What is the definition of an absolute URL (fully qualified?)

RFC 3986 defines Uniform Resource Identifiers. A relative reference that begins with a single slash character is termed an absolute-path reference. A relative reference that does not begin with a slash character is termed a relative-path reference. href=”foo/bar.html” is a relative reference, specifically a relative-path reference. href=”/foo/bar.html” is a relative reference with an absolute path … Read more

Is array syntax using square brackets in URL query strings valid?

The answer is not simple. The following is extracted from section 3.2.2 of RFC 3986 : A host identified by an Internet Protocol literal address, version 6 [RFC3513] or later, is distinguished by enclosing the IP literal within square brackets (“[” and “]”). This is the only place where square bracket characters are allowed in … Read more

OK to skip slash before query string?

As a matter of modern spec, yes, it is permissible to skip the slash, contrary to what the accepted answer here claims. Although the accepted answer correctly quotes RFC 1738 (released over 20 years ago!), it wrongly claims that RFC 2396 (released in 1998) requires the slash, and neglects that both of those specs have … Read more

IIS URL Rewrite not working with query string

As described in Microsoft’s documentation: It is important to understand how certain parts of the URL string can be accessed from a rewrite rule. For an HTTP URL in this form: http(s)://{host}:{port}/{path}?{querystring} The {path} is matched against the pattern of the rule. The {querystring} is available in the server variable called QUERY_STRING and can be … Read more

PathLocationStrategy vs HashLocationStrategy in web apps

For me the main difference is that the PathLocationStrategy requires a configuration on the server side to all the paths configured in @RouteConfig to be redirected to the main HTML page of your Angular2 application. Otherwise you will have some 404 errors when trying to reload your application in the browser or try to access … Read more

Weird characters in URL

They are essentially malformed URLs. They can be generated from a specific malware that is trying to exploit web site vulnerabilities, from malfunctioning browser plugin or extension, or from a bug in a JS file (i.e. tracking with Google Analytics) in combination with a specific browser version/operating system. In any case, you can’t actually control … Read more

A url resource that is a dot (%2E)

It’s actually not really clearly stated in the standard (RFC 3986) whether a percent-encoded version of . or .. is supposed to have the same this-folder/up-a-folder meaning as the unescaped version. Section 3.3 only talks about “The path segments . and ..”, without clarifying whether they match . and .. before or after pct-encoding. Personally … Read more