PHP validation/regex for URL

Question

I\'ve been looking for a simple regex for URLs, does anybody have one handy that works well? I didn\'t find one with the zend framework validation classes and have seen sev

Answer 1

Inspired in this .NET StackOverflow question and in this referenced article from that question there is this URI validator (URI means it validates both URL and URN).

if( ! preg_match( "/^([a-z][a-z0-9+.-]*):(?:\\/\\/((?:(?=((?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=:]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))(\\3)@)?(?=(\\[[0-9A-F:.]{2,}\\]|(?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))\\5(?::(?=(\\d*))\\6)?)(\\/(?=((?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=:@\\/]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))\\8)?|(\\/?(?!\\/)(?=((?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=:@\\/]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))\\10)?)(?:\\?(?=((?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=:@\\/?]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))\\11)?(?:#(?=((?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=:@\\/?]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))\\12)?$/i", $uri ) )
{
    throw new \RuntimeException( "URI has not a valid format." );
}

I have successfully unit-tested this function inside a ValueObject I made named Uri and tested by UriTest.

UriTest.php (Contains valid and invalid cases for both URLs and URNs)

assertInstanceOf( 'XaviMontero\\ThrasherPortage\\Tour\\Uri', $sut );
    }

    /**
     * @dataProvider urlIsValidProvider
     * @dataProvider urnIsValidProvider
     */
    public function testGetUriAsStringWhenUriIsValid( string $uri )
    {
        $sut = new Uri( $uri );
        $actual = $sut->getUriAsString();

        $this->assertInternalType( 'string', $actual );
        $this->assertEquals( $uri, $actual );
    }

    public function urlIsValidProvider()
    {
        return
            [
                [ 'http://example-server' ],
                [ 'http://example.com' ],
                [ 'http://example.com/' ],
                [ 'http://subdomain.example.com/path/?parameter1=value1¶meter2=value2' ],
                [ 'random-protocol://example.com' ],
                [ 'http://example.com:80' ],
                [ 'http://example.com?no-path-separator' ],
                [ 'http://example.com/pa%20th/' ],
                [ 'ftp://example.org/resource.txt' ],
                [ 'file://../../../relative/path/needs/protocol/resource.txt' ],
                [ 'http://example.com/#one-fragment' ],
                [ 'http://example.edu:8080#one-fragment' ],
            ];
    }

    public function urnIsValidProvider()
    {
        return
            [
                [ 'urn:isbn:0-486-27557-4' ],
                [ 'urn:example:mammal:monotreme:echidna' ],
                [ 'urn:mpeg:mpeg7:schema:2001' ],
                [ 'urn:uuid:6e8bc430-9c3a-11d9-9669-0800200c9a66' ],
                [ 'rare-urn:uuid:6e8bc430-9c3a-11d9-9669-0800200c9a66' ],
                [ 'urn:FOO:a123,456' ]
            ];
    }

    /**
     * @dataProvider urlIsNotValidProvider
     * @dataProvider urnIsNotValidProvider
     */
    public function testCreationThrowsExceptionWhenUriIsNotValid( string $uri )
    {
        $this->expectException( 'RuntimeException' );
        $this->sut = new Uri( $uri );
    }

    public function urlIsNotValidProvider()
    {
        return
            [
                [ 'only-text' ],
                [ 'http//missing.colon.example.com/path/?parameter1=value1¶meter2=value2' ],
                [ 'missing.protocol.example.com/path/' ],
                [ 'http://example.com\\bad-separator' ],
                [ 'http://example.com|bad-separator' ],
                [ 'ht tp://example.com' ],
                [ 'http://exampl e.com' ],
                [ 'http://example.com/pa th/' ],
                [ '../../../relative/path/needs/protocol/resource.txt' ],
                [ 'http://example.com/#two-fragments#not-allowed' ],
                [ 'http://example.edu:portMustBeANumber#one-fragment' ],
            ];
    }

    public function urnIsNotValidProvider()
    {
        return
            [
                [ 'urn:mpeg:mpeg7:sch ema:2001' ],
                [ 'urn|mpeg:mpeg7:schema:2001' ],
                [ 'urn?mpeg:mpeg7:schema:2001' ],
                [ 'urn%mpeg:mpeg7:schema:2001' ],
                [ 'urn#mpeg:mpeg7:schema:2001' ],
            ];
    }
}

Uri.php (Value Object)

assertUriIsCorrect( $uri );
        $this->uri = $uri;
    }

    public function getUriAsString()
    {
        return $this->uri;
    }

    private function assertUriIsCorrect( string $uri )
    {
        // https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30847/regex-to-validate-uris
        // http://snipplr.com/view/6889/regular-expressions-for-uri-validationparsing/

        if( ! preg_match( "/^([a-z][a-z0-9+.-]*):(?:\\/\\/((?:(?=((?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=:]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))(\\3)@)?(?=(\\[[0-9A-F:.]{2,}\\]|(?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))\\5(?::(?=(\\d*))\\6)?)(\\/(?=((?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=:@\\/]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))\\8)?|(\\/?(?!\\/)(?=((?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=:@\\/]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))\\10)?)(?:\\?(?=((?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=:@\\/?]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))\\11)?(?:#(?=((?:[a-z0-9-._~!$&'()*+,;=:@\\/?]|%[0-9A-F]{2})*))\\12)?$/i", $uri ) )
        {
            throw new \RuntimeException( "URI has not a valid format." );
        }
    }
}

Running UnitTests

There are 65 assertions in 46 tests. Caution: there are 2 data-providers for valid and 2 more for invalid expressions. One is for URLs and the other for URNs. If you are using a version of PhpUnit of v5.6* or earlier then you need to join the two data providers into a single one.

xavi@bromo:~/custom_www/hello-trip/mutant-migrant$ vendor/bin/phpunit
PHPUnit 5.7.3 by Sebastian Bergmann and contributors.

..............................................                    46 / 46 (100%)

Time: 82 ms, Memory: 4.00MB

OK (46 tests, 65 assertions)

Code coverage

There's is 100% of code-coverage in this sample URI checker.