I was just struggling with this -- specifically, our users' "UX" expectation that entering "example.com" should work when asked for their website URL.
Most URL validation rules/regex/librairies/etc. reject "example.com". However, if you head over to Stripe (for example), in the account settings, when asked for your company's URL, Stripe will accept "example.com", and assume "http://" as the prefix (which yes, can have its own problems)
What's a good solution? I both want to validate URLs, but also let users enter "example.com". But if I simply do
if(validateURL(url)) {
return true;
} else if(validateURL("http://" + url)) {
return true;
} else {
return false;
}
i.e. validate the given URL, and as a fallback, try to validate "
http://" + the given url, that opens the door to weird, non-URLs strings being incorrectly validated...
Help :-)
Most URL validation rules/regex/librairies/etc. reject "example.com". However, if you head over to Stripe (for example), in the account settings, when asked for your company's URL, Stripe will accept "example.com", and assume "http://" as the prefix (which yes, can have its own problems)
What's a good solution? I both want to validate URLs, but also let users enter "example.com". But if I simply do
i.e. validate the given URL, and as a fallback, try to validate "http://" + the given url, that opens the door to weird, non-URLs strings being incorrectly validated...Help :-)