delimiters from the reserved characters (only from generic reserved characters for components) and define identifying data represented as unreserved characters, reserved characters that do not act as delimiters in the component and subcomponent respectively, and percent-encodings when the corresponding character is outside the allowed set or is being used as a delimiter of, or within, the component. A percent-encoding of an identifying data octet is a sequence of three characters, consisting of the character % followed by the two hexadecimal digits representing that octet's numeric value.

The URI generic syntax consists of five components organized hierarchically in order of decreasing significance from left to right:

URI = scheme ":"  path  

A component is undefined if it has an associated delimiter and the delimiter does not appear in the URI; the scheme and path components are always defined. A component is empty if it has no characters; the scheme component is always non-empty.

The authority component consists of subcomponents:

authority =  host 

This is represented in a syntax diagram as:

URI syntax diagram

The URI comprises:

  • A non-empty scheme component followed by a colon (:), consisting of a sequence of characters beginning with a letter and followed by any combination of letters, digits, plus (+), period (.), or hyphen (-). Although schemes are case-insensitive, the canonical form is lowercase and documents that specify schemes must do so with lowercase letters. Examples of popular schemes include http, https, ftp, mailto, file, data and irc. URI schemes should be registered with the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA), although non-registered schemes are used in practice.
  • An optional authority component preceded by two slashes (//), comprising:
    • An optional userinfo subcomponent followed by an at symbol (@), that may consist of a user name and an optional password preceded by a colon (:). Use of the format username:password in the userinfo subcomponent is deprecated for security reasons. Applications should not render as clear text any data after the first colon (:) found within a userinfo subcomponent unless the data after the colon is the empty string (indicating no password).
    • A host subcomponent, consisting of either a registered name (including but not limited to a hostname) or an IP address. IPv4 addresses must be in dot-decimal notation, and IPv6 addresses must be enclosed in brackets ().
    • An optional port subcomponent preceded by a colon (:), consisting of decimal digits.
  • A path component, consisting of a sequence of path segments separated by a slash (/). A path is always defined for a URI, though the defined path may be empty (zero length). A segment may also be empty, resulting in two consecutive slashes (//) in the path component. A path component may resemble or map exactly to a file system path but does not always imply a relation to one. If an authority component is defined, then the path component must either be empty or begin with a slash (/). If an authority component is undefined, then the path cannot begin with an empty segment—that is, with two slashes (//)—since the following characters would be interpreted as an authority component.
By convention, in http and https URIs, the last part of a path is named pathinfo and it is optional. It is composed by zero or more path segments that do not refer to an existing physical resource name (e.g. a file, an internal module program or an executable program) but to a logical part (e.g. a command or a qualifier part) that has to be passed separately to the first part of the path that identifies an executable module or program managed by a web server; this is often used to select dynamic content (a document, etc.) or to tailor it as requested (see also: CGI and PATH_INFO, etc.).
Example:
URI: "http://www.example.com/questions/3456/my-document"
where: "/questions" is the first part of the path (an executable module or program) and "/3456/my-document" is the second part of the path named pathinfo, which is passed to the executable module or program named "/questions" to select the requested document.
An http or https URI containing a pathinfo part without a query part may also be referred to as a 'clean URL,' whose last part may be a 'slug.'
Query delimiter Example
Ampersand (&) key1=value1&key2=value2
Semicolon (;) key1=value1;key2=value2
  • An optional query component preceded by a question mark (?), consisting of a query string of non-hierarchical data. Its syntax is not well defined, but by convention is most often a sequence of attribute–value pairs separated by a delimiter.
  • An optional fragment component preceded by a hash (#). The fragment contains a fragment identifier providing direction to a secondary resource, such as a section heading in an article identified by the remainder of the URI. When the primary resource is an HTML document, the fragment is often an id attribute of a specific element, and web browsers will scroll this element into view.

