diff --git a/kong/dao/cassandra/apis.lua b/kong/dao/cassandra/apis.lua
index 527ecb3cf3a..02fed92c073 100644
--- a/kong/dao/cassandra/apis.lua
+++ b/kong/dao/cassandra/apis.lua
@@ -1,13 +1,32 @@
 local BaseDao = require "kong.dao.cassandra.base_dao"
 local constants = require "kong.constants"
 local PluginsConfigurations = require "kong.dao.cassandra.plugins_configurations"
+local url = require "socket.url"
+
+local function validate_target_url(value)
+  local parsed_url = url.parse(value)
+  if parsed_url.scheme and parsed_url.host then
+    parsed_url.scheme = parsed_url.scheme:lower()
+    if parsed_url.scheme == "http" or parsed_url.scheme == "https" then
+      parsed_url.path = parsed_url.path or "/"
+
+      print(url.build(parsed_url))
+
+      return true, nil, { target_url = url.build(parsed_url)}
+    else
+      return false, "Supported protocols are HTTP and HTTPS"    
+    end
+  end
+
+  return false, "Invalid target URL"
+end
 
 local SCHEMA = {
   id = { type = constants.DATABASE_TYPES.ID },
   name = { type = "string", unique = true, queryable = true, default = function(api_t) return api_t.public_dns end },
   public_dns = { type = "string", required = true, unique = true, queryable = true,
                  regex = "([a-zA-Z0-9-]+(\\.[a-zA-Z0-9-]+)*)" },
-  target_url = { type = "string", required = true },
+  target_url = { type = "string", required = true, func = validate_target_url },
   created_at = { type = constants.DATABASE_TYPES.TIMESTAMP }
 }
 
diff --git a/kong/dao/schemas.lua b/kong/dao/schemas.lua
index 3a36db9ceb9..a24b2f28980 100644
--- a/kong/dao/schemas.lua
+++ b/kong/dao/schemas.lua
@@ -126,13 +126,15 @@ function _M.validate(t, schema, is_update)
       end
     end
 
+    local require_satisfied = true
     -- Check required fields are set
     if v.required and (t[column] == nil or t[column] == "") then
       errors = utils.add_error(errors, column, column.." is required")
+      require_satisfied = false
     end
 
-    -- Check field against a custom function
-    if v.func and type(v.func) == "function" then
+    -- Check field against a custom function only if the value requirement has been satisfied
+    if require_satisfied and v.func and type(v.func) == "function" then
       local ok, err, new_fields = v.func(t[column], t)
       if not ok or err then
         errors = utils.add_error(errors, column, err)
diff --git a/kong/tools/utils.lua b/kong/tools/utils.lua
index 05e2d3a1dfe..1cfc5b8c73b 100644
--- a/kong/tools/utils.lua
+++ b/kong/tools/utils.lua
@@ -67,7 +67,7 @@ end
 function _M.add_error(errors, k, v)
   if not errors then errors = {} end
 
-  if errors and errors[k] then
+  if errors and errors[k] and v then
     local list = {}
     table.insert(list, errors[k])
     table.insert(list, v)
diff --git a/spec/integration/admin_api/admin_api_spec.lua b/spec/integration/admin_api/admin_api_spec.lua
index 6be06c86fe9..3817adb2d2b 100644
--- a/spec/integration/admin_api/admin_api_spec.lua
+++ b/spec/integration/admin_api/admin_api_spec.lua
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 local json = require "cjson"
 local http_client = require "kong.tools.http_client"
 local spec_helper = require "spec.spec_helpers"
+local cjson = require "cjson"
 
 local CREATED_IDS = {}
 local ENDPOINTS = {
@@ -89,6 +90,58 @@ describe("Admin API", function()
 
   end)
 
+  describe("APIs Schema", function()
+
+    it("should return error with wrong target_url", function() 
+      local response, status = http_client.post(spec_helper.API_URL.."/apis", {
+        public_dns = "hello.com",
+        target_url = "asdasd"
+      })
+
+      assert.are.equal(400, status)
+      assert.are.equal("Invalid target URL", cjson.decode(response).target_url)
+    end)
+
+    it("should return error with wrong target_url protocol", function() 
+      local response, status = http_client.post(spec_helper.API_URL.."/apis", {
+        public_dns = "hello.com",
+        target_url = "wot://hello.com/"
+      })
+
+      assert.are.equal(400, status)
+      assert.are.equal("Supported protocols are HTTP and HTTPS", cjson.decode(response).target_url)
+    end)
+
+    it("should work without a path", function() 
+      local response, status = http_client.post(spec_helper.API_URL.."/apis", {
+        public_dns = "hello.com",
+        target_url = "http://hello.com"
+      })
+
+      local body = cjson.decode(response)
+      assert.are.equal(201, status)
+      assert.are.equal("http://hello.com/", body.target_url)
+
+      -- Clean up
+      http_client.delete(spec_helper.API_URL.."/apis/"..body.id)
+    end)
+
+    it("should work without upper case protocol", function() 
+      local response, status = http_client.post(spec_helper.API_URL.."/apis", {
+        public_dns = "hello2.com",
+        target_url = "HTTP://hello.com/world"
+      })
+
+      local body = cjson.decode(response)
+      assert.are.equal(201, status)
+      assert.are.equal("http://hello.com/world", cjson.decode(response).target_url)
+
+      -- Clean up
+      http_client.delete(spec_helper.API_URL.."/apis/"..body.id)
+    end)
+
+  end)
+
   describe("POST", function()
     describe("application/x-www-form-urlencoded", function()
       test_for_each_endpoint(function(endpoint, base_url)
@@ -419,4 +472,5 @@ describe("Admin API", function()
       end)
     end)
   end)
+
 end)