External links in new window..wild card regexp

[tjtryutyu]

I know very little javascript. Nonetheless, I found some example code that opens links into a new window if they contain "external" on the "rel attribute. For example:

<a href="http:example.com" rel="external">this link opens in a external window</a>

I later hacked the code so it works it "nofollow" is added to the "rel" attribute like:

<a href="http:example.com" rel="external nofollow">this link opens in a external window with nofollow</a>

The following is the contents on my original javascript called external.js

function externalLinks() {
 if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return;
 var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
 for (var i=0; i<anchors.length; i++) {
   var anchor = anchors[i];
   if (anchor.getAttribute("href") &&
       ((anchor.getAttribute("rel") == "external nofollow") || (anchor.getAttribute("rel") == "external")))


     anchor.target = "_blank";
 }
}
window.onload = externalLinks;

Now I want to use a regular expression to match different possibilities of the "rel" attribute.
I found a good tutorial on javascript regexp at:
Javascript RegExp tutorial

However no hacks I have tried based on the tutorial have worked.
I have tried the following:

(anchor.getAttribute("href") &&  /(.)*(external)(.)*/i.test(anchor.getAttribute("rel")) )

and

(anchor.getAttribute("href") &&  anchor.getAttribute("rel") == /(.)*(external)(.)*/i)

Can anybody help!

[acoder]

You can use any of the String search methods, e.g. indexOf, match, search. See this reference.

[tjtryutyu]

You can use any of the String search methods, e.g. indexOf, match, search. See this reference.

Thanks Acoder!

IndexOf worked like a charm!
BTW here is my new script:

function externalLinks() {
 if (!document.getElementsByTagName) return;
 var anchors = document.getElementsByTagName("a");
 for (var i=0; i<anchors.length; i++) {
   var anchor = anchors[i];
   if (anchor.getAttribute("href") && anchor.getAttribute("rel").indexOf("external") != -1)


     anchor.target = "_blank";
 }
}
window.onload = externalLinks;

[acoder]

You're welcome. Glad you've got it working.