is-base-url

A small tool to check whether a given URL is likely to be a base url of a web API. is-base-url takes as input a URL string and returns a score for how likely it is a base URL. To do so, is-base-url considers lexical features of the given URL that either support or discourage the classification as a base URL.

Usage

Install via:

npm i is-base-url

Use it via:

var isBaseUrl = require('is-base-url')

var result = isBaseUrl('http://api.twitter.com/v1')
/**
 *  result will look like this:
 *  {
 *   score: 1,
 *   features: {
 *     positive: {
 *       containsApiSubstring: true,
 *       containsVersionSubstring: true,
 *       endsWithVersionSubstring: true,
 *       endsWithNumber: true },
 *     negative: {
 *       hasQueryString: false,
 *       hasFragment: false,
 *       containsNonApiSubstring: false,
 *       overTwoPaths: false,
 *       endsWithFileExtension: false,
 *       containsBracket: false,
 *       isHomepage: false
 *     }
 *   }
 * }
 */

The score is a value ranging from -1 to 1. The more positive features are true, the higher the score. Reversely, the more negative features are true, the lower score. Thus, the higher the value, the more like the given URL is a base URL.

isBaseUrl will return undefined if 1) the given variable is not a string or 2) if the given string is not a valid URL.

Features

isBaseUrl considers positive and negative features.

Positive

• containsApiSubstring: true if the given URL contains the substring api.
• containsVersionSubstring: true if the given URL contains a substring indicating a version number, e.g. v1, v.1.2.
• endsWithVersionSubstring: true if the given URL ends with a version number.
• endsWithNumber: true if the given URL ends with a number.

Negative

• hasQueryString: true if the given URL has a query string (following an ?).
• hasFragment: true if the given URL has a fragment (following an #).
• containsNonApiSubstring: true if the given URL contains a string not associated with a base URL, e.g., schema, w3.
• overTwoPath: true if the given URL has over 2 path components.
• endsWithFileExtension: true if the given URL ends with a file extension, e.g., .json, .html. This feature considers the URL substring before the query string or fragment, if present.
• containsBracket: true if the given URL contains a bracket, e.g., {, >.
• isHomepage: true if the given URL is equal to the homepage of that domain, e.g., http://www.rottentomatoes.com.

Options

If you want, you can pass an options object to isBaseUrl to customize its behavior:

var result = isBaseUrl('http://api.twitter.com/v1', {
  ...options...
})

If you don't set an option, its default value will be used. The following options are available:

• checkUrlValid (default: true) - Determines whether the given URL is checked for validity. If the check is performed and an invalid URL is provided, isBaseUrl will return undefined.

• weights (default: all features have weight 1) - Allows to assign custom weights to specific features. For example, to make endsWithFileExtension more important, do:

  var result = isBaseUrl('http://api.twitter.com/v1', {
    weights: {
      negative: {
        endsWithFileExtension: 3
      }
    }
  })

  Note: passing weights will result in the score not necessarily ranging from -1 to 1 anymore.

License: MIT