The scheme- or implementation-specific reserved character + may be used in the scheme, userinfo, host, path, query, and fragment, and the scheme- or implementation-specific reserved characters !, $, &, ', (, ), *, ,, ;, and = may be used in the userinfo, host, path, query, and fragment. Additionally, the generic reserved character : may be used in the userinfo, path, query and fragment, the generic reserved characters @ and / may be used in the path, query and fragment, and the generic reserved character ? may be used in the query and fragment.

Example URIs

The following figure displays example URIs and their component parts.

          userinfo       host      port
          ┌──┴───┐ ┌──────┴──────┐ ┌┴─┐
  https://john.doe@www.example.com:1234/forum/questions/?tag=networking&order=newest#top
  └─┬─┘   └─────────────┬─────────────┘└───────┬───────┘ └────────────┬────────────┘ └┬┘
  scheme            authority                path                   query          fragment
          userinfo       host      port
          ┌──┴───┐ ┌──────┴──────┐ ┌┴─┐
  https://john.doe@www.example.com:1234/forum/questions/?tag=networking&order=newest#:~:text=whatever
  └─┬─┘   └─────────────┬─────────────┘└───────┬───────┘ └────────────┬────────────┘ └───────┬───────┘
  scheme            authority                path                   query                 fragment
  ldap:///c=GB?objectClass?one
  └┬─┘   └─────┬─────┘└─┬─┘ └──────┬──────┘
  scheme   authority   path      query
  mailto:John.Doe@example.com
  └─┬──┘ └────┬─────────────┘
  scheme     path
  news:comp.infosystems.www.servers.unix
  └┬─┘ └─────────────┬─────────────────┘
  scheme            path
  tel:+1-816-555-1212
  └┬┘ └──────┬──────┘
  scheme    path
  telnet://192.0.2.16:80/
  └─┬──┘   └─────┬─────┘│
  scheme     authority  path
  urn:oasis:names:specification:docbook:dtd:xml:4.1.2
  └┬┘ └──────────────────────┬──────────────────────┘
  scheme                    path

DOIs (digital object identifiers) fit within the Handle System and fit within the URI system, as facilitated by appropriate syntax.

URI references

A URI reference is either a URI or a relative reference when it does not begin with a scheme component followed by a colon (:). A path segment that contains a colon character (e.g., foo:bar) cannot be used as the first path segment of a relative reference if its path component does not begin with a slash (/), as it would be mistaken for a scheme component. Such a path segment must be preceded by a dot path segment (e.g., ./foo:bar).

Web document markup languages frequently use URI references to point to other resources, such as external documents or specific portions of the same logical document:

  • in HTML, the value of the src attribute of the img element provides a URI reference, as does the value of the href attribute of the a or link element;
  • in XML, the system identifier appearing after the SYSTEM keyword in a DTD is a fragmentless URI reference;
  • in XSLT, the value of the href attribute of the xsl:import element/instruction is a URI reference; likewise the first argument to the document() function.
https://example.com/path/resource.txt#fragment
//example.com/path/resource.txt
/path/resource.txt
path/resource.txt
../resource.txt
./resource.txt
resource.txt
#fragment

Resolution

Resolving a URI reference against a base URI results in a target URI. This implies that the base URI exists and is an absolute URI (a URI with no fragment component). The base URI can be obtained, in order of precedence, from:

  • the reference URI itself if it is a URI;
  • the content of the representation;
  • the entity encapsulating the representation;
  • the URI used for the actual retrieval of the representation;
  • the context of the application.

