Head First HTML with CSS

easier urls
140 Chapter 4
I’d like my visitors to be able to
type “http://www.starbuzzcoffee.com”
and not have to type the “index.html”. Is
there a way to do that?
Yes, there is. One thing we haven’t talked about is what
happens if a browser asks for a directory rather than a file
from a Web server. For instance, a browser might ask for:
http://www.starbuzzcoffee.com/images/
or
http://www.starbuzzcoffee.com/
When a Web server receives a request like this, it tries to
locate a default file in that directory. Typically a default file is
called “index.html” or “default.htm” and if the server finds
one of these files, it returns the file to the browser to display.
So, to return a file by default from your root directory (or
any other directory), just name the file “index.html” or
“default.htm”.
http://www.starbuzzcoffee.com
it will change it to:
But I asked about
“http://www.starbuzzcoffee.com”,
which looks a little different. It
doesn’t have the ending “/”.
Oops, you sure did. When a server receives a request like
yours without the trailing “/” and there is a directory with
that name, then the server will add a trailing slash for you.
So if the server gets a request for:
http://www.starbuzzcoffee.com/
which will cause the server to look for a default file, and in
the end it will return the file as if you’d originally typed:
http://www.starbuzzcoffee.com/index.html
Remember, when we’re
talking about Web servers
or FTP, we usually use the
term “directory” instead
of “folder.” But they’re
really the same thing.
The images directory in
the root directory.
The root directory itself.
But, you need to find out
what your hosting company
wants you to name your
default file, because it
depends on the type of
server they use.