At first, a system URL may look intimidating and chaotic. However, this is not the case. All system URLs follow an elegant, well defined structure. The following illustration explains the various parts of a typical eZ publish system URL:

The URL in the illustration above reflects the most basic/default web server and eZ publish configuration.

The web server might be configured not to show the index file; if so, "index.php" will simply disappear from all URL requests.

The default eZ publish site access configuration is URL, which means that the name of the site interface is incorporated into the URL requests themselves. If the site access configuration is hostname, then the site name will most likely be incorporated into the hostname (perhaps in the form of a subdomain). If the site access configuration is port, then a colon and a port number will be appended to the hostname. In both of the last cases ( hostname and port), the name of the site interface will not be included in the URL.

The diagram below illustrates a stripped version (hidden index file, non-URL site access mode) of the URL in the previous example.