UK Government Data Standards Catalogue

Metadata Value
Data Element

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
Is Part Of
Contact Information
Has Parts  
Version 1.1 
Status Release 
Previous Versions
Version: 1.0 Status: Release
 
Later Versions  
Date Agreed 1 September 2002

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Name

Uniform Resource Locator (URL)
Description The syntax and semantics for a compact string representation for a resource available via the Internet. These strings are called "Uniform Resource Locators" (URLs).
Business Format URLs are sequences of characters, i.e., letters, digits, and special characters. The characters ";", "/", "?", ":", "@", "=" and "&" are the characters which have been reserved for special meaning.
Element Type Data Type
XML Schema
Validation
See IETF RFC 1738.
Value
DefaultValue
Owner DTG
Based On IETF RFC1738
Verification
Comments
  • In general, URLs are written as follows: <scheme>:<scheme-specific-part>.
    A URL contains the name of the scheme being used followed by a colon and then a string whose interpretation depends on the scheme.
    Example schemes are:
    ftp File Transfer protocol
    http Hypertext Transfer Protocol
    mailto Electronic mail address
    file Host-specific file names

    Scheme names consist of a sequence of characters. The lower case letters "a"-"z", digits, and the characters plus ("+"), period ("."), and hyphen ("-") are allowed.

  • Amended as the result of discussion at Schema Group meeting 21 August 2002