Universal Resource Locator (URL)

Universal Resource Locator is a string that represents a resource, where to find it, how to access it.

The full URL include the following information:

• protocol: for example, http, https, mongodb, zip
• user: the username for authentication purposes
• pass: the password associated with the username
• server: the name or the address of the server where the resource reside
• path: the location of the resource on the server
• query: extra parameters to reach the resource
• fragment: the location of the resource inside the previous address, server and path

PHP has several functions dedicated to processing URL, such as parse_url() and http_build_query().

PHP also makes use of URL as a generalisation for file path. For example, file_get_contents() and fopen() both work on local and remote files, via URL.

PHP is able to process different protocols with its internal Protocols and Wrappers, using the file system functions.

<?php

    print_r(parse_url('https://www.php.net/'));

/*
Array
(
    [scheme] => https
    [host] => www.php.net
    [path] => /
)
*/

    // fetch the PHP home page
    $html = file_get_contents('https://www.php.net/'); 
?>

Documentation

See Also

• URL Functions
• Supported Protocols and Wrappers

Related

• Secure Sockets Layer (SSL)
• File
• Query String
• Scheme
• URI Extension
• Universal Resource Identifier (URI)
• Canonical
• Pound #
• Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
• parse_url()
• file_get_contents()
• fopen()
• http_build_query()
• URI Class
• Anchor
• Link
• Slug
• Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG)
• Asset
• Domain Name
• Redirect