Lesson 1.6

Using Hyperlinks

Hyperlink is an element in an electronic document that link to another place in the same document or to an entirely different document .Typically; we click on the hyperlink to follow the link. Hyperlink is the most essential ingredient of all hypertext system, including the World Wide Web.

Introduction to Hyperlinks and URL

The main power of HTML is the ability to support hyperlinks. Hyperlinks. A hyperlink, or a link for short, is a connection to another document or file (graphics, audio, video) or even to another section of the same document. When the user clicks the hyperlink, the user is taken to the URL that we specify in the link. We can provide link to:

   A specific section of the same document

Ø  Another document

Ø  A specific section of another document

Ø  Other files – image, audio, video clippings

       Another  location or server

          All what you see is about the link how to make a link, Example click here to see the  second page is a link 

          Figure 1.8: Using links

The links can be either internal or external:

Ø  Internal   links are to section within the same document or within the same web site.

Ø  External links are links to pages on other web sites or servers.

Figure 1.9: Internet and External links

1.      The  full address or URL  of  the  to be  linked

2.      The hotspot that will provide the link. The  hotspot  may  be a line  of text or even  an image

When the user clicks the hotspot, the browser reads the address specified   in the URL and   “jumps” to the new location.

Every resource on the Web   has a unique address. For example, 207.46.130.149 is the address of the Microsoft Web site. Now, remembering those numbers can be quite difficult and confusing. Hence, the Uniform Resource Location (URLs) are used. A  URL is string that supplies the Internet address of   a Web site or resource on the

World Wide Web.

The typical format is, www.nameofsite. Typeofsite.countrycode

For example, 216.239.33.101 can be represented by the URL, www.google.com.

The URL also identifies the protocol by which the site or resource is accessed. The most common URL type is “http,” which gives the Internet address of a Web page. Some other URL types  are  “gopher,”  which  gives the internet  address   of   a  Gopher  directory, and  “ftp,” which gives  the  network  location of an FTP resource.

The URL can also refer to a location within a resource. For example, you can create   a link   to a topic within the   same document.  In that case, a fragment identifier is used at    the end   of the URL.

The format is, protocol: name of site/main document#fragment identifier

There are two types of URLs:

Ø   Absolute URL – Is   the  full Internet  address  of  a  page or  file, including the  protocol, network  location,  and  option path  and  file  name. For   example, http://www.microsoft.com is an absolute   URL.

Ø  Relative  URL  -  Is   a  URL  with  one   or  more  of  its  parts  missing. Browsers take   the missing information from the page containing the URL.  For example, if the protocol is missing, the browser uses the protocol of the current page.