Within a representation with a well defined base URI of

http://a/b/c/d;p?q

a relative reference is resolved to its target URI as follows:

"g:h"     -> "g:h"
"g"       -> "http://a/b/c/g"
"./g"     -> "http://a/b/c/g"
"g/"      -> "http://a/b/c/g/"
"/g"      -> "http://a/g"
"//g"     -> "http://g"
"?y"      -> "http://a/b/c/d;p?y"
"g?y"     -> "http://a/b/c/g?y"
"#s"      -> "http://a/b/c/d;p?q#s"
"g#s"     -> "http://a/b/c/g#s"
"g?y#s"   -> "http://a/b/c/g?y#s"
";x"      -> "http://a/b/c/;x"
"g;x"     -> "http://a/b/c/g;x"
"g;x?y#s" -> "http://a/b/c/g;x?y#s"
""        -> "http://a/b/c/d;p?q"
"."       -> "http://a/b/c/"
"./"      -> "http://a/b/c/"
".."      -> "http://a/b/"
"../"     -> "http://a/b/"
"../g"    -> "http://a/b/g"
"../.."   -> "http://a/"
"../../"  -> "http://a/"
"../../g" -> "http://a/g"

URL munging

URL munging is a technique by which a command is appended to a URL, usually at the end, after a "?" token. It is commonly used in WebDAV as a mechanism of adding functionality to HTTP. In a versioning system, for example, to add a "checkout" command to a URL, it is written as http://editing.com/resource/file.php?command=checkout. It has the advantage of both being easy for CGI parsers and also acts as an intermediary between HTTP and underlying resource, in this case.

Relation to XML namespaces

In XML, a namespace is an abstract domain to which a collection of element and attribute names can be assigned. The namespace name is a character string which must adhere to the generic URI syntax. However, the name is generally not considered to be a URI, because the URI specification bases the decision not only on lexical components, but also on their intended use. A namespace name does not necessarily imply any of the semantics of URI schemes; for example, a namespace name beginning with http: may have no connotation to the use of the HTTP.

Originally, the namespace name could match the syntax of any non-empty URI reference, but the use of relative URI references was deprecated by the W3C. A separate W3C specification for namespaces in XML 1.1 permits Internationalized Resource Identifier (IRI) references to serve as the basis for namespace names in addition to URI references.

See also

Notes

  1. A report published in 2002 by a joint W3C/IETF working group aimed to normalize the divergent views held within the IETF and W3C over the relationship between the various 'UR*' terms and standards. While not published as a full standard by either organization, it has become the basis for the above common understanding and has informed many standards since then.
  2. The procedures for registering new URI schemes were originally defined in 1999 by RFC 2717, and are now defined by RFC 7595, published in June 2015.
  3. For URIs relating to resources on the World Wide Web, some web browsers allow .0 portions of dot-decimal notation to be dropped or raw integer IP addresses to be used.
  4. Historic RFC 1866 (obsoleted by RFC 2854) encourages CGI authors to support ';' in addition to '&'.

