URL Reference (.url)
A .url file is a Windows "Internet Shortcut" — a small text file that points at a web address. RouteConverter opens it, pulls out the web address, and reads whatever route or map data that address itself describes.
At a glance
| Extension | .url |
| Encoding | text |
| By | Microsoft |
History
The .url shortcut is a plain INI-style file Microsoft introduced with Windows 95 and Internet Explorer for saving a link to a web page as a desktop or folder icon. RouteConverter's own reader for it dates to the project's early years (2007).
Where it is used
Any application that lets a user save a "shortcut" to a web page — a browser's Favorites/bookmarks bar, drag-and-drop from a browser onto the desktop, or a map website's own "save a link to this route" feature — can produce a .url file. RouteConverter uses it as an entry point: opening one hands the embedded address to whichever of its URL-parsing formats (Google Maps, GeoHack, Kurviger, MotoPlaner) recognizes it.
Structure
A .url file is plain text, INI-style, with an [InternetShortcut] section and a URL= line holding the target address (optionally followed by icon settings that RouteConverter ignores). RouteConverter's reader does not parse the INI structure itself — it scans the whole file text with a regular expression for the first http://, https://, ftp://, file://, news:// or mailto: address it finds.
How widespread
The .url shortcut format is still the one Windows itself creates for a saved web link and remains fully supported in current Windows versions; RouteConverter reads one only to unwrap the web address it contains, not as a GPS data format in its own right.
RouteConverter support
| Reads | URL Reference |
RouteConverter reads this format but cannot write it.
RouteConverter only reads .url files; it cannot write them. Opening one only succeeds if the embedded address is itself a URL one of RouteConverter's other URL formats recognizes — a plain arbitrary web link produces an error rather than a route.