Scripture URL Strategy on Scriptures.lds.org
The Church recently released an upgrade of the scriptures program at scriptures.lds.org. The following information explains the logic of the URLs to assist those who have referenced scriptures on their Web sites.
Example: http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/1/13-14,16#13
Domain name: scriptures.lds.org
Language: In the example above, en stands for English. The language codes for other languages currently available at scriptures.lds.org are as follows: en for English, de for German, es for Spanish, fr for French, and it for Italian. We use the ISO 639.2 language codes. If the language is not specified, it will default to English.
Reference: In the example above, 2_ne/1/13-14,16 is the book, chapter, and verse, patterned after printed references, with a forward slash separating each element.
- Book name: To see the list of the abbreviations of book names to use in the URL, click here, then click the word Abbreviations.
- Chapters are simply entered as the chapter number.
- Verses can be entered as a single verse (for example: 1), or as a contiguous set of verses using a single hyphen (for example: 13-14), or as a set of verses separated by commas (for example: 8,12). You can also create combinations of contiguous verses and single verses (for example: 1-8,12-15,20). There should be no spaces when entering verses. If you provide verse numbers, these verses will be automatically highlighted in the chapter.
- Automatic Scroll. You can also add a Goto marker (for example, 2_ne/1/13-14,16#13) to automatically scroll to a particular verse in the chapter. This is optional and not required, but can be very helpful to direct the user to a specific verse.
You can also reference a footnote in a scripture as follows: http://scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/9/51b
In this example, 2 Nephi 9:51 has footnote b for verse 51 which is Eccl. 1:3.
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Comments
Having clean, “hackable” URLs is terrific! I hope that URLs for the rest of lds.org get as much thought put into them.
I’d like to see a set of pull-down selection menus for books, and then edit boxes for chapter and verses. Something like:
Work: ____________ (pull down selection: OT/NT/Bom/DC/PGP)
Book: ____________ (pull down of book names that varies depending on above selection. ie, if OT
is selected above, then this pull down consists of Genesis through Malachi. If BOM is selected above, then this pull-down consists of 1 Nephi through Moroni)
Chapter: _________ Edit box (not a pull down), where user enters a number,
Verse(s): ________ Edit box, user enters either “#” or “#-#” or “#,#” or combination.
I think this would be a quicker navigation than having to click through the current menu structure.
I was even thinking of writing such a “front end” on my website/blog. It wouldn’t be hard to do.
Do you happen to have a similar strategy for mp3s of the scriptures and other volumes?
By the way, the URL for the ISO codes changed to: http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/English_list.php. Thought you may want to update your link.
Thanks. I’ve fixed the link in the post to the ISO codes.
Jacob, I just posted the MP3 file naming strategy.
scriptures.lds.org has the best URLs of all the Church web sites! I’ve been referencing specific verses for friends and family using these awesome URLs for some time. I checked some old e-mails to make sure the links weren’t broken by the site update, and thankfully all of them are still good! Thank you.
You blog might be eating comments, mine never showed up.
Joseph,
I just checked the blog’s spam filter and find one post (scriptures URL). I de-spamed it so it now shows up. I’m not sure why the filter thought it was spam. Sorry. Did you have other posts?
To respond to your comment, yes, we hope to have “hackable” URLs for most of the Gospel Library content and many other Web pages (that have an identifiable structure that lends itself to an intelligent URL). It’ll take us another month or two to get it implemented.
Jacob,
Yes, we have a common strategy for mp3s, video, PDF, PDA, and all other files posted online for download. See my new post Web File Names.
A footnote can be referenced and highlighted, though I have never made use of it. For example:
scriptures.lds.org/en/2_ne/9/51b
where 2 Nephi 9:51 has footnote b for verse 51 which is Eccl. 1:3.
Rickety,
Thanks for reminding me of the footnote. I’ve added it to the post above.
This is great, I didn’t realize you could link to footnotes, but it makes sense. I couldn’t figure out a way to link to multiple verses while using the footnote though.
I have an article on my site, “How to Link to Highlighted LDS Scriptures” which I just updated to include about the footnote.
http://lds.about.com/od/ldsscriptures/a/link_scriptures.htm
In my blog entry I mentioned that this works in IE and someone commented that it works in Firefox. Does it work in Netscape? (Honestly I don’t know if this is something that would/wouldn’t work in some browsers and not others, that’s obviously why I asked.)
http://lds.about.com/b/a/257237.htm
I explain bringing up to read and print. If I am working upon a subject or lookiing for ceratin scriptures
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