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	<id>https://safernicotine.wiki/mediawiki/index.php?action=history&amp;feed=atom&amp;title=Help%3AURL</id>
	<title>Help:URL - Revision history</title>
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	<updated>2026-05-04T06:18:05Z</updated>
	<subtitle>Revision history for this page on the wiki</subtitle>
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	<entry>
		<id>https://safernicotine.wiki/mediawiki/index.php?title=Help:URL&amp;diff=22567&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Richardpruen: 1 revision imported</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://safernicotine.wiki/mediawiki/index.php?title=Help:URL&amp;diff=22567&amp;oldid=prev"/>
		<updated>2022-01-02T17:14:07Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;1 revision imported&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;table style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122;&quot; data-mw=&quot;interface&quot;&gt;
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				&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;← Older revision&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;td colspan=&quot;2&quot; style=&quot;background-color: #fff; color: #202122; text-align: center;&quot;&gt;Revision as of 18:14, 2 January 2022&lt;/td&gt;
				&lt;/tr&gt;&lt;tr&gt;&lt;td colspan=&quot;4&quot; class=&quot;diff-notice&quot; lang=&quot;en-GB&quot;&gt;&lt;div class=&quot;mw-diff-empty&quot;&gt;(No difference)&lt;/div&gt;
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&lt;!-- diff cache key uk_vapewiki:diff:1.41:old-22566:rev-22567 --&gt;
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		<author><name>Richardpruen</name></author>
	</entry>
	<entry>
		<id>https://safernicotine.wiki/mediawiki/index.php?title=Help:URL&amp;diff=22566&amp;oldid=prev</id>
		<title>Wikipedia&gt;El C: Protected &quot;Help:URL&quot;: Persistent disruptive editing: perennial problem: not seeing any productive edits by non-confirmed users ([Edit=Require autoconfirmed or confirmed access] (indefinite) [Move=Require autoconfirmed or confirmed access] (indefinite))</title>
		<link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="https://safernicotine.wiki/mediawiki/index.php?title=Help:URL&amp;diff=22566&amp;oldid=prev"/>
		<updated>2021-02-19T13:34:57Z</updated>

		<summary type="html">&lt;p&gt;Protected &amp;quot;&lt;a href=&quot;/mediawiki/index.php/Help:URL&quot; title=&quot;Help:URL&quot;&gt;Help:URL&lt;/a&gt;&amp;quot;: Persistent &lt;a href=&quot;/mediawiki/index.php?title=WP:Disruptive_editing&amp;amp;action=edit&amp;amp;redlink=1&quot; class=&quot;new&quot; title=&quot;WP:Disruptive editing (page does not exist)&quot;&gt;disruptive editing&lt;/a&gt;: perennial problem: not seeing any productive edits by non-confirmed users ([Edit=Require autoconfirmed or confirmed access] (indefinite) [Move=Require autoconfirmed or confirmed access] (indefinite))&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;New page&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;div&gt;{{About|various URLs of Wikipedia and other Wikimedia servers|how to markup links|Help:Link}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{redirect|WP:URL|the user rights log|Special:Log/rights}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{Wikipedia how to|H:URL|WP:URL}}&lt;br /&gt;
Like all pages on the [[World Wide Web]], the pages delivered by [[Wikimedia]]&amp;#039;s servers have &amp;#039;&amp;#039;&amp;#039;[[URL]]s&amp;#039;&amp;#039;&amp;#039; to identify them. These are the addresses that appear in your browser&amp;#039;s address bar when you view a page. Wikipedia editors also have the ability to create [[hyperlink]]s to chosen URLs, pointing to pages either within Wikipedia and other Wikimedia projects, or elsewhere on the Web.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Linking to URLs==&lt;br /&gt;
{{VE documentation}}{{Linking and page manipulation|linking and diffs}}&lt;br /&gt;
When editing a page, hyperlinks to other pages within Wikipedia (or other Wikimedia projects) are normally made as &amp;#039;&amp;#039;wikilinks&amp;#039;&amp;#039; or &amp;#039;&amp;#039;interwikilinks&amp;#039;&amp;#039;, using the &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;&amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;[[...]]&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; syntax described at [[Help:Link]]. However if you want to link to an outside website, or to certain specially generated Wikimedia pages (such as a past version of an article), it is necessary to provide the full URL. This is done using &amp;#039;&amp;#039;external link syntax&amp;#039;&amp;#039;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
There are three forms of external link syntax:&lt;br /&gt;
* If the URL is simply included in the wikitext, without square brackets, then it appears as written, and a hyperlink is created: &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;&amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;https://meta.wikimedia.org/&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; produces https://meta.wikimedia.org/&lt;br /&gt;
* If the URL is placed in square brackets, then a hyperlink is created with a serial number as its label: &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;&amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;[https://meta.wikimedia.org/]&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; gives [https://meta.wikimedia.org/]&lt;br /&gt;
