Regex not matching URL Params

Question

I am currently working on a stub server I can plug into a webpage so I do not need to hit sagepay every time I test my payment screen. I need the server to receive a request from the web page and use the dynamic parameters contained in the URL to build the server response. The stub uses regex targets to pick out the parameters I need and add them to the response.

I am using this stub server

I built the accepted URL piece by piece, using the regex tester contained here to test each bit of logic. The expressions work separately, but when I try to join two or more of them together they refuse to work. Each parameter is separated by an ampersand (&) and the name of the parameter.

Here is a sample of the parameters:

paymentType=A&amount=147.06&policyUid=07ef493b-0000-0000-6a05-9fa4d6a5b5ad&paymentMethod=A&script=Retail/accept.py&scriptParams=uid=07ef461a-0000-0000-6a059fa44a8870bf&invokePCL=true&paymentType=A&description=New Business Payment&firstName=Adam&surname=Har&addressLine1=20 Potters Road&city=London&postalCode=EC1 4JS&payerUid=07ef3ff7-0000-0000-6a05-9fa42e92d56b&cardType=valid&continuousAuthority=true&makeCurrent=true

and in a list for ease of reading (without &'s)

paymentType=A 
amount=147.06
policyUid=07ef493b-0000-0000-6a05-9fa4d6a5b5ad 
paymentMethod=A
script=Retail/accept.py
scriptParams=uid=07ef461a-0000-0000-6a059fa44a8870bf&invokePCL=true&paymentType=A 
description=New Business Payment 
firstName=Adam 
surname=Har
addressLine1=20 Chase road 
city=London 
postalCode=EC1 3PF
payerUid=07ef3ff7-0000-0000-6a05-9fa42e92d56b 
cardType=valid
continuousAuthority=true 
makeCurrent=true

And here is my accepted URL parameters with the regex logic:

paymentType=A&amount=([0-9]+.[0-9]{2})&policyUid=([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)$)&paymentMethod=([a-zA-Z]+)&script=([a-zA-Z]+/[a-zA-Z]+.py)&scriptParams=[a-zA-Z]{3}=(([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)))&description=([a-zA-Z0-9 ]+s)&firstName=[A-Za-z]&surname=[A-Za-z]&addressLine1=[a-zA-Z0-9 ]+&city=([a-zA-Z ]+)&postalCode=[a-zA-Z0-9 ]+&payerUid=([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)$)&cardType=[a-zA-Z]+&continuousAuthority=[a-zA-Z]+&makeCurrent=[a-zA-Z]+

again in a list:

registerPayment?outputType=xml
country=GB
paymentType=A
amount=([0-9]+.[0-9]{2})
policyUid=([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)*$)
paymentMethod=([a-zA-Z]+)
script=([a-zA-Z]+/[a-zA-Z]+.py)
scriptParams=[a-zA-Z]{3}=(([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)))
description=([a-zA-Z0-9 ]+s)
firstName=[A-Za-z]
surname=[A-Za-z]
addressLine1=[a-zA-Z0-9 ]+
city=([a-zA-Z ]+)
postalCode=[a-zA-Z0-9 ]+
payerUid=([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)*$)
cardType=[a-zA-Z]+
continuousAuthority=[a-zA-Z]+
makeCurrent=[a-zA-Z]+

My question is; why does my regex and sample match ok seperately, but dont when I put them all together ?

Additional question:

I am using the logic (([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+))) for the whole ScriptParams parameter (the &'s here are part of the parameter.) If I just want to get the 'uid' part and leave the rest, what expression would I need to target this (it is made up of A-z a-z 0-9 and dashes)?

thank you

UPDATE

I have tweaked your answer slightly, because the stub server I am using will not accept the (?:[\s-]) when it loads the file containing the URL templates. I have also incorporated a lot of % and 0-9 because the request is UTF encoded before it is matched (which I had not anticipated), and a few of the params have rogue spaces beyond my control. Other than that, your solution worked great :)

Here is my new version of the scriptParams regex: &scriptParams=[a-zA-Z]{3}%3d[-A-Za-z0-9]+

This accepts the whole parameter, and works fine in the regex tester. Now when I link anything after this part, there is an unsuccessful match.

