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Directory Index (index.html Default Document)

This page exists to demonstrate the traditional convention: when a URL points to a directory, web servers typically serve index.html from inside that directory.

What this folder demonstrates

  • Directory URL (pretty): /example/traditional-page-index/
  • Actual file served: /example/traditional-page-index/index.html
  • These are effectively the same request on most hosts.

Compare against “flat” example pages

In the traditional “flat file” approach, pages are direct files like: /example/photo-gallery.html. The directory-index approach lets you use: /example/photo-gallery/ with an index.html inside.

Here are a few flat-file examples from this repo: