Website field - not validating without http://

I've setup the website field in my form, however it's not validating unless the user specifically types the http:// at the start of the address. So something like "www.test.com" throws up the "Please enter a valid Website URL (i.e. http://www.gravityforms.com)." error.

That makes things difficult, as even with the http:// placeholder in the field, I don't think many users will actually type it.

Is this normal behaviour, or is there a way to allow it?

Form is here: http://ridemusic.net/fans/#form-story-tab

Thanks.

Hi, I agree that people will figure it out, but only after they have clicked "submit" and the form fails validation, and causes irritation.

Is there a functional reason for it to work this way? Does the field have the potential to be used in some special way making the http prefix necessary or to somehow prevent spam? Wouldn't it be better to have the http:// prefix hard-coded if the form requires it?

Thanks

Yes, its what I've done and made it pretty with a bit of CSS, but would have preferred the http:// to simply be hard-coded in to the field. I understand the logic of requiring it as part of the validation process and that it may be needed for more advanced scripts, but if it is required I don't really understand why it has to be re-typed.

Its not really a problem, just a mild niggle.

Here's a possible workaround. Time will tell if it breaks something. I have only tested on OSX versions of the latest Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Opera, and not yet on a production site. Note that it probably disables browsers' validation of all HTML5 fields in the form.

1. The function my_novalidate() disables browsers' validation of HTML5 fields like input type="url" fields. Without disabling, I think some browsers (Chrome/Firefox) block the form from even being submitted if "http://"" is missing -- not a Gravity Forms issue, because GF never even receives the data. Opera just adds the http://. Safari doesn't care about missing http://, but then GF will invalidate.
2. The function my_protocol() then adds "http://" if the user omitted a protocol. This happens before the field value makes it to GF's validation procedure.

Here are my settings for making this work.

• GF 1.6+ (I'm on 1.6.12)
• HTML5 enabled everywhere
• Use website field type (instead of text field). This uses input type="url" (vs. type="text"), which may have advantages of bringing up custom keyboards on mobile devices.
• Don't set up any kind of dynamic population of "http://"

I hope the code isn't too long here -- some dislike links to code on external sites.

// add the 'novalidate' setting to <form> tag
// stackoverflow.com/questions/3090369/
function my_novalidate($form_tag, $form) {

  // collect field types
  $types = array();
  foreach ( $form['fields'] as $field ) {
    $types[] = $field['type'];
  }

  // bail if form doesn't have a website field
  if ( ! in_array('website', $types) )
    return $form_tag;

  // add the 'novalidate' setting to the website <form> element
  $pattern = "#method=\'post\'#i";
  $replacement = "method='post' novalidate";
  $form_tag = preg_replace($pattern, $replacement, $form_tag);

  return $form_tag;
}
add_filter('gform_form_tag','my_novalidate',10,2);

// add "http://" to website if protocol omitted
function my_protocol($form) {

  // loop through fields, taking action if website
  foreach ( $form['fields'] as $field ) {

  // skip if not a website field
  if ( 'website' != $field['type'] )
      continue;

  // retrieve website field value
  $value = RGFormsModel::get_field_value($field);

  // if there is no protocol, add "http://"
  // Recognizes ftp://, ftps://, http://, https://
  // stackoverflow.com/questions/2762061/
  if ( ! empty($value) && ! preg_match("~^(?:f|ht)tps?://~i", $value) ) {
    $value = "http://" . $value;

    // update value in the $_POST array
    $id = (string) $field['id'];
    $_POST['input_' . $id] = $value;
  }
  }

  return $form;
}
add_filter('gform_pre_validation','my_protocol');

GF admins: If the code above is helpful, would it be appropriate to put a link to this post in past related threads here and here, for those coming across those posts while looking for ideas on this issue (like I was)? Maybe this is all beyond the scope of the forums.

UPDATE
A typo In my code above: I returned the wrong variable name on line 13. It should read return $form_tag; instead of return $content;. Otherwise, when a form does not have a website field, the markup for the opening <form> tag will not be returned/printed and the form will not function.

UPDATE #2
My code above works for a website field, but not for a post custom field whose type is set to website. In the latter case, $field['type'] is 'post_custom_field' instead of 'website'. However, in both cases, $field['inputType'] is 'website', so we can use it instead. Given that $field['inputType'] is not set for all fields (e.g., honeypot), we'll include an isset() check to avoid the php "Notice: Undefined Index". So...

1. Replace line 8 above ($types[] = $field['type'];) with
   

   if ( isset($field['inputType']) )
     $types[] = $field['inputType'];

   Copy
2. Then replace line 31 above (if ( 'website' != $field['type'] )) with
   

   if ( ! isset($field['inputType']) || 'website' != $field['inputType'] )

   Copy