Net:HTTP enabled URI Validator for Rails 3

environment.rb

...
require 'uri_validator'

model.rb

validates :url, :presence => true, :uri => { :format => /(^$)|(^(http|https):\/\/[a-z0-9]+([\-\.]{1}[a-z0-9]+)*\.[a-z]{2,5}(([0-9]{1,5})?\/.*)?$)/ix }

uri_validator.rb

require 'net/http'

# Thanks Ilya! http://www.igvita.com/2006/09/07/validating-url-in-ruby-on-rails/
# Original credits: http://blog.inquirylabs.com/2006/04/13/simple-uri-validation/
# HTTP Codes: http://www.ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/net/http/rdoc/classes/Net/HTTPResponse.html

class UriValidator < ActiveModel::EachValidator
  def validate_each(object, attribute, value)
    raise(ArgumentError, "A regular expression must be supplied as the :format option of the options hash") unless options[:format].nil? or options[:format].is_a?(Regexp)
    configuration = { :message => "is invalid or not responding", :format => URI::regexp(%w(http https)) }
    configuration.update(options)
    
    if value =~ configuration[:format]
      begin # check header response
        case Net::HTTP.get_response(URI.parse(value))
          when Net::HTTPSuccess, Net::HTTPRedirection then true
          else object.errors.add(attribute, configuration[:message]) and false
        end
      rescue # Recover on DNS failures..
        object.errors.add(attribute, configuration[:message]) and false
      end
    else
      object.errors.add(attribute, configuration[:message]) and false
    end
  end
end