I\'m trying to figure out what all is happening in the LinkedIN links URL. A lin
ID: 650761 • Letter: I
Question
I'm trying to figure out what all is happening in the LinkedIN links URL. A link from LinkedIN community opens with a window shade (?) containing the LinkedIN site tools much like the alerts here at SE. The target link is embedded in a LinkedIN url as a GET variable.
This is a LinkedIN link in three parts (the middle part is the target URL),
http://www.linkedin.com/news?viewArticle=&articleID=5567246644694487049&gid=87719&type=member&item=90729979&articleURL=+
http%3A%2F%2Fwww.nypl.org%2Fblog%2F2011%2F03%2F24%2Fprecarity-readers-guide +
&urlhash=mQ1h&trk=group_most_recent_rich-0-b-shrttl
What is this GUI widget I called "window shade" commonly referred to as?
What is the technical code reference?
What is the term I can use to describe the way LinkedIN uses GET data?
Explanation / Answer
1.) I would consider that some kind of notification bar. But I'm not sure if that is commonly what it is referred as.
2.) This would be implemented using javascript and css. You make a div and give it a class name and when an event triggers then you would use the javascript to show that div and have a link on the div that would trigger javascript to hide the div.
3.) The way that LinkedIn uses GET data is called using the Query String. One thing to note is that it can expose some security problems since it is easily editable by the user.
EDIT in response to xtian's comment:
So, what is happening in the link is that LinkedIn is redirecting to whatever is the articleURL. Chances are that it is performing some sort of database queries off of the article ID and the gid to ensure that the link is valid (and possibly perform analytics for the link) and then it just redirects to the articleURL.
It could be as simple as just calling:
window.location.href=$ArticleURL
from a javascript function, where $ArticleURL is the articleURL from the Query String.
I hope that clears things up. If not, let me know and I'll try to expand more.