I do not understand why this is a problem as the regex seem to string together nicely otherwise. Any ideas are appreciated.

Here is the full regex:

paymentType=[-%a-zA-Z0-9 ]+&amount=[0-9]+.[0-9]{2}&policyUid=([-A-Za-z0-9]+)&paymentMethod=([%a-zA-Z0-9]+)&script=[%/.a-zA-Z0-9]+&scriptParams=[a-zA-Z]{3}%3d[-A-Za-z0-9]+&description=[%a-zA-Z0-9 ]+&firstName=[-%A-Za-z0-9]+&surname=[-%A-Za-z0-9]+&addressLine1=[-%a-zA-Z0-9 ]+&city=[-%a-zA-Z 0-9]+&postalCode=[-%a-zA-Z 0-9]+&payerUid=([-A-Za-z0-9]+)&cardType=[%A-Za-z0-9]+&continuousAuthority=[A-Za-z]+&makeCurrent=[A-Za-z]+

And here is the full set of URL params (with UTF encoding present):

paymentType=A&amount=104.85&policyUid=16a9cc22-0000-0000-5a96-5654d9a31f92&paymentMethod=A%20&script=RetailQuotes%2FacceptQuote.py%20&scriptParams=uid%3d16a9c958-0000-0000-5a96-565435311d07%26invokePCL%3dtrue%26paymentType%3dA%20&description=New%2520Business%2520Payment&firstName=Adam&surname=Har%20&addressLine1=26%2520Close&city=Potters%2520Town&postalCode=EC1%25206LR%20&payerUid=16a9c24e-0000-0000-5a96-5654b3f956e0&cardType=valid%20&continuousAuthority=true&makeCurrent=true

Thank you

PS (Solved the server problem. Was a slight mistake I was making in the usage of URL params.)

Answer 1

First, your regex not all work, some are missing quantifiers, others have a $ for some reason and some parameters are even missing! Here's what they should have been:

paymentType=A
amount=([0-9]+.[0-9]{2})
policyUid=([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)*)
paymentMethod=([a-zA-Z]+)
script=([a-zA-Z]+/[a-zA-Z]+.py)
scriptParams=[a-zA-Z]{3}=(([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)+))
invokePCL=([a-z]+)
paymentType=A
description=([a-zA-Z0-9 ]+)
firstName=[A-Za-z]+
surname=[A-Za-z]+
addressLine1=[a-zA-Z0-9 ]+
city=([a-zA-Z ]+)
postalCode=[a-zA-Z0-9 ]+
payerUid=([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)*)
cardType=[a-zA-Z]+
continuousAuthority=[a-zA-Z]+
makeCurrent=[a-zA-Z]+

And combined, you get:

paymentType=A&amount=([0-9]+.[0-9]{2})&policyUid=([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)*)&paymentMethod=([a-zA-Z]+)&script=([a-zA-Z]+/[a-zA-Z]+.py)&scriptParams=[a-zA-Z]{3}=(([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)+))&invokePCL=([a-z]+)&paymentType=A&description=([a-zA-Z0-9 ]+)&firstName=[A-Za-z]+&surname=[A-Za-z]+&addressLine1=[a-zA-Z0-9 ]+&city=([a-zA-Z ]+)&postalCode=[a-zA-Z0-9 ]+&payerUid=([A-Za-z0-9]+(?:[\s-][A-Za-z0-9]+)*)&cardType=[a-zA-Z]+&continuousAuthority=[a-zA-Z]+&makeCurrent=[a-zA-Z]+

regex101 demo

[Note, I took your regexes where they matched and ran minimal edits to them].

For your second question, I'm not sure what you mean by the Uid part and that & are part of the parameter. Given that there are 3 Uids in the url with similar format (policy, scriptparams, user), you will have to put them in the expression, unless you know a specific pattern to the scriptparams' Uid.

In the expression below, I made use of the fact that only scriptparams' uid was in lowercase:

uid=[0-9a-f]+(?:-[0-9a-f]+)+

regex101 demo