How to make "http://" or "https://" optional in HTML URL validation

Question

HTML's URL validation expects http:// or https:// by default. I tried adding a pattern attribute with custom regular expression along with type="url", but failed to do so successfully.

Is there any option that we can override the regular expression to make http:// or https:// optional?

It may be helpful in the future if you learn the regular expression syntax so these types of modifications are easy: http://www.regular-expressions.info/quickstart.html — NightOwl888, Mar 25 '15 at 15:22
Simply, something like `/some/path` is *not* a URL, so an input of `type="url"` won't accept it. You'll have to use something like `type="text"` along with the `pattern` attribute to validate via regular expression. — Chris Pratt, Mar 25 '15 at 15:37
Why did some one down voted this question? I too gone through some comments like- setting type="url" for an html input has http:// or https:// optional by default. But this is not true, for me i checked in IE11 and chrome (thought it might be browser specific) and found http:// or htts:// is a mandatory prefix. But www was found optional. — Harun, Apr 06 '15 at 09:24
@Murat Yildiz, I followed Chris Pratt's opinion by making the type="text" and set a pattern ((http(s)?://)?([\w]+\.)+[a-zA-Z]{2,4}) and that worked for me. Thanks Chris. — Harun, Apr 06 '15 at 09:29
I thought you need a "regular expression to make http:// or https:// optional". Anyway, I voted up ChrisPratt's answer as well. — Murat Yıldız, Apr 06 '15 at 09:33
@Murat Yildiz, Appreciate your help. I have already voted for his comment. — Harun, Apr 06 '15 at 11:19

score 2 · Answer 1 · edited Feb 07 '23 at 16:29

2

Please try this regular expression that validates URLs without "http://", "https://" or "www":

//Validates url without "http://", "https://" or "www"
[RegularExpression(@"((www\.|(http|https|ftp|news|file|)+\:\/\/)?[&#95;.a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z0-9\/&#95;:@=.+?,##%&~-]*[^.|\'|\# |!|\(|?|,| |>|<|;|\)])", ErrorMessage = "Please check the url")]

edited Feb 07 '23 at 16:29

TylerH

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answered Mar 25 '15 at 15:06

Murat Yıldız

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score 0 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 07 '23 at 16:30

You can use "DataAnnotationsExtensions" library (MVC 4 URL validation). But it's too old, I don't know how it works with latest MVC versions.

My solution. Not validation in model, show URL as hyperlink:

Model:

public class MyClass {
     public int Id { get; set; }
     public string WebSite { get; set; }
 }

View:

@foreach (var item in Model) {
 <tr>
     <td>
         <a target="_blank" href="http://@Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.WebSite)">@Html.DisplayFor(modelItem => item.WebSite)</a>
     </td>
     <td>
         @Html.ActionLink("Edit", "Edit", new { id=item.Id }) |
         @Html.ActionLink("Details", "Details", new { id=item.Id }) |
         @Html.ActionLink("Delete", "Delete", new { id=item.Id })
     </td>
 </tr> 
}

How to make "http://" or "https://" optional in HTML URL validation

2 Answers2