* If the URL is placed in square brackets followed by a space and some text, then that text is used as the label for the hyperlink: &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;&amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;[https://meta.wikimedia.org/ Wikimedia]&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; gives [https://meta.wikimedia.org/ Wikimedia]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Making a link to elsewhere on the same server as the wiki can be simplified by using &amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;{{SERVER}}&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;. Example: &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;&amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;[{{SERVER}}/relative/url]&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
To suppress the external link icon, place the external link between {{tag|span|params=class=&amp;quot;plainlinks&amp;quot;}} tags.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
===Fixing links with unsupported characters===&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{Shortcut|WP:ENCODE}}&lt;br /&gt;
* The URL must start with a supported [[URI scheme]]. &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;http://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; and &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;https://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; are always supported. &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;gopher://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;irc://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;ircs://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;ftp://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;news://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;nntp://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;worldwind://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;telnet://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;svn://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;git://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;mms://&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; and &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;mailto:&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; will create a link and an icon but require an agent registered in the browser.&lt;br /&gt;
* URLs containing certain characters will display and link incorrectly unless those characters are [[percent-encoded]]. For example, a space must be replaced by &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;%20&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; (this can be done using the PATH option of the [[Help:Parser function#Paths|{{tlc|urlencode:}}]] parser function).&lt;br /&gt;
{{incomplete list}}&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
! sp !! &amp;quot; !! &amp;#039; !! , !! ; !! &amp;lt; !! &amp;gt; !! ? !! [ !! ] !! { !! &amp;lt;nowiki&amp;gt;|&amp;lt;/nowiki&amp;gt; !! }&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| %20 || %22 || %27 || %2C || %3B || %3C || %3E || %3F || %5B || %5D || %7B || %7C || %7D&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
:{{small|Single apostrophes do not need to be encoded; but unencoded multiples will be parsed as italic or bold markup}}&lt;br /&gt;
* Titles containing certain characters will display and link incorrectly unless those characters are encoded with HTML character references.&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
! newline !! [ !! ] !! &amp;amp;#124;&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| space || &amp;amp;amp;#91; || &amp;amp;amp;#93; || &amp;amp;amp;#124;&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* Even though PHP&amp;#039;s [https://www.php.net/manual/en/function.urlencode.php urlencode()] automatically percent-encodes them, these characters do &amp;#039;&amp;#039;&amp;#039;not&amp;#039;&amp;#039;&amp;#039; get URL-encoded by [https://github.com/wikimedia/mediawiki/blob/master/includes/GlobalFunctions.php#L309 wfUrlencode()]. The &amp;quot;:&amp;quot; symbol is a partial exception – it is not encoded anywhere except for IIS 7.0.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{| class=&amp;quot;wikitable&amp;quot;&lt;br /&gt;
! ; !! @ !! $ !! ! !! * !! ( !! ) !! , !! / !! ~ !! :&lt;br /&gt;
|-&lt;br /&gt;
| %3B || %40 || %24 || %21 || %2A || %28 || %29 || %2C || %2F || %7E || %3A&lt;br /&gt;
|}&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==URLs of Wikipedia pages==&lt;br /&gt;
{{anchor|WP}}{{shortcut|WP:URLs}}&lt;br /&gt;
English Wikipedia&amp;#039;s URLs begin https://en.wikipedia.org/. That address on its own is redirected to the [[Main Page]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
* The main form of a URL to a Wikipedia page:&lt;br /&gt;
*:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_name (used in [[Help:Link#Wikilinks|wikilinks]], recommended when a URL has to be given)&lt;br /&gt;
* An alternative form:&lt;br /&gt;
*:https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Page_name (allows more options by appending parameters to the URL, not indexed by search engines)&lt;br /&gt;
