---
title: "URL"
source: https://dev.pageseeder.com/reference/glossary/url.html
description: "URL is a first-class PageSeeder object representing external resources with metadata and labels. It enables reverse cross-references for tracking links to external sites and supports semantic web objectives."
last_updated: 2026-09-05T17:32:47+10:00
tokens: ~504
---

# URL

Also known as an *external URI*.

This object stores the location of a resource that exists outside PageSeeder. It is a first class citizen in the system and can be the target of links which produce reverse cross-references. Because an external URL is a specialized PSML document, it can have metadata and labels. It is also searchable, like other documents. External URLs can be uploaded with [metadata](/psml/universal_format/universal_metadata_format.md) as part of the [Universal Portable Format](/psml/universal_format/universal_portable_format.md).

The display of [reverse cross-references](/reference/glossary/reverse_xref.md) from external URLs is a good mechanism for tracking and managing links from documentation to external sites. For example, a document collection with multiple references to a section of legislation, might find that links to an external URL are a more reliable expression of a relationship than searching the text for references.

While not syntactically the same as the semantic web, the URL object helps PageSeeder to support some of the semantic web architectural objectives.

> **Note:** Unlike [internal URIs](/reference/glossary/uri.md) the path part of a URL is case sensitive, for example `https://example.org/abc` is considered a different URL to `https://example.org/ABC`. The URL and its metadata are only stored once per server. URLs are associated with groups when they are linked to from a document or comment in that group. A URL’s title, description and metadata (if specified in the [URL template](/guide/configuration/url_types.md)) are automatically extracted from its source the first time it is created or linked to. Only an [Administrator](/reference/glossary/administrator.md), or a  [Contributor](/reference/glossary/role.md) in a group that has the “**Allow contributors in this group to edit all URLs on the server**” option ticked in the [group configuration](/reference/glossary/group_config_advanced_options.md), can edit URLs and their metadata.