How to read a URL

A URL has five parts (protocol, domain name, port, path and query string), and each one tells the web server something about the request.

Novice · Web Development · Updated

A web address is a URL (Uniform Resource Locator). The URL of a web page consists of different parts, each of which is an important piece of communication with the web server.

Parts of a URL

  • Protocol: how the request is sent (https means it is encrypted)
  • Domain name: the address of the server where the website is hosted
  • Port: the port (extension) of the web application on the server
  • Path: the path to the requested resource. It may be a real folder structure or a virtual path
  • Query string: extra information sent with the request, usually search values. It starts after the ?

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