URL Match Pattern

a JavaScript package handles match patterns described in browser extension

demo page

See articles on MDN and Chrome Developers.

Usage

/// check if a string is a valid URL match pattern
URLMatchPattern.test('*://github.com/'); // true

/// check if a string matches a URL match pattern
URLMatchPattern.test('*://*.google.com/*', 'https://google.com/search'); // true

/// get a RegExp object which represents a URL match pattern
const regexp = URLMatchPattern.toRegExp('*://*.name/');
regexp.test('https://domainA.name/'); // true
regexp.test('https://domainB.name/'); // true

/// or create an object with `test` method
const pattern = new URLMatchPattern('*://*.name/');
pattern.test('https://domainA.name/'); // true
pattern.test('https://domainB.name/'); // true

Note

Method test (both static and instance) allows url string:

• with port
• with hash
• without path

However, that's not the case after converting to RegExp.

URLMatchPattern.test('*://*/', 'http://username:password@abc:666/#hash=hash?a'); // true
URLMatchPattern.test('*://*/', 'http://abc'); // true

const pattern = new URLMatchPattern('*://*/');
pattern.test('http://username:password@abc:666/#hash=hash?a'); // true
pattern.test('http://abc'); // true

/// converting to RegExp object would lose that compatibility for current version
const regexp = URLMatchPattern.toRegExp('*://*/');
regexp.test('http://abc/'); // true
regexp.test('http://abc:80/'); // false
regexp.test('http://abc/#foo'); // false
regexp.test('http://abc'); // false

Compatibility

Either browser supports http, https, and ftp.

scheme	this project	Firefox 55+	Chrome 91+	Edge, Opera	Safari
ws, wss	Yes	Yes	No	No	No
urn	No	No	Yes	No	No
data	No	partial	No	No	No
file	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	No

Defects of URL Match Pattern

• not well-defined
• no escaping way for * in path
• * in path also matches / and ?, which usually have special meaning.