node/doc/api/url.markdown

# URL

    Stability: 2 - Stable

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

## URL Parsing

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. No decoding is
  performed.

    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`. No decoding is performed.

    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'`

### Escaped Characters

Spaces (`' '`) and the following characters will be automatically escaped in the
properties of URL objects:

    < > " ` \r \n \t { } | \ ^ '

---

The following methods are provided by the URL module:

## 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.
* `path` 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) as long as `host`/`hostname` are present.
  * 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/`, or if `host`/`hostname` are absent.
* `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).
* `query` (object; see `querystring`) will only be used if `search` is absent.
* `search` will be used in place of `query`.
  * It is treated the same with or without the leading `?` (question mark).
* `hash` is treated the same with or without the leading `#` (pound sign, anchor).

## 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. If `false` then the `query` property will not be parsed or
decoded. 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.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'