Accessible URL’s make life easier Jan16 '05

My Music and Video section

My music section contains music items, with links to the iTunes music store. These links are helpful for viewers who wish to purchase the album or song immediately, or just find out more details about the artist.

I am also in the process of creating a "video" section for this site, where I will showcase videos I have seen, descriptions, and links to each video at Netflix.com.

iTunes and Netflix links

When I link to the iTunes Music Store, or to the Netflix site, I use the URL for the specific item I wish to reference.

Some would think I just copy the entire URL for each item, but in reality, I just copy the dynamic information from the URL – which, in most cases, are the ID numbers. The rest of the URL is always the same.

So, rather than inefficiently storing the entire URL into my database each time, I only store the appropriate ID’s.

In a way, I interact with the URL’s.

But how does this interaction happen?

Accessible URL’s

Both the iTunes Music Store, and the Netflix site display accessible URL’s – so when you look at the link, you can immediately decipher what it means.

Let’s take a look at example URL’s for both:

iTunes Music Store: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewAlbum? playlistId=22634649&selectedItemId=22634652
Netflix site: http://www.netflix.com/MovieDisplay?movieid=973861

Each URL has distinct parts, where each "piece of the puzzle" is filled in. In both of these cases, the appropriate ID is filled in.

At first glance, they might seem confusing and full of random letters and numbers. However, they are very easy to understand.

Let’s have some fun, and break them apart.

iTunes Music Store URL "pieces"

Link to the Music Store main page: http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/
Playlist (Album) ID: playlistId=22634649
Select Item (Song) ID: selectedItemId=22634652

Netflix URL "pieces"

Link to Netflix main page: http://www.netflix.com/
Movie ID: movieid=973861

As you can see, both URL’s are easy to break apart and decipher.

Everything stays the same, except a different ID is "plugged in," which takes you to an entirely different page.

It’s almost as if the URL (everything besides the ID) is a template.

Good, but could be better

Even those these example URL’s are good, they could even be better, and MORE accessible.

The problem with these URL’s is that they show the variables. This is OK sometimes, but usually can be improved, because all those question marks and ampersands can get out of control.

It’s usually better to use forward slashes, in combination with mod_rewrite, to create dynamic URL’s, such as this:

http://www.netflix.com/movies/sling-blade/reviews/

As you can see, the URL above is even more understandable. Just by reading it, you know exactly what would be shown on the page – reviews of the movie "Sling Blade."

The bottom line

URL’s are just as important to a web site as the navigation, text size, colors, etc.

Friendly URL’s make web sites more usable, accessible, and are just darn handy.

Categories: Accessibility

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matthom is published and produced by Matt Thommes - an independent publishing enthusiast, mobile blogger, content creator, informative writer, web developer from Chicago. Never one to conform, Matt intends to promote the effect the web has on our lives, in an effort to intensify, instruct, and clarify all that is happening around us.