How do I parse a URL into hostname and path in javascript?

Question

I would like to take a string

var a = \"http://example.com/aa/bb/\"

and process it into an object such that

a.hostname == \         


        

Answer 1

You can also use parse_url() function from Locutus project (former php.js).

Code:

parse_url('http://username:password@hostname/path?arg=value#anchor');

Result:

{
  scheme: 'http',
  host: 'hostname',
  user: 'username',
  pass: 'password',
  path: '/path',
  query: 'arg=value',
  fragment: 'anchor'
}

Answer 2

Expanded on acdcjunior solution by adding "searchParam" function
Mimicking the URL object, added "searchParam" to parse query string
Works for IE 6, 7, 8 9, 10, 11

USAGE - (JSFiddle Link)

// USAGE:
var myUrl = new ParsedUrl("http://www.example.com/path?var1=123&var2=abc#fragment");
console.log(myUrl);
console.log(myUrl.searchParam('var1'));
console.log(myUrl.searchParam('var2'));

OUTPUT - (JSFiddle Link)

{
  hash: "#fragment",
  host: "www.example.com:8080",
  hostname: "www.example.com",
  href: "http://www.example.com:8080/path?var1=123&var2=abc#fragment",
  pathname: "/path",
  port: "80",
  protocol: "http:",
  search: "?var1=123&var2=abc"
}

"123"
"abc"

CODE - (JSFiddle Link)

function ParsedUrl(url) {
    var parser = document.createElement("a");
    parser.href = url;
    
    // IE 8 and 9 dont load the attributes "protocol" and "host" in case the source URL
    // is just a pathname, that is, "/example" and not "http://www.example.com/example".
    parser.href = parser.href;
    
    // IE 7 and 6 wont load "protocol" and "host" even with the above workaround,
    // so we take the protocol/host from window.location and place them manually
    if (parser.host === "") {
        var newProtocolAndHost = window.location.protocol + "//" + window.location.host;
        if (url.charAt(1) === "/") {
            parser.href = newProtocolAndHost + url;
        } else {
            // the regex gets everything up to the last "/"
            // /path/takesEverythingUpToAndIncludingTheLastForwardSlash/thisIsIgnored
            // "/" is inserted before because IE takes it of from pathname
            var currentFolder = ("/"+parser.pathname).match(/.*\//)[0];
            parser.href = newProtocolAndHost + currentFolder + url;
        }
    }
    
    // copies all the properties to this object
    var properties = ['host', 'hostname', 'hash', 'href', 'port', 'protocol', 'search'];
    for (var i = 0, n = properties.length; i < n; i++) {
      this[properties[i]] = parser[properties[i]];
    }
    
    // pathname is special because IE takes the "/" of the starting of pathname
    this.pathname = (parser.pathname.charAt(0) !== "/" ? "/" : "") + parser.pathname;
  
  //search Params
  this.searchParam =  function(variable) {
    var query = (this.search.indexOf('?') === 0) ? this.search.substr(1) : this.search;
    var vars = query.split('&');
    for (var i = 0; i < vars.length; i++) {
        var pair = vars[i].split('=');
        if (decodeURIComponent(pair[0]) == variable) {
            return decodeURIComponent(pair[1]);
        }
    }
    console.log('Query variable %s not found', variable);
    return '';
    };
}

Answer 3

Use https://www.npmjs.com/package/uri-parse-lib for this

var t = parserURI("http://user:pass@example.com:8080/directory/file.ext?query=1&next=4&sed=5#anchor");

Answer 4

The modern way:

new URL("http://example.com/aa/bb/")

Returns an object with properties hostname and pathname, along with a few others.

The first argument is a relative or absolute URL; if it's relative, then you need to specify the second argument (the base URL). For example, for a URL relative to the current page:

new URL("/aa/bb/", location)

In addition to browsers, this API is also available in Node.js since v7, through require('url').URL.

Answer 5

Here's a simple function using a regexp that imitates the a tag behavior.

Pros

• predictable behaviour (no cross browser issues)
• doesn't need the DOM
• it's really short.

Cons

• The regexp is a bit difficult to read

-

function getLocation(href) {
    var match = href.match(/^(https?\:)\/\/(([^:\/?#]*)(?:\:([0-9]+))?)([\/]{0,1}[^?#]*)(\?[^#]*|)(#.*|)$/);
    return match && {
        href: href,
        protocol: match[1],
        host: match[2],
        hostname: match[3],
        port: match[4],
        pathname: match[5],
        search: match[6],
        hash: match[7]
    }
}

-

getLocation("http://example.com/");
/*
{
    "protocol": "http:",
    "host": "example.com",
    "hostname": "example.com",
    "port": undefined,
    "pathname": "/"
    "search": "",
    "hash": "",
}
*/

getLocation("http://example.com:3000/pathname/?search=test#hash");
/*
{
    "protocol": "http:",
    "host": "example.com:3000",
    "hostname": "example.com",
    "port": "3000",
    "pathname": "/pathname/",
    "search": "?search=test",
    "hash": "#hash"
}
*/

EDIT:

Here's a breakdown of the regular expression

var reURLInformation = new RegExp([
    '^(https?:)//', // protocol
    '(([^:/?#]*)(?::([0-9]+))?)', // host (hostname and port)
    '(/{0,1}[^?#]*)', // pathname
    '(\\?[^#]*|)', // search
    '(#.*|)$' // hash
].join(''));
var match = href.match(reURLInformation);

Answer 6

var getLocation = function(href) {
    var l = document.createElement("a");
    l.href = href;
    return l;
};
var l = getLocation("http://example.com/path");
console.debug(l.hostname)
>> "example.com"
console.debug(l.pathname)
>> "/path"