A user on our forums is getting the error “Website is invalid.” when attempting to enter his website on his profile. The url he is using is: code_man.cybnet.ch Perhaps the underscore in the sub-domain is triggering the error? The version of Discourse that we are currently using is: 1.5.0.beta14 It seems this topic might be related: [תמונה] URL validation for "Web Site" on user profile Feature Some validation would be nice on the “Web Site” field on user profiles. Currently, users are able to enter invalid URL’s like this one http://https://www.facebook.com/FacebookUK Side-note - I feel like “Web Site” should really be “Website”: the AP Stylebook changed 5/6 years ago Google search results for “website” - 5,450,000,000 Google search results for “web site” - 597,000,000

[תמונה] dGr8LookinSparky: Perhaps the underscore in the sub-domain is triggering the error? That’s it. Underscores are not valid characters for hostnames. Hostname In computer networking, a hostname (previously nodename) is a label that is assigned to a device connected to a computer network and that is used to identify the device in various forms of electronic communication, such as the World Wide Web. Hostnames may be simple names consisting of a single word or phrase, or they may be structured. Each hostname usually has at least one numeric network address associated with it for routing packets for performance and other reasons. Internet hostnames may h...

[תמונה] pfaffman: Underscores are not valid characters for hostnames. But the url works. Perhaps this validation could be overridden by admins if they entered the url?

[תמונה] dGr8LookinSparky: Perhaps this validation could be overridden by admins if they entered the url? Introduce complexity on the URL validation to let some people who wants a invalid domain on their profile? I don’t think this is a good idea.

[תמונה] dGr8LookinSparky: But the url works. Well, if that were entirely true, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. :slight_smile: [rook] The use of the underscore in host names android, dns asked by rook on 09:12AM - 09 Jun 12 UTC https://www.quora.com/Why-are-underscores-not-allowed-in-DNS-host-names The best solution, in my arrogant computer geek opinion, would be to point the guy to the above web sites and suggest to the guy that he’s doing it wrong and that if he wants to link to his site he should create a CNAME using a - instead of a _. (You’d probably want to find a nicer way to say that.)

And what about IDNs? The regular expression validating the website url is so strict that I can’t fit in my perfectly valid URL https://ondřej.caletka.cz Even using Punycode form of https://ondřej.caletka.cz is not accepted, even though it is perfectly valid here in this very forum post.

User website preference is invalid with underscore

Product Support

pfaffman (Jay Pfaffman) 30 במרץ,‏ 2016,‏ 6:27pm 2

That’s it. Underscores are not valid characters for hostnames.

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User website preference is invalid with underscore

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