[RESOLVED] Detect various web site link formats in textarea - no strip, no replace

Hi all,

I'd like to detect, but not remove, not replace/strip, various formats for web site url's. Such as:

http://www.a.com
http://a.com
http:// www . a . com
http : // www a dot com
www.a.com
www . a . com
www dot a dot com

I've tried these, but they don't work:

Code:

---

    var strFindWebSites=/^\(?[http]\)?[\. ]?[www][\. ]?[com]$/g;
    if (strFindWebSites.test(theForm.theTextArea.value)) {
...

---

Code:

---

    var strFindWebSites=/^\(?([http])\)?[\. ]?([www])[\. ]?([com])$/g;
    if (strFindWebSites.test(theForm.theTextArea.value)) {
...

---

Code:

---

    var strFindWebSites=/^\(?(http)\)?[\. ]?(www)[\. ]?(com)$/g;
    if (strFindWebSites.test(theForm.theTextArea.value)) {
...

---

I realize that there are so many ways that people could enter a web site address, and I'm not trying to capture every possible way. Simply trying to capture the more common ways, and those that would include a space in them.

I'm not looking for domain forwards or domain error handling.

Just wanting to detect if anyone has inputed any textarea information that contains a web site address, as above.

Ideas?

Thanks.

Update:

I've gotten this to work, just not sure this is the "best" way to approach this:

Code:

---

var strFindWebSites=["www", "w w w", "http", "h t t p", "href", "h r e f", ".com", "dot com", ".net", "dot net"];
    var searchExp = new RegExp(strFindWebSites.join("|"),"gim");

    if (searchExp.test(theForm.theTextArea.value)) {

...

---

I also realize that there is a chance that someone might type in something other than a web address with "polka dot netting" <-- That would be caught by "dot net"

How could I find the whole word string "dot net" only (in this case)? :confused: