Zend Form Validate URL - php

Question

I am currently validating a URL using the Regex Pattern and it appears to be working correctly. However, if I leave the URL field blank, it should not check the Regex Validation or perhaps just return a message like "No URL given".
Here is an example of my current code I'm working with:
array(
'name' => 'programurl1',
'attributes' => array(
'type' => 'text',
'error_msg' => 'Enter Valid Program URL 1',
'label_msg' => 'Program URL 1 *'
),
'validation' => array(
'required' => true,
'filters' => array(
array(
'name' => 'StripTags'
),
array(
'name' => 'StringTrim'
)
),
'validators' => array(
array(
'name' => 'Regex',
'options' => array(
'pattern' => '/^(https?:\/\/)?([\da-z\.-]+)\.([a-z\.]{2,6})([\/\w \.-]*)*\/?$/'
)
)
)
)
)
I'm not certain how to accomplish what I am looking for when the URL field is blank.

Answer 1

Instead of a type text, you can use the url type. That is specifically meant to enter url values:
$this->add(array(
'name' => 'programurl',
'type' => 'Zend\Form\Element\Url',
'options' => array(
'label' => 'Program URL 1'
),
'attributes' => array(
'required' => 'required'
)
));
The url element is a special HTML5 element, see also the docs.
Zend\Form\Element\Url is meant to be paired with the Zend\Form\View\Helper\FormUrl for HTML5 inputs with type url. This element adds filters and a Zend\Validator\Uri validator to it’s input filter specification for validating HTML5 URL input values on the server.
Afaik if the browser cannot render the url input element, it just shows the text input as a fallback.