References

  1. Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry 2005, p. 1, "Abstract"
  2. ^ Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry 2005, p. 7; "1.1.2. Examples", "1.1.3. URI, URL, and URN"
  3. Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry 2005, p. 5, "Resource: the term "resource" is used in a general sense for whatever might be identified by a URI"
  4. Palmer, Sean. "The Early History of HTML". infomesh.net. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  5. "W3 Naming Schemes". www.w3.org. 1992. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  6. "Proceedings of the Twenty-Fourth Internet Engineering Task Force" (PDF). p. 193. Retrieved 2021-07-27.
  7. "Proceedings of the Twenty-Fifth Internet Engineering Task Force" (PDF). p. 501. Retrieved 2021-07-27.
  8. Berners-Lee, Tim (June 1994). Universal Resource Identifiers in WWW: A Unifying Syntax for the Expression of Names and Addresses of Objects on the Network as used in the World-Wide Web. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1630. RFC 1630. Informational.
  9. T. Berners-Lee; L. Masinter; M. McCahill (December 1994). Uniform Resource Locators (URL). Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1738. RFC 1738. Obsolete. Obsoleted by RFC 4248 and 4266. Updated by RFC 1808, 2368, 2396, 3986, 6196, 6270 and 8089.
  10. R. Moats (May 1997). P. Vixie (ed.). URN Syntax. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2141. RFC 2141. Proposed Standard. Obsoleted by RFC 8141.
  11. ^ T. Berners-Lee; R. Fielding; L. Masinter (August 1998). Uniform Resource Identifiers (URI): Generic Syntax. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2396. RFC 2396. Obsolete. Obsoleted by RFC 3986. Updated by RFC 2732. Updates RFC 1808 and 1738.
  12. R. Hinden; B. Carpenter; L. Masinter (December 1999). Format for Literal IPv6 Addresses in URL's. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2732. RFC 2732. Obsolete. Obsoleted by RFC 3986.
  13. ^ T. Berners-Lee; R. Fielding; L. Masinter (January 2005). Uniform Resource Identifier (URI): Generic Syntax. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC3986. STD 66. RFC 3986. Internet Standard 66. Obsoletes RFC 2732, 2396 and 1808. Updated by RFC 6874, 7320 and 8820. Updates RFC 1738.
  14. R. Fielding; J. Gettys; J. Mogul; H. Frystyk; L. Masinter; P. Leach; T. Berners-Lee (August 1999). Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC2616. RFC 2616. Obsolete. Obsoleted by RFC 7230, 7231, 7232, 7233, 7234 and 7235. Obsoletes RFC 2068. Updated by RFC 2817, 5785, 6266 and 6585.
  15. Raman, T.V. (2006-11-01). "On Linking Alternative Representations To Enable Discovery And Publishing". www.w3.org. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  16. ^ Mealling, Michael H.; Denenberg, Ray (August 2002). Report from the Joint W3C/IETF URI Planning Interest Group: Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), URLs, and Uniform Resource Names (URNs): Clarifications and Recommendations. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC3305. RFC 3305. Informational.
  17. Fielding, Roy (2005-06-18). "[httpRange-14] Resolved". lists.w3.org. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  18. Sauermann, Leo (December 2008). "Cool URIs for the Semantic Web". www.w3.org. Retrieved 2020-12-06.
  19. URI Planning Interest Group, W3C/IETF (September 2001). "URIs, URLs, and URNs: Clarifications and Recommendations 1.0". www.w3.org. W3C/IETF. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
  20. "URL Standard: 6.3. URL APIs elsewhere".
  21. "URL Standard: Goals".
  22. Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry 2005, p. 46; "9. Acknowledgements"
  23. ^ Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry 2005, pp. 13–14; "2.2. Reserved Characters", "2.3. Unreserved Characters"
  24. Berners-Lee, Tim; Fielding, Roy T.; Masinter, Larry 2005, pp. 12; "2.1. Percent-Encoding"
  25. Hansen, Tony; Hardie, Ted (June 2015). Thaler, Dave (ed.). Guidelines and Registration Procedures for URI Schemes. Internet Engineering Task Force. doi:10.17487/RFC7595. ISSN 2070-1721. BCP 35. RFC 7595. Best Current Practice 35. Updated by RFC 8615. Obsoletes RFC 4395.
  26. Lawrence (2014).
  27. Berners-Lee, Tim; Connolly, Daniel W. (November 1995). Hypertext Markup Language - 2.0. Network Working Group. doi:10.17487/RFC1866. RFC 1866. Historic. Obsoleted by RFC 2854.
  28. Whitehead 1998, p. 38.
  29. Morrison (2006).
  30. Harold (2004).
  31. W3C (2009).
  32. W3C (2006).

Works cited

Further reading

External links

Semantic Web
Background
Sub-topics
Applications
Related topics
Standards
Syntax and supporting technologies
Schemas, ontologies and rules
Semantic annotation
Common vocabularies
Microformat vocabularies
Uniform Resource Identifier (URI) schemes
Official
Unofficial
Protocol list
Hypermedia
Basics
Resource identifiers
Concepts
Technology
See also

Categories: