Editing Help:URL (section)

==URLs of Wikipedia pages==
{{anchor|WP}}{{shortcut|WP:URLs}}
English Wikipedia's URLs begin https://en.wikipedia.org/. That address on its own is redirected to the [[Main Page]].

* The main form of a URL to a Wikipedia page:
*:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Page_name (used in [[Help:Link#Wikilinks|wikilinks]], recommended when a URL has to be given)
* An alternative form:
*:https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Page_name (allows more options by appending parameters to the URL, not indexed by search engines)
The page name may include a [[WP:Namespace|namespace]] prefix (such as "Help:" 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).

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 ''second'' form, i.e. it extends the index.php query string "title=Page_name".

Extended URLs are used:
* To go to a [[WP:Redirect|redirect]] page without following the redirect: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Railway_train&redirect=no
* To go to the edit page (or view the source of a protected page): https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&action=edit. Other parameters can be added, such as ''section=5'' or ''section=new'' 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]]).
* To access the [[Help:Page history|edit history]] of a page: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&action=history (or further parameters can be added, as in https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&limit=5&offset=90&action=history, which displays edits 91–95).
* To link to a particular version of a page: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&oldid=1374279 (where <code>oldid</code> is the revision number), or use [[Template:Oldid]]. A permanent link to the ''present'' version of the page can be accessed by clicking "Permanent link" under "tools" 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.
* To link to a [[Help:Diff|diff]] between two versions of a page: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&diff=1374279&oldid=1260056, where ''diff'' is the ID of the version to appear on the right. Set ''diff=0'' to compare the current version; set ''diff=0'' and ''oldid=0'' 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]).
* To [[Help:Watching pages|watch]] or unwatch a page: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&action=watch (or ''action=unwatch'').
* 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&action=purge (this is not the same as purging your browser cache).
* To perform certain other defined actions, replacing ''purge'' in the above example with ''view'', ''delete'', ''revert'', ''unprotect'', ''info'', ''markpatrolled'', ''validate'', ''render'' (most of these are available only to administrators).
* To obtain the raw wikitext of a page without downloading the full HTML: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&action=raw
* To display the page in [[Help:Printing#Printable version|printable]] version: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&printable=yes
* To view a [[Help:Category|category]] listing starting from a specified point: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Category:Disambiguation_pages&from=B
* 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&from=20030918220000 (in this case the "from" parameter is a timestamp, format yyyymmddhhmmss, UTC time, but many other types of parameter are possible, depending on the page).
* To display a page in a particular [[WP:Skin|skin]]: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&useskin=monobook. Wikipedia's skins as of 2022 are <code>cologneblue</code>, <code>modern</code>, <code>monobook</code>, <code>vector</code>, <code>vector2</code>. Registered users can set their skin at [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering]].
* To display a page with a particular interface language: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&uselang=de (<code>de</code> is the language code for German). Registered users can set their language at [[Special:Preferences]].
* 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&banner=TranslatorSignup
* The below <code>withgadget</code> will work only with gadgets that have been specifically enabled for inline loading. Registered users can load pages at [[Special:Gadgets]] by enabling the corresponding gadget at [[Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets]].
* To display a page with a script loaded from the MediaWiki namespace: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Train&withgadget=UTCLiveClock (loads [[MediaWiki:Gadget-UTCLiveClock.js]]).
* To display a page formatted for mobile devices, add .m after en https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Train

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.)

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).

=== Shorter URL ===
[[Wikipedia:URLShortener]] gives a way to make short URLs to Wikipedia pages.

An unofficial redirect site mentioned at [[User:Tl-lomas/enwp.org]] also offers shorter URLs.

*https:/<nowiki/>/enwp.org/''[[wp:pagename#fullpagename|fullpagename]]''
*https:/<nowiki/>/enwp.org?curid=pageid 

enwp.org is not controlled by the [[Wikimedia Foundation]], so it could stop working or change purpose at any time.

The second form can make a long page name into a short code.
It uses ''pageid'', which remains accurate even if the page is moved.
Pageid has up to 8 digits, shown by clicking "Page information" under "Tools" on the left side of the page.