How to properly reference local resources in HTML?

Solution 1:

A leading slash tells the browser to start at the root directory.
If you don't have the leading slash, you're referencing from the current directory.
If you add two dots before the leading slash, it means you're referencing the parent of the current directory.

Take the following folder structure

demo folder structure

notice:

the ROOT checkmark is green,
the second checkmark is orange,
the third checkmark is purple,
the fourth checkmark is yellow

Now in the index.html.en file you'll want to put the following markup

<p>
    <span>src="check_mark.png"</span>
    <img src="check_mark.png" />
    <span>I'm purple because I'm referenced from this current directory</span>
</p>

<p>
    <span>src="/check_mark.png"</span>
    <img src="/check_mark.png" />
    <span>I'm green because I'm referenced from the ROOT directory</span>
</p>

<p>
    <span>src="subfolder/check_mark.png"</span>
    <img src="subfolder/check_mark.png" />
    <span>I'm yellow because I'm referenced from the child of this current directory</span>
</p>

<p>
    <span>src="/subfolder/check_mark.png"</span>
    <img src="/subfolder/check_mark.png" />
    <span>I'm orange because I'm referenced from the child of the ROOT directory</span>
</p>

<p>
    <span>src="../subfolder/check_mark.png"</span>
    <img src="../subfolder/check_mark.png" />
    <span>I'm purple because I'm referenced from the parent of this current directory</span>
</p>

<p>
    <span>src="subfolder/subfolder/check_mark.png"</span>
    <img src="subfolder/subfolder/check_mark.png" />
    <span>I'm [broken] because there is no subfolder two children down from this current directory</span>
</p>

<p>
    <span>src="/subfolder/subfolder/check_mark.png"</span>
    <img src="/subfolder/subfolder/check_mark.png" />
    <span>I'm purple because I'm referenced two children down from the ROOT directory</span>
</p>

Now if you load up the index.html.en file located in the second subfolder
http://example.com/subfolder/subfolder/

This will be your output

enter image description here