Linking the Web - HTML5 with CSS3 - page 186

all surfing the Web (and we imagine that you have if you're reading this topic), you've no doubt seen this in
action.
Figure 6-2. A hyperlink as rendered by a browser
Required Attributes
There are no required attributes for the anchor element.
Optional Attributes
In addition to the global attributes, the anchor element supports the following attributes.
 href : a URL that defines the destination of the hyperlink. This can be a relative URL, an absolute
URL, or a fragment identifier.
 rel : a space-separated list of tokens that describe the destination document's relationship to the
current document.
 type : the MIME type of the hyperlink's destination.
 target : a name or keyword that is the browsing context that a browser should use when
following the hyperlink. Typical values are "_blank", "_self", "_parent", or "_top".
 media : defines the media for which the linked document was designed.
 hreflang : the language of the linked document.
URLs
If you recall the “Introducing the URL” section in Chapter 1, you'll remember that properly formed URLs
generally fall into two categories: absolute URLs and relative URLs.
Absolute URLs contain the complete path (including the protocol; http:// , https:// , etc.) to a web
page. You'll want to use absolute URLs when linking to a resource that exists on a domain other than your
own. For instance, Listing 6-3 demonstrates how you would link to a page on the Power Outfitters website
from your own.
Listing 6-3. An anchor element with an absolute URL
<a href=" http://example.com/about.html">Abo ut Power Outfitters</a>
Relative URLs, as the name implies, are URLs that reference resources by their location relative to the
location of the current document. Assume for a moment that all of the pages of your site are located in the
root of your site, as outlined in Listing 6-4.