diff --git a/plugins/dspace/lib/dspace_plugin/library.rb b/plugins/dspace/lib/dspace_plugin/library.rb
index 3bef566..b73bf8d 100644
--- a/plugins/dspace/lib/dspace_plugin/library.rb
+++ b/plugins/dspace/lib/dspace_plugin/library.rb
@@ -1,9 +1,15 @@
 class DspacePlugin::Library < Blog
 
-  settings_items :server_url, :type => :string, :default => "http://dspace.example.com/"
+  settings_items :dspace_server_url, :type => :string
   settings_items :gather_option, :type => :string, :default => "collections"
 
-  attr_accessible :server_url, :gather_option
+  attr_accessible :dspace_server_url, :gather_option
+
+  def dspace_server_url_valid
+    errors.add(self.dspace_server_url, _("is not a valid URL. Please correct it and resubmit.")) unless url_valid?(self.dspace_server_url)
+  end
+
+  validate :dspace_server_url_valid
 
   def self.icon_name(article = nil)
     'dspace'
@@ -32,4 +38,11 @@ class DspacePlugin::Library < Blog
     DspacePlugin::Collection.find(:all)
   end
 
+  protected
+
+  def url_valid?(url)
+    url = URI.parse(url) rescue false
+    url.kind_of?(URI::HTTP) || url.kind_of?(URI::HTTPS)
+  end
+
 end
diff --git a/plugins/dspace/views/cms/dspace_plugin/_library.html.erb b/plugins/dspace/views/cms/dspace_plugin/_library.html.erb
index 2807a20..19c385d 100644
--- a/plugins/dspace/views/cms/dspace_plugin/_library.html.erb
+++ b/plugins/dspace/views/cms/dspace_plugin/_library.html.erb
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@
 
 <%= labelled_form_field(_('Items per page:'), f.select(:posts_per_page, Blog.posts_per_page_options)) %>
 
-<%= labelled_form_field(_('Address of DSpace library:'), text_field(:article, :server_url)) %>
+<%= required f.text_field(:dspace_server_url, :size => '150', :maxlength => 150) %>
 
 <%= content_tag( 'div', radio_button( :article, :gather_option, 'collections' ) + content_tag('label', _('Get collections'), :for => 'article_get_collections')) %>
 
--
libgit2 0.21.2