view-source URI scheme
{{Short description|URI scheme on browsers}}
{{selfref|{{redirect|View source|trying to edit a protected page on Wikipedia|WP:View source}}}}
{{primary sources|date=October 2012}}
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The view-source URI scheme is used by some web browsers to construct URIs that result in the browser displaying the source code of a web page or other web resource.{{Cite report |url=https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/draft-yevstifeyev-view-source-uri/ |title=The 'view-source' URI Scheme |last=Yevstifeyev |first=Mykyta |date=2011-04-23 |publisher=Internet Engineering Task Force |issue=draft-yevstifeyev-view-source-uri-01}}
For example, the URI view-source:
should show the source of the page located at [https://example.com https://example.com]
.
In the early Internet, the View Source technique helped people learn by example to create their own web pages.{{Cite book |last1=Sahlin |first1=Doug |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cfDRYLDyKcoC&dq=%22view+source%22&pg=PA161 |title=Building Web Sites All-in-One Desk Reference For Dummies |last2=Snell |first2=Claudia |date=2007-02-03 |publisher=John Wiley & Sons |isbn=978-0-470-12720-9 |language=en}}
On 25 May 2011, the 'view-source' URI scheme was officially registered with IANA{{cite web|last=Yevstifeyev|first=M.|title='view-source' URI scheme registration template|url=https://www.iana.org/assignments/uri-schemes/prov/view-source|access-date=17 July 2011}} per RFC 4395.
Browser support
Firefox and Internet Explorer both supported the scheme, but support was dropped from Internet Explorer in Windows XP SP2 due to security problems.{{cite web
|url=http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa767742.aspx
|title=view-source Protocol
|publisher=MSDN
|access-date=2009-02-25
}} Firefox also suffered a similar security issue (by combining view-source and JavaScript URIs{{cite web
|url=http://www.milw0rm.com/id.php?id=1007
|access-date=2009-02-25
|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070814075238/http://www.milw0rm.com/id.php?id=1007
|archive-date=2007-08-14
|title=Mozilla Firefox view-source:javascript url Code Execution Exploit
|work=milw0rm
|author=mikx
|date=2005-05-21
}}), but still supported it in Firefox 1.5{{cite web
|url=http://deftone.com/blogzilla/archives/view_source_bug_fixed_and_a_tip.html
|title=View Source Bug Fixed and a Tip
|work=blogzilla
|author=jonathan
|date=2005-11-30
|access-date=2009-02-25
}} after being fixed. In 2009, a new discovered bug was fixed in Firefox 3.0.9.{{cite web|url=https://www.mozilla.org/security/announce/2009/mfsa2009-17.html|title=MFSA 2009-17: Same-origin violations when Adobe Flash loaded via view-source scheme|last=Fleischer|first=Gregory|date=April 21, 2009|work=Mozilla|access-date=2009-04-22}}
References
{{URI scheme}}
{{web browsers}}
{{Subject bar|portal1=Computer programming|portal2=Internet|d=y}}