URL Node.js v0.12.12 Manual & Documentation

# URL#

    Stability: 3 - Stable

This module has utilities for URL resolution and parsing. Call `require('url')` to use it.

Parsed URL objects have some or all of the following fields, depending on whether or not they exist in the URL string. Any parts that are not in the URL string will not be in the parsed object. Examples are shown for the URL

`'http://user:pass@host.com:8080/p/a/t/h?query=string#hash'`

- `href`: The full URL that was originally parsed. Both the protocol and host are lowercased.

  Example: `'http://user:pass@host.com:8080/p/a/t/h?query=string#hash'`

- `protocol`: The request protocol, lowercased.

  Example: `'http:'`

- `slashes`: The protocol requires slashes after the colon

  Example: true or false

- `host`: The full lowercased host portion of the URL, including port information.

  Example: `'host.com:8080'`

- `auth`: The authentication information portion of a URL.

  Example: `'user:pass'`

- `hostname`: Just the lowercased hostname portion of the host.

  Example: `'host.com'`

- `port`: The port number portion of the host.

  Example: `'8080'`

- `pathname`: The path section of the URL, that comes after the host and before the query, including the initial slash if present.

  Example: `'/p/a/t/h'`

- `search`: The 'query string' portion of the URL, including the leading question mark.

  Example: `'?query=string'`

- `path`: Concatenation of `pathname` and `search`.

  Example: `'/p/a/t/h?query=string'`

- `query`: Either the 'params' portion of the query string, or a querystring-parsed object.

  Example: `'query=string'` or `{'query':'string'}`

- `hash`: The 'fragment' portion of the URL including the pound-sign.

  Example: `'#hash'`

The following methods are provided by the URL module:

## url.parse(urlStr[, parseQueryString][, slashesDenoteHost])#

Take a URL string, and return an object.

Pass `true` as the second argument to also parse the query string using the `querystring` module. If `true` then the `query` property will always be assigned an object, and the `search` property will always be a (possibly empty) string. Defaults to `false`.

Pass `true` as the third argument to treat `//foo/bar` as `{ host: 'foo', pathname: '/bar' }` rather than `{ pathname: '//foo/bar' }`. Defaults to `false`.

## url.format(urlObj)#

Take a parsed URL object, and return a formatted URL string.

Here's how the formatting process works:

- `href` will be ignored.
- `protocol` is treated the same with or without the trailing `:` (colon).
  - The protocols `http`, `https`, `ftp`, `gopher`, `file` will be postfixed with `://` (colon-slash-slash).
  - All other protocols `mailto`, `xmpp`, `aim`, `sftp`, `foo`, etc will be postfixed with `:` (colon)
- `slashes` set to `true` if the protocol requires `://` (colon-slash-slash)
  - Only needs to be set for protocols not previously listed as requiring slashes, such as `mongodb://localhost:8000/`
- `auth` will be used if present.
- `hostname` will only be used if `host` is absent.
- `port` will only be used if `host` is absent.
- `host` will be used in place of `hostname` and `port`
- `pathname` is treated the same with or without the leading `/` (slash).
- `search` will be used in place of `query`.
  - It is treated the same with or without the leading `?` (question mark)
- `query` (object; see `querystring`) will only be used if `search` is absent.
- `hash` is treated the same with or without the leading `#` (pound sign, anchor).

## url.resolve(from, to)#

Take a base URL, and a href URL, and resolve them as a browser would for an anchor tag. Examples:

    url.resolve('/one/two/three', 'four')         // '/one/two/four'
    url.resolve('http://example.com/', '/one')    // 'http://example.com/one'
    url.resolve('http://example.com/one', '/two') // 'http://example.com/two'