Create View Source Link

This blog will show you how to create a hyperlink on a Web page that displays the source code for the current page or another page when the hyperlink is clicked.

The normal Anchor tag when associate with the HREF parameter will cause the browser to pull the URL and display the page when the anchor link is clicked on. However, if you add the "view-source" prefix in front of the link, it will cause the browser to display the HTML source for the page instead of the rendered page itself.

Being able to display the source code of a web page is extremely valuable especially if you want to be able to show your site visitors how to do certain things or teach beginners how to compose HTML documents.

Keep in mind that "view-source" works only on absolute links. Also, if you are trying to access an HTML file through the FILE protocol, you must fully qualify the URL which means you have to include the full path to the file.

Here's the source code to create view source link:

<a href="view-source:http://yoursite.com/FileName.htm">Source Code</a>