What is a URL Parameter and how is it categorized?
You can identify a parameter based upon what is after the question mark (?) in a URL. The question mark in any parameter is used as a separator and it is not part of the query string. Here are some examples of typical uses of URLs with parameters, which appear as bolded text.
A very simple URL parameter, however it is not in any readable format:
https://www[dot]example[dot]com/wh?v=ZBAGEeOms-8
A longer URL parameter that is more readable to the human eye. In this example, we have searched for shoes and results were returned:
http://www.example[dot]com/Clothing-Shoes/Shoes/dept.html?keywords=shoes&searchtype=Header
Another long URL parameter that is somewhat readable but not as easy as the one above. We also searched for shoes and results were returned:
http://www.example[dot]com/sch/i.html?_trksid=p20601.m520.l1914.TR0.TRC0.H0.Xshoes&_nkw=shoes&_sacat=0&_from=R60
Here is a URL parameter using the same site as above but this time we searched for “grey shoes”:
http://www.example[dot]com/sch/i.html?_odkw=shoes&_osacat=0&_from=R60&_trksid=p20573.m520.l1914.TR12.TRC2.A0.H0.Xgrey+shoe&_nkw=grey+shoes&_sacat=0
These examples represent various ways a website will use URL parameters. With several special standard reserved characters such as a question mark and an equal sign, each URL parameter will be designed differently from site to site and it is dependent on how the website and application was constructed.
For website categorization, the zveloDB SDK™ possesses full support for URLs with parameters. Some of our current technology partners may already have the categorization support built-into their deployments. Others may need to upgrade to a later version of the SDK in order to take advantage of this feature.
