URL = {
    schemes: { // 1 means followed by ://, 0 means followed by just :
        "callto":0,
        "chrome":1,
        "file":1,
        "ftp":1,
        "http":1,
        "https":1,
        "imap":1,
        "info":0,
        "irc":1,
        "jar":0,
        "javascript":0,
        "lastfm":1,
        "ldap":1, 
        "ldaps":1,
        "mailto":0, 
        "news":0,
        "nntp":1,
        "pop":1,
        "sftp":1,
        "skype":0,
        "smb":1,
        "ssh":1,
        "svn":1,
        "svn+ssh":1,
        "telnet":1,
        "view-source":0
    }
};
(function() {
    var minLength = 100;
    var maxLength = 0;
    
    for (var n in URL.schemes) {
        minLength = Math.min(minLength, n.length);
        maxLength = Math.max(maxLength, n.length);
    }
    
    URL.minSchemeLength = minLength;
    URL.maxSchemeLength = maxLength;
})();

URL.getParameters = function() {
    var r = {};
    
    var params = window.location.search;
    if (params.length > 1) {
        params = params.substr(1).split("&");
        $.each(params, function() {
            pair = this.split("=");
            r[pair[0]] = unescape(pair[1]);
        });
    }
    
    return r;
};

URL.looksLikeUrl = function(s) {
    if (s.length > URL.minSchemeLength + 1) {
        var sep = s.substring(0, URL.maxSchemeLength + 3).indexOf(":");
        if (sep >= URL.minSchemeLength) {
            var scheme = s.substring(0, sep).toLowerCase();
            if (scheme in URL.schemes) {
                return URL.schemes[scheme] == 0 ||
                       s.substring(sep + 1, sep + 3) == "//";
            }
        }
    }
    return false;
};

URL.getHostname = function(){
    var url = location.href;  // entire url including querystring - also: window.location.href;
    var baseURL = url.substring(0, url.indexOf('/',7));//7 is the length of http://
    return baseURL;
};

URL.urlify = function(str) {
    if(!str) {
        return '';
    }
    return escape(str.replace(/\W/g, '_'));
};