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A URL field stores a single web address. Submitters enter it, and you choose which protocols are accepted. It is the base that link fields build on.

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When to use it

  • A record needs a destination link: a landing page, a campaign target, or a mailto: address.
  • You want a clean, validated address to feed into a Tagged URL or Short URL field.
Do not use a URL field when you need a short, trackable redirect. The URL field holds the destination. Put a Short URL field over it to get the tracked link.

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How a value is produced

When a submission is saved, Terminus Hub stores the address the submitter entered, or the Default value if the field was left blank. The address is kept as entered, apart from trimming leading and trailing spaces. Terminus Hub does not add a protocol for you. The value is then validated:
  • It must parse as a URL.
  • Its protocol must be one of the field’s Allowed protocols.
  • It must have an address after the protocol, such as a host, or a recipient for mailto:.
  • When Allowed domains has entries, an http or https address must use one of those exact hostnames. mailto: addresses are not checked against the list.
  • When Validate URL is on, an http or https host must be a well-formed domain with a known top-level domain, and every host must resolve to at least one public address. A host that does not resolve, or resolves only to private or internal addresses, is rejected.
There is no live link checking. Terminus Hub does not fetch the URL to confirm the page exists or returns a successful response. Validation is about the shape of the address and, optionally, its domain and the kind of host it resolves to.

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Settings reference

URL fields cannot have a prefix or suffix.

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Example

A destination_url field in a Campaign URL Builder model, with Required on and Allowed protocols narrowed to https only. A submitter enters https://shop.acme.example/deals, which is stored as entered. Entering shop.acme.example with no scheme fails validation with must start with one of the following protocols: https. This field then feeds the campaign’s Tagged URL and Short URL fields.

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Gotchas

  • No protocol is added for you. Include http://, https://, or mailto:. A bare host such as acme.example always fails validation.
  • Narrow the protocols to set policy. The default accepts http and https. Keep only https in Allowed protocols to require secure links, or add mailto for email addresses.
  • Validate URL checks the domain, not the page. With it on, a malformed domain (“is not a valid domain”), an unknown top-level domain (“has an invalid or unknown top-level domain”), a host that does not resolve, or a host that resolves only to private or internal addresses is rejected. It does not confirm the page loads. Placeholder domains such as .example or .test fail this check.
  • Allowed domains match exact hostnames. example.com does not allow www.example.com or shop.example.com. List every hostname you accept. An address that is not on the list fails with “domain is not in the allowed list”.
  • It is the base for other link fields. A Tagged URL references a URL field as its base, and a Short URL can point at a URL or a Tagged URL field as its destination.