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Re: Full vs partial URL in webpages, is there a rule for this?

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From: Birkir R. Gunnarsson
Date: Nov 7, 2011 4:33PM

Hi Jim and thanks for the pointers. :)
This is bizarre, and perhaps the problem lies elsewhere.
When I hit enter on the given link (when signed in), absolutely
nothing happens, it seems like a page is not even activated, I don't
get error messages or anything, nothing happens ;) and continues to
happen, until I open the html code, parse the relative address, go to
the site address bar, type in the site address, paste the relative
path, and Bob's your uncle (or John, or any likely candidate name to
have in one's relations, in Iceland you might have to shoot for Asgeir
or Bjorn).
From what I've been reading, and the replies on this list, it appears
the server configuration is not necessarily the problem.
The code is not Javascript (I thought it might be mouse only
activation), bt this is not the case.
I'll keep digging, get in touch with the admins and and report back if
I find something that might affect accessibility in general, who
knows. ;)
Thanks all
-birkir


On 11/7/11, Jim Allan < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> Birkir,
> not getting any information is an accessibility problem...for everyone
> (grin)
> if relative URLs don't work you need to fix it in your server
> configuration. Especially, if the URL is a directory. Most webservers have
> a default page (index.html, default.html) that will be loaded if no page is
> given. If this page is not in the directory, you should receive a 404 page
> not found error. It could also be setup to all directory browsing.
> you may be getting nothing because it is a site that requires a login.
> Though on sites I have been on like that, the server throws you to the
> login page.
> Sounds like you need to talk to the web admins.
> Jim
>
> On Mon, Nov 7, 2011 at 5:11 PM, Angela French < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
>
>> I have always used relative hrefs in my coding, rather than absolute.
>>
>> >-----Original Message-----
>> >From: <EMAIL REMOVED> [mailto:webaim-forum-
>> > <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Birkir R. Gunnarsson
>> >Sent: Monday, November 07, 2011 2:05 PM
>> >To: WebAIM Discussion List
>> >Subject: [WebAIM] Full vs partial URL in webpages, is there a rule for
>> this?
>> >
>> >Hi gang
>> >
>> >I came across an interesting problem today, that turned out not to really
>> be
>> >an accessibility problem.
>> >A user reported that clicking on a link on an internal wbsite did not
>> produce
>> >any results (no new page was loaded).
>> >A quick check on the html code confirmed that the problem appears to be
>> >that the href attribute of the anchor link only gives the internal folder
>> url.
>> >(since the website is a closed one I am probably not allowed to provide
>> > th
>> >exact url).
>> >Think of it as
>> >a href="/subdirectory/document"
>> >rather than
>> >a href="http://mypage.com/subdirectory/documents"
>> >Actually, the specific page was coded in asp.net I believe and the
>> references
>> >looked like
>> >
>> ><a href="/?PageID=337"
>> >I confirmed this by cocatenating this part with the page address in the
>> >address bar, and this took me to the subpage of the site as expected.
>> >
>> >Since this is a website where users have to log in, it seems to be ok for
>> the
>> >developers to assume that the url to the site itself is concatenated with
>> the
>> >links in the href part .. but this is not the case.
>> >Isn't that an example of bad coding, shouldn't full urls always be
>> included in
>> >links, or are there situations where this technique is acceptable, or
>> > even
>> >recommended?
>> >I know this is not exactly accessibility, but I had to address it as an
>> >accessibility problem, feel free to let me know if this is too off topic.
>> >Thanks
>> >-Birkir
>> >