Ok...why do the pages of some websites have no .html at the end? How is that done?

Example:

http://www.usacycling.org/coaches/

Also, this site uses PHP. Why? I'm not quite sure I understand exactly what PHP is used for in this case. Is it so someone other than the designer can edit content?

a website will automatically load the "index" file in a directory if you link somebody to a directory. There is an order of presedence set in the webserver that sets what the index file should be named. Usually index.html index.htm index.php index.asp etc.... It could really be anything, and usually mutliple file names are given.

Most of the content on the page you gave is probably dynamically generated from information from a database or something like that. Read about Content Management Systems (CMS) for more detail.

With .htaccess you can change the default page of a directory, but that isn't your question.

Like missingtime stated, it will by default look for the index file of that directory. Some servers probably don't allow index's with extensions other than htm or html (like my old server).

But, to answer your question, make a new file... call it index.html. then upload it, and done.

So what you're saying is that I make, let's say, a folder, title it "shoes" and then put a file in it called "index.html". The URL would then be:

www.mysite/shoes

instead of...

www.mysite/shoes.html

Am I understanding this correctly?

Ok, I tried that and all I got was this as the URL:

www.mysite/folder/subfolder/index.html

It didn't get rid of the index.

You have the concept. It would be www mysite.com/shoes/

This would be true whether the index file ended in html, htm or php.

Edit: strange it works that way on both my server packages.

Originally Posted by colbyt

You have the concept. It would be www mysite.com/shoes/

This would be true whetehr the index file ended in html, htm or php.

Any idea why it didn't work for me?

No. I really don't. I don't think I have seen that before.

If you type in the full URL with the index it will show. But it should not show if you just stop typing with shoes/

Originally Posted by colbyt

No. I really don't. I don't think I have seen that before.

If you type in the full URL with the index it will show. But it should not show if you just stop typing with shoes/

I should clarify how it's working exactly:

When I type the URL in without the .html at the end, it works. I don't see the .html there.

However, when I click on a link to take me to that page..the page loads with the .html.

I got it.

Somehow...asking others seems to help me find the answer myself

All I did was delete the "index.html" part of it in the "link to" area in Dreamweaver.

Somehow...asking others seems to help me find the answer myself

That's the way it works sometimes. If you had mentioned a link to the page you may have gotten a different answer.

At least it all worked out and you whipped it.