Extracting the URL from the query string

Question

Consider a url like this:

http://some-site.com/something/http://www.some-other-site.com

I am trying to log to the console the bold part from the query string i.e. the second http:// using the following method.

app.get("/something/:qstr",function(req,res){

    console.log(req.params.qstr);   
};

However this will only work until the http: --> as soon as the // is encountered it is no longer included in the req.params.qstr I'd like to know how to get the entire URL string. How can I achieve this?

Thank you.

That's not a valid URL; the URL component in the path would have to be URL encoded. That may be the reason why it's not working for you. Where are you getting this data from? — Pekka
– Pekka, Commented Jan 27, 2017 at 9:17
What I am trying to accomplish is to save the second URL to my db whenever it is entered after something, I am trying to extract that part and save to my db. — JohnSnow
– JohnSnow, Commented Jan 27, 2017 at 9:18
But why do you receive URLs that are structured in this broken way in the first place? — Pekka
– Pekka, Commented Jan 27, 2017 at 9:21
It's a project I am working on where you can go to my website i.e. some-site.com navigate to the /something/ route... Enter a URL in proper format, and once it is entered it will save to the Db. Do you know how to extract the URL here? — JohnSnow
– JohnSnow, Commented Jan 27, 2017 at 9:23

rsp · Accepted Answer · 2017-01-27 12:27:09Z

2

You can try this, using a regex:

var app = require('express')();

app.get(/^\/something\/(.*)/, function (req, res) {

    console.log(req.params[0]);
    res.json({ok: true});

});

app.listen(3333, () => console.log('Listening on 3333'));

When you run:

curl http://localhost:3333/something/http://www.some-other-site.com

the server prints:

http://www.some-other-site.com

as you wanted.

The res.json({ok: true}); is there only to return some response so the curl will not hang forever.

edited Jan 27, 2017 at 12:27

answered Jan 27, 2017 at 9:43

rsp

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5 Comments

R. Gulbrandsen Over a year ago

you can change res.json to res.send() and you'll get a 200 back

JohnSnow Over a year ago

This solved it thanks. can you please quickly explain the regex? It's just saying grab everything until after the slash right?

JohnSnow Over a year ago

If I do app.get() it will work however if do the same thing with app.use it will not. app.use(/\/new\/(.*)/, error); - error.js --> router.get("/",function(req,res){ console.log(req.params[0]) res.send(req.params[0]) }); please advise

rsp Over a year ago

@JohnNoob I updated the regex to be /^\/something\/(.*)/ which means - anything that starts with /something/ and then anything captured as req.params[0]. app.use is different than app.get - see: expressjs.com/en/guide/using-middleware.html

JohnSnow Over a year ago

Yes thank you, I'm comfortable with JS but new to Node so still finding my way around. I aspire to be as knowledgeable with Node as you one day.

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