The page name may include a [[WP:Namespace|namespace]] prefix (such as &amp;quot;Help:&amp;quot; in this page). With some [[Help:Special page|special pages]] it may also include a parameter, as in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/Jimbo_Wales (but for most special page parameters, see below).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other URLs associated with a page are constructed by adding a query string. The string can be added to either of the above forms (as in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train?action=history ), but in this case the system defaults to the &amp;#039;&amp;#039;second&amp;#039;&amp;#039; form, i.e. it extends the index.php query string &amp;quot;title=Page_name&amp;quot;.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Extended URLs are used:&lt;br /&gt;
* To go to a [[WP:Redirect|redirect]] page without following the redirect: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Railway_train&amp;amp;redirect=no&lt;br /&gt;
* To go to the edit page (or view the source of a protected page): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;action=edit. Other parameters can be added, such as &amp;#039;&amp;#039;section=5&amp;#039;&amp;#039; or &amp;#039;&amp;#039;section=new&amp;#039;&amp;#039; to edit or add a page section. There are also parameters for preloading text into the edit box of a new page, as used by the inputbox extension (see [[mw:Extension:InputBox]]).&lt;br /&gt;
* To access the [[Help:Page history|edit history]] of a page: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;action=history (or further parameters can be added, as in https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;limit=5&amp;amp;offset=90&amp;amp;action=history, which displays edits 91–95).&lt;br /&gt;
* To link to a particular version of a page: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;oldid=1374279 (where &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;oldid&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; is the revision number), or use [[Template:Oldid]]. A permanent link to the &amp;#039;&amp;#039;present&amp;#039;&amp;#039; version of the page can be accessed by clicking &amp;quot;Permanent link&amp;quot; under &amp;quot;tools&amp;quot; on the left side of the page. The version ID is unique across all pages; the title parameter here has no effect, and can be omitted. [[Special:PermanentLink/1374279]] is a wikilink to a page version.&lt;br /&gt;
* To link to a [[Help:Diff|diff]] between two versions of a page: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;diff=1374279&amp;amp;oldid=1260056, where &amp;#039;&amp;#039;diff&amp;#039;&amp;#039; is the ID of the version to appear on the right. Set &amp;#039;&amp;#039;diff=0&amp;#039;&amp;#039; to compare the current version; set &amp;#039;&amp;#039;diff=0&amp;#039;&amp;#039; and &amp;#039;&amp;#039;oldid=0&amp;#039;&amp;#039; to compare the two most recent versions. Again the title parameter has no real effect (you can in fact compare versions of two different pages). [[Special:Diff/1374279]] is a wikilink to a diff ([https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/63395/ documentation]).&lt;br /&gt;
* To [[Help:Watching pages|watch]] or unwatch a page: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;action=watch (or &amp;#039;&amp;#039;action=unwatch&amp;#039;&amp;#039;).&lt;br /&gt;
* To purge a page from the server cache (to have it rendered with the latest template versions etc.): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;action=purge (this is not the same as purging your browser cache).&lt;br /&gt;
* To perform certain other defined actions, replacing &amp;#039;&amp;#039;purge&amp;#039;&amp;#039; in the above example with &amp;#039;&amp;#039;view&amp;#039;&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;&amp;#039;delete&amp;#039;&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;&amp;#039;revert&amp;#039;&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;&amp;#039;unprotect&amp;#039;&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;&amp;#039;info&amp;#039;&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;&amp;#039;markpatrolled&amp;#039;&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;&amp;#039;validate&amp;#039;&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;&amp;#039;render&amp;#039;&amp;#039; (most of these are available only to administrators).&lt;br /&gt;
* To obtain the raw wikitext of a page without downloading the full HTML: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;action=raw&lt;br /&gt;
* To display the page in [[Help:Printing#Printable version|printable]] version: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;printable=yes&lt;br /&gt;
* To view a [[Help:Category|category]] listing starting from a specified point: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Disambiguation_pages&amp;amp;from=B&lt;br /&gt;
* To specify parameters for a [[Help:Special page|special page]], as in: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?/w/index.php?title=Special:Recentchanges&amp;amp;from=20030918220000 (in this case the &amp;quot;from&amp;quot; parameter is a timestamp, format yyyymmddhhmmss, UTC time, but many other types of parameter are possible, depending on the page).&lt;br /&gt;
* To display a page in a particular [[WP:Skin|skin]]: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;useskin=monobook. Wikipedia&amp;#039;s skins as of 2014 are &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;cologneblue&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;modern&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;monobook&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;, &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;vector&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt;. Registered users can set their skin at [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering]].&lt;br /&gt;
