PHP RegEx to allow mailto: http:// and tel: hyperlinks - php

Question

What I need to do is allow a text field to validate and allow either a mailto: http:// or a tel: type of URL.
I'm using PHP 5 (and Laravel 4, but not as relevant to this post).
I've been googling for a while, but I can't seem to get an expression to allow a match for all three types. I've tried some long, complicated strings, and some real short ones and it just returns false.
Here's my latest:
mailto:([^\?]*)|http:([^\?]*)|tel:([^\?]*)
SOLUTION:
Since I'm using Laravel 4, I decided to use the parse_url function instead of a regex. That said, there were some other great solutions provided as well.
My final validator function:
Validator::extend('any_url', function($attribute, $value)
{
$allowed = ['mailto', 'http', 'https', 'tel'];
$parsed = parse_url($value);
return in_array($parsed['scheme'], $allowed);
});

Answer 1

You can use parse_url which will give you the scheme. Then check if it is within the ['mailto', 'http', 'https','tel']

Answer 2

Try this:
((mailto:\w+)|(tel:\w+)|(http://\w+)).+
http://regexr.com/3ar2c

Answer 3

You need to put whole of your regexes within a capture grouping,also you need // after http::
mailto:([^\?]*)|(http://([^\?]*))|(tel:([^\?]*))
Because in your regex the pip works different :
mailto: #first
([^\?]*)|http: #second
([^\?]*)|tel: #third
([^\?]*) #fourth

Answer 4

You probably need this:
/^((?:tel|https?|mailto):.*?)$/
Example:
$strings = array("http://www.me.com", "mailto:hey#there.nyc", "tel:[phone]", "hyyy://www.me.com");
foreach($strings as $string){
if (preg_match('/^((?:tel|https?|mailto):.*?)$/im', $string)) {
echo $string ."\n";
}else{
echo "No Match for : $string \n";
}
}
DEMO PHP
DEMO REGEX
EXPLANATION:
^((?:tel|https?|mailto):.*?)$
-----------------------------
Assert position at the beginning of a line (at beginning of the string or after a line break character) (line feed) «^»
Match the regex below and capture its match into backreference number 1 «((?:tel|https?|mailto):.*?)»
Match the regular expression below «(?:tel|https?|mailto)»
Match this alternative (attempting the next alternative only if this one fails) «tel»
Match the character string “tel” literally (case insensitive) «tel»
Or match this alternative (attempting the next alternative only if this one fails) «https?»
Match the character string “http” literally (case insensitive) «http»
Match the character “s” literally (case insensitive) «s?»
Between zero and one times, as many times as possible, giving back as needed (greedy) «?»
Or match this alternative (the entire group fails if this one fails to match) «mailto»
Match the character string “mailto” literally (case insensitive) «mailto»
Match the character “:” literally «:»
Match any single character that is NOT a line break character (line feed) «.*?»
Between zero and unlimited times, as few times as possible, expanding as needed (lazy) «*?»
Assert position at the end of a line (at the end of the string or before a line break character) (line feed) «$»