Issue with Javascript boolean values

Question

I wrote a small script to recreate the Chrome address bar, wherein my code checks an input for any domain extension(.com, .edu etc.) and sets a boolean flag to true if an extension is found. It then checks the flag and based on the result opens the website or sends it to google as a query. Additionally, if it is a website, it checks if the string contains http:// and www. and if not, adds it to the string before using Window.Open() to open the target.

What's wrong here?

function openSite(){
     var domain_extensions = [".aero", ".asia", "...All Other Extensions...", ".zr", ".zw"];

        var isSite = false;

        var userIn = document.getElementById('in_field').value; //Retrieves Textbox code

        for (var i=0; i < domain_extensions.length; i++)
            if (userIn.search(domain_extensions[i]) !==-1)
                isSite = true;
                        //Checks against the array of extensions

        if (isSite === true){
            if (userIn.search("http://") === -1 || userIn.search("https://") === -1)
                {if(userIn.search("www.") === -1)
                    userIn = "http://www." + userIn;
                 else
                    userIn = "http://" + userIn;                        
                }

                window.open(userIn, '_blank');
                //if extension is found, open website
                        //if qualifier http:// or https:// and/or www. not found, append and open website               
            }

        else{
                var str = encodeURI("http://www.google.com/search?q=" + userIn);
                window.open(str, '_blank');

            } //Searches query for common extensions; if not found search google
    }

What's not happening? And why is JavaScript's "truthiness" relevant? — contactmatt
– contactmatt, Commented Jul 18, 2013 at 19:48
Why are you using http:backslashbackslash and not http://? Also, you may want to use break; in your for loop, although I don't think that would fix anything — Ian
– Ian, Commented Jul 18, 2013 at 19:49
@Ian Oh damn! That fixed a bit of my issue. Now websites work. — Vaibhav Gupta
– Vaibhav Gupta, Commented Jul 18, 2013 at 20:01
@contactmatt Even when I type a non-site in, the truth block still executes. — Vaibhav Gupta
– Vaibhav Gupta, Commented Jul 18, 2013 at 20:02

J David Smith · Accepted Answer · 2013-07-18 20:13:52Z

1

This is a problem, I believe, with your usage of the search function. This function takes a regular expression as its argument. The . character is special in regex, and matches any character.

For example:

var test = "blasdfahsadfcomasdfasd";
console.log(test.search(".com")); // prints 11

Prepend the . with a backslash in order to override this behavior:

var test = "blasdfahsadfcomasdfasd";
console.log(test.search("\\.com")); // prints -1

Additionally, if you want to check only at the end of a string, add a $ symbol at the end of the strings like so:

var test = "blasdfahsadf.comasdfasd";
console.log(test.search("\\.com$")); // prints -1; prints 12 w/o the $

answered Jul 18, 2013 at 20:13

J David Smith

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