You've learned HTML, built a Web page, and even gotten it uploaded to your Web server. But there's just one problem, where is it? What do you tell your friends and family when they ask to see your Web site? More advanced Web developers think it's old hat, but figuring out where your pages are and how to reference them is a very common problem.
Parts of a URL
There are, effectively, three parts of a URL. Here's a standard URL on the former*
About Web pages: http://homepages.about.com/jennkyrnin/samples/page3.html and these
are the parts:
- The Domain
http://homepages.about.com/
This is the part of the URL that is controlled by your hosting provider
- The Directories
/jennkyrnin/samples/
This part often includes details unique to you - such as your username (/jennkyrnin/). And it will also include any directories you may have put on your site, in this case /samples/.
- The file name
page3.html
This is the actual name of the file that you uploaded from your hard drive.
Figuring Out Your URL
Once you know the parts of the URL, you can do a little deconstruction to figure out
what your URL is. For example, if you are hosting your pages on the About personal
pages, you know that your domain will be:http://homepages.about.com/
And your directory will be your username. If you created sub-directories on your account, you'll need to keep track of where you uploaded your pages, so you can include the directory names in your URL.
Finally, the page name will be the exact same filename as what is on your hard drive. Keep in mind that some servers are case-sensitive. This means that a file named Page3.html is different than a file named page3.html.
Special URLs
Some URLs don't have a file name listed. This doesn't mean that there isn't a file
to create the page, but rather that there is a default name that servers look for
if no file name is specified. This file name is index.html or index.htm. So, the
following two URLs would point to exactly the same page:
http://homepages.about.com/jennkyrnin/samples/
http://homepages.about.com/jennkyrnin/samples/index.html
Once you've figured out your URL, try it out in a browser before sending it to all your friends. And if you continue to have problems finding your URL, you should contact the technical support for your hosting provider.
Note: The About personal Web pages no longer exist.
