Predefined Protocols

Windows Internet Explorer implements various protocols that can be used to identify certain information. A protocol is a set of rules and standards that enables two or more computers to communicate.

Note   'about:' is not a protocol as it does not enable two or more computers to communicate (see earlier definition). No data is being sent to the client — the client is simply being instructed to display a certain pre-defined set of information.

 

Predefined Protocols

Topic	Contents
data Protocol	Specifies a data URI, which is a resource, typically an image, embedded in the URI as opposed to one loaded from an external URL.
file protocol	Opens a file on a local or network drive.
ftp Protocol	Opens a file transfer session with the specified site address.
gopher Protocol	Opens a gopher session with the specified site address.
http Protocol	Opens a hypertext transfer session with the specified site address.
https Protocol	Opens a secure hypertext transfer session with the specified site address.
javascript Protocol	Specifies that the URL is JavaScript code.
mailto Protocol	Opens a client's e-mail system and begins a new email message.
news Protocol	Opens a newsgroup in the client's default news application.
res Protocol	Specifies a resource that will be obtained from a module.
telnet_Protocol	Opens a terminal login session with the default Telnet client.
view-source Protocol	Obsolete for Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 for Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and later. For earlier versions, opens a Web page in the client's default HTML editor.

 

Note  Some of these protocols are no longer supported by Internet Explorer.