For a primer on pip and virtualenv, see the Python Packaging User Guide.
TL;DR: pip install yelp_uri
Make a well-encoded URI from user input.
>>> weird_uri = b'http://münch.com/münch?one=m%C3%BCnch#m%FCnch'
>>> import yelp_uri.encoding as E
>>> well_encoded = E.recode_uri(weird_uri)
>>> print well_encoded
http://xn--mnch-0ra.com/m%C3%BCnch?one=m%C3%BCnch#m%C3%BCnchMake a user-readable url, from either a well-encoded url or user input:
>>> print E.decode_uri(well_encoded)
http://münch.com/münch?one=münch#münch
>>> print E.decode_uri(weird_uri)
http://münch.com/münch?one=münch#münchyelp_uri.search has regexes for finding URLs in user-generated plaintext.
>>> plaintext = '''
... Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eon_(geology)
... Follow @YelpCincy on Twitter (http://twitter.com/YelpCincy)
... '''
>>> from yelp_uri.search import url_regex
>>> for url in url_regex.finditer(plaintext): print url.group()
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eon_(geology)
http://twitter.com/YelpCincy