code: public static boolean isValidUrl(String url) {
          HttpURLConnection huc = null;
          boolean isValid = false;
          try {
              URL u = new URL(url);
              huc = (HttpURLConnection) u.openConnection();
              huc.setRequestMethod("GET");
              huc.connect();
              int response = huc.getResponseCode();
              if (response != HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK) {
                  throw new IOException(
                          String.format(
                                  "URL %s did not return a valid response code while attempting to connect.  Expected: %d. Received: %d",
                                  url, HttpURLConnection.HTTP_OK, response));
              }
              isValid = true;
          } catch (IOException e) {
              logger.warn(
                      "A problem happened while trying to verify url: {} Error Message: {}",
                      url,
                      e.getMessage());
          } finally {
              if (huc != null) {
                  huc.disconnect();
              }
              ;
          }
          return isValid;
      }
docs: Tests if a string is a valid URL Will open a connection and make sure that it can connect to
  the URL it looks for an HTTP status code of 200 on a GET. This is a valid URL.
  
  @param url - A string representing a url
  @return True if URL is valid according to included definition