Check if cross domain url gives 404 with javascript

Question

I am trying this code but it gives me a DOM Exception. What I want it to get a true/false "answer" from the function using plain Javascript.

var url = 'http://www.google.com/';
function UrlExists(url)
{
  var http = new XMLHttpRequest();
  http.open('HEAD', url, false);
  http.send();
  return http.status!=404;
}
UrlExists(url);

FIDDLE

I got this code from this SO answer, but as said I cannot get it working...

This method will not work coz of Same origin policy. You will have to use a server side component to check if the URL exists. One option is using YQL as in this answer: stackoverflow.com/a/13041787/133198 — vsr
– vsr, Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 10:59
@vsr, thank you for the idea. Is there a client-side way to do this? — Rikard
– Rikard, Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 11:05
Client-side is possible only when the host of the url supports CORS(html5rocks.com/en/tutorials/cors). Since many sites don't support CORS, client-side solution is not fool-proof. — vsr
– vsr, Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 11:36
The only way to hack around SOP is to load the page in a way that the browser considers safer by using a hack with another element. I'd suggest trying the onerror handler for an img or possibly object tag to see if you can retreive the status code. In the past I've abused iframes similarly but there are restrictions there (I've used it effectively with fire and forget calls and or when the iframe source explicitly calls back to the parent). — Matt Whipple
– Matt Whipple, Commented Jul 20, 2013 at 14:18

Chris Happy · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-23 05:53:49Z

4

Doesn't detect 404 errors, but can check if the page exists or not with a setTimeout() hack.

// Based on https://stackoverflow.com/a/18552771
// @author Irvin Dominin <https://stackoverflow.com/u/975520>
function UrlExists(url)
{
  var iframe = document.createElement('iframe');
  var iframeError; // Store the iframe timeout
  
  iframe.onload = function () {
    console.log("Success on " + url);
    clearTimeout(iframeError);
  }
  
  iframeError = setTimeout(function () {
    console.log("Error on " + url)
  }, 3000);
  
  iframe.src = url;
  document.getElementsByTagName("body")[0].appendChild(iframe);
}

UrlExists('http://www.google.com/');
UrlExists('http://www.goo000gle.com');

answered Mar 23, 2021 at 5:53

Chris Happy

7,3352 gold badges28 silver badges54 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

3 Comments

WinEunuuchs2Unix Over a year ago

When running this code from my website on GitHub Pages it works perfectly only when the target address is https://. It fails with Firefox error if the target address starts with http://.

Chris Happy Over a year ago

@WinEunuuchs2Unix Could you try again? It seems to be working for me now in Firefox

WinEunuuchs2Unix Over a year ago

Different error today: Mixed content When a web page is loaded from a secure origin, over a secure channel such as HTTPS, the connection with the web server is encrypted, and is therefore protected from eavesdropping and modification by man-in-the-middle attacks. If the securely loaded web page only includes images, scripts, and other resources that are also hosted on secure origins, users can be confident that the whole page is safe from these kinds of attacks.

roudrabhaskarudu thammali · Accepted Answer · 2016-12-26 13:19:42Z

1

Cross domain does not give any status code. status code is part of the content which is received from server when server responds with yes or no. In case of cross domain server never respond to request.

the second mistake in the code is you cannot capture the status code directly without any waiting time or success event. return statement in function doesn't wait until server response to ajax request, so you cannot depend on it.

answered Dec 26, 2016 at 13:19

roudrabhaskarudu thammali

1464 bronze badges

1 Comment

Valen Over a year ago

http.open has the async parameter, when it's set as false, send() will not return until the end of response. However it's not suggested to be executed in the main thread.

Saadat · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-09 12:26:46Z

1

You can not call services from different URL because of the 'Same Origin Policy' in JavaScript. Some workaround are presented here:

Ways to circumvent the same-origin policy

The most simple way is to use 'iframe'. By opening an iframe with your target url, you will be able to make http request to that url.

answered Nov 9, 2020 at 12:26

Saadat

5418 silver badges11 bronze badges

Comments

Abhishek Pankar · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-23 05:38:47Z

0

I saw your fiddle and it consists of 2 issues:

DOM Exception
CORS policy

You are getting DOM Exception because you are making synchronous calls.

Make the call synchronous by setting the last property to true

http.open('GET', url, true);

You can read the documentation here XMLHttpRequest Parameters

And also check this out: DOM Exception-failed-to-execute-send-on-xmlhttprequest-on-chrome-only

You can get an idea about the cors issue here

answered Mar 23, 2021 at 5:38

Abhishek Pankar

7279 silver badges26 bronze badges

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Check if cross domain url gives 404 with javascript

4 Answers 4

3 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

4 Answers 4

3 Comments

1 Comment

Comments

Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related