Template:URL

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This template can be used to create a formatted external link. It formats the appearance of displayed URLs, while making them machine-readable as part of emitted microformat meta-data, inside templates such as infoboxes.

Note: If you wish to display text instead of the URL (e.g. website instead of example.com), please do not use this template. Instead, consider using normal wiki markup or Template:Official website. Displaying text instead of the url will render the microformat data invalid.

For web-based references, please see Wikipedia:Citation templates.

Usage

• {{URL|example.com}}
  • The first parameter is parsed to see if it takes the form of a complete URL. If it doesn't start with a URI scheme (such as "http:", "https:", or "ftp:"), an "http://" prefix will be prepended to the specified generated target URL of the link.
  • Parameter 2 ({{URL|url name|optional display text}}) is deprecated. See note above for more information and alternative templates.

URL with = character should use numbered parameters

If the URL contains an equals sign, as is common in a query string, the parameter |1= should be used for the URL ({{URL|1=example.com}}). This applies when the value of the URL is unknown, for example when this template is used in another template specifying the effective URL as a variable value. The deprecated second parameter for the displayed text, if present in legacy uses, must also be explicitly numbered if the first parameter is explicitly numbered ({{URL|1=url name|2=optional display text}}); otherwise it will override the value of the first parameter.

Code	Result
{{ URL | 1=https://example.com/?id=42 }}	example.com?id=42
{{ URL | 1=https://example.com/?id=42 | 2=Title }}	Title

The template attempts to handle simple cases where a URL containing an equals sign is specified without the necessary |1=, but it is still better practice to pass it in.

Examples

The template displays an instructional message if there is no input:

• {{URL| }} → {{URL|example.com|optional display text}}

The template wraps the output in <span class="url">...</span> (see § Microformat) and adds <wbr/> before displayed periods:

• {{URL | www.example.com }} → www.example.com

  <span class="url">[http://www.example.com www<wbr/>.example<wbr/>.com]</span>

The use of http://, https://, a protocol-relative URL, or a different protocol is preserved in the URL but is not shown in the link text:

• {{URL | http://www.example.com }} → www.example.com

  <span class="url">[http://www.example.com www<wbr/>.example<wbr/>.com]</span>

• {{URL | https://www.example.com }} → www.example.com

  <span class="url">[https://www.example.com www<wbr/>.example<wbr/>.com]</span>

• {{URL | //www.example.com }} → www.example.com

  <span class="url">[//www.example.com www<wbr/>.example<wbr/>.com]</span>

• {{URL | ftp://www.example.com }} → www.example.com

  <span class="url">[ftp://www.example.com www<wbr/>.example<wbr/>.com]</span>

• {{URL | ftp://ftp.example.com }} → ftp.example.com

  <span class="url">[ftp://ftp.example.com ftp<wbr/>.example<wbr/>.com]</span>

• {{URL | irc://irc.example.com/channel }} → irc.example.com/channel

  <span class="url">[irc://irc.example.com/channel irc<wbr/>.example<wbr/>.com<wbr/>/channel]</span>

If the path is only a slash (/) it is not displayed in the link text:

• {{URL | http://example.com/ }} → example.com

  <span class="url">[http://example.com/ example<wbr/>.com]</span>

The template also adds <wbr/> before any displayed slashes (/) in the path:

• {{URL | example.com/path }} → example.com/path

  <span class="url">[http://example.com/path example<wbr/>.com<wbr/>/path]</span>

• {{URL | https://example.com/path }} → example.com/path

  <span class="url">[https://example.com/path example<wbr/>.com<wbr/>/path]</span>

• {{URL | www.example.com/path/ }} → www.example.com/path/

  <span class="url">[http://www.example.com/path/ www<wbr/>.example<wbr/>.com<wbr/>/path<wbr/>/]</span>

• {{URL | https://www.example.com/path/ }} → www.example.com/path/

  <span class="url">[https://www.example.com/path/ www<wbr/>.example<wbr/>.com<wbr/>/path<wbr/>/]</span>

Upper case in the domain name is preserved in the URL, but not in the link text (upper case in the path is not changed):

• {{URL | EXAMPLE.com }} → example.com

  <span class="url">[http://EXAMPLE.com example<wbr/>.com]</span>

• {{URL | ExampleExample.com }} → exampleexample.com

  <span class="url">[http://ExampleExample.com exampleexample<wbr/>.com]</span>

• {{URL | ExampleExample.com/PathPath }} → exampleexample.com/PathPath

  <span class="url">[http://ExampleExample.com/PathPath exampleexample<wbr/>.com<wbr/>/PathPath]</span>

For a URL containing an equal sign (=), use |1=:

• {{URL |1= example.com/path?page=42 }} → example.com/path?page=42

  <span class="url">[http://example.com/path?page=42 example<wbr/>.com<wbr/>/path?page=42]</span>

• {{URL |1= https://example.com/path?page=42 }} → example.com/path?page=42

  <span class="url">[https://example.com/path?page=42 example<wbr/>.com<wbr/>/path?page=42]</span>

The template currently supports an optional second parameter which is used as the link text, though its use is discouraged (see note):

• {{URL | www.example.com | example.com }} → example.com

  <span class="url">[http://www.example.com example.com]</span>

• {{URL | exampleexample.com | ExampleExample.com }} → ExampleExample.com

  <span class="url">[http://exampleexample.com ExampleExample.com]</span>

• {{URL |1= example.com/path?page=42 |2= example.com }} → example.com

  <span class="url">[http://example.com/path?page=42 example.com]</span>

The URL may be obtained from Wikidata as shown in this example for (Q23317), where the property (P856) contains :

• {{URL | {{Wikidata|property|Q23317|P856}} }} → <strong%20class= "error"><span%20class="scribunto-error"%20id="mw-scribunto-error-3">Lua%20error%20in%20Module:Wd%20at%20line%20162:%20attempt%20to%20index%20field%20'wikibase'%20(a%20nil%20value). http://<strong%20class="error"><span%20class="scribunto-error"%20id="mw-scribunto-error-3">Lua%20error%20in%20Module:Wd%20at%20line%20162:%20attempt%20to%20index%20field%20'wikibase'%20(a%20nil%20value).

  <span class="url">[http://<strong%20class="error"><span%20class="scribunto-error"%20id="mw-scribunto-error-3">Lua%20error%20in%20Module:Wd%20at%20line%20162:%20attempt%20to%20index%20field%20'wikibase'%20(a%20nil%20value).</span></strong> http://<strong%20class="error"><span%20class="scribunto-error"%20id="mw-scribunto-error-3">Lua%20error%20in%20Module:Wd%20at%20line%20162:%20attempt%20to%20index%20field%20'wikibase'%20(a%20nil%20value).</span></strong>]</span>

Microformat

The template wraps the displayed URL with a class="url" so that it is included in any parent microformat which takes a URL parameter – see our microformats project.

TemplateData

This is the TemplateData documentation for this template used by VisualEditor and other tools; see the monthly error report for this template.

TemplateData for URL

A template to display and format a URL, inside other tempates

Template parameters

Parameter		Description	Type	Status
URL	1	The URL to be linked	String	required
Display text	2	The text to be displayed instead of the URL. Deprecated	String	deprecated

See also

• {{URL2}}
• {{Official URL}}
• {{Official website}}
• {{Plain link}}
• {{Wbr}}