* To display a page with a particular interface language: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;uselang=de (&amp;lt;code&amp;gt;de&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; is the language code for German). Registered users can set their language at [[Special:Preferences]].&lt;br /&gt;
* To display a page with a particular banner from a page linked at [[:meta:Special:CentralNotice]]: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;banner=TranslatorSignup&lt;br /&gt;
* The below &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;withJS&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; and &amp;lt;code&amp;gt;withCSS&amp;lt;/code&amp;gt; rely on the English Wikipedia having code from [[:mw:Snippets/Load JS and CSS by URL]] in [[MediaWiki:Common.js]]. Other wikis may not have this feature. Registered users can load pages at [[Special:Gadgets]] by enabling the corresponding gadget at [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets]].&lt;br /&gt;
* To display a page with a script loaded from the MediaWiki namespace: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;withJS=MediaWiki:Gadget-UTCLiveClock.js (loads [[MediaWiki:Gadget-UTCLiveClock.js]]).&lt;br /&gt;
* To display a page with a stylesheet loaded from the MediaWiki namespace: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&amp;amp;withCSS=MediaWiki:Gadget-JustifyParagraphs.css (loads [[MediaWiki:Gadget-JustifyParagraphs.css]]). &lt;br /&gt;
* To display a page formatted for mobile devices, add .m after en https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
If constructing URLs for Wikipedia pages, remember to convert spaces into underscores, and to percent-code special characters where necessary, as described in the previous section. (For how to do this in template code, see [[#Templates and programming|Templates and programming]] below.)&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Various kinds of error message may appear if an invalid URL, or one to which you do not have access, is submitted. In other cases the URL may redirect to a valid one (for example, page titles are converted to their [[WP:Canonical|canonical form]] as they are when they appear in wikilinks).&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
=== Shorter URL ===&lt;br /&gt;
[[Wikipedia:URLShortener]] gives a way to make short URLs to Wikipedia pages.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
An unofficial redirect site mentioned at [[User:Tl-lomas/enwp.org]] also offers shorter URLs.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
*https:/&amp;lt;nowiki/&amp;gt;/enwp.org/&amp;#039;&amp;#039;[[wp:pagename#fullpagename|fullpagename]]&amp;#039;&amp;#039;&lt;br /&gt;
*https:/&amp;lt;nowiki/&amp;gt;/enwp.org?curid=pageid &lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
enwp.org is not controlled by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]], so it could stop working or change purpose at any time.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
The second form can make a long page name into a short code.&lt;br /&gt;
It uses &amp;#039;&amp;#039;pageid&amp;#039;&amp;#039;, which remains accurate even if the page is moved.&lt;br /&gt;
Pageid has up to 8 digits, shown by clicking &amp;quot;Page information&amp;quot; under &amp;quot;Tools&amp;quot; on the left side of the page.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==URLs on other Wikimedia projects==&lt;br /&gt;
Other projects use similar URLs to those of English Wikipedia, except that the domain names vary: https://meta.wikimedia.org/ (Meta), https://fr.wikipedia.org/ (French Wikipedia), https://de.wiktionary.org/ (German Wiktionary), etc.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Note that https://www.wikipedia.org leads to an international Wikipedia portal page, but other URLs beginning with that prefix redirect to English Wikipedia.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Other projects may also use different strings in place of &amp;quot;/w/&amp;quot; and &amp;quot;/wiki/&amp;quot; in URLs. For details, see the [[m:Help:URL|URL help page]] on Meta.&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==Templates and programming==&lt;br /&gt;
For use in [[WP:Template|templates]], correct URLs can be constructed using certain magic words and parser functions such as &amp;#039;&amp;#039;fullurl&amp;#039;&amp;#039;, &amp;#039;&amp;#039;urlencode&amp;#039;&amp;#039; and others. Details of these can be found at [[mw:Help:Magic words]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
Most programmatic interaction with Wikipedia can be performed most efficiently using the API, for which URLs beginning https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php are used. For details, see [[mw:API]].&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
==See also==&lt;br /&gt;
* [[mw:Manual:Parameters to index.php|Parameters to index.php at the MediaWiki manual]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[WP:URLShortener]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[Help:External link icons]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[m:Help:URL|URL help page at Meta]]&lt;br /&gt;
* [[:Category:External link templates]]&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;br /&gt;
{{Help navigation}}&lt;br /&gt;
{{Wikipedia technical help|collapsed}}&lt;br /&gt;
[[Category:Wikipedia link help|URL]]&lt;/div&gt;</summary>
		<author><name>Wikipedia&gt;El C</name></author>
	</entry>
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