What regex do I need to use to make this into a hyperlink ?

[jeddiki]

Hi

In my text output file that I will display on my webpage
I have this included:

"Located At: Http://pggg-online.org/blog.htm "

and sometimes :

"found here www.example.org/james.htm "

What is the best way to change these into real
working links eg:

<a href='http://www.example.org/james.htm' target='_blank' >www.example.or g/james.htm</a>

I guess that the best way is with a regular expression ?

Of course I have to make sure that I don't double up the
http:// if it is already given

Thanks for any advice

[dlite922]

Here's what I have so far:

([url]http://)?(([/url][-A-Z0-9]+\.)?[-A-Z0-9]+\.[A-Z]{2,10})/?([^\s])+(?=\s)

but if you check Google, there's plenty of URL regexps you can modify for your own use.


Dan

[kovik]

Why is the slash after the domain optional, but the rest of the stuff after it is not? o.O

[dlite922]

Why is the slash after the domain optional, but the rest of the stuff after it is not? o.O

not sure what you mean, that regex will match example.com

and these too:

something.examp le.com
http://what.how.com/wow.html?#$%^&* something%20%30 else

Not tested and it does need some work. It was given to you as a start, not as a final solution.




Dan

[jeddiki]

Hi
Thanks for suggesting that I Google it !!

( doh ! - (thats to myself !!) really, thanks .... it helped )

I found this, which I think is what I need:

//PHP Example: Automatically link URL's inside text.

$text = preg_replace('@(https?://([-\w\.]+)+(:\d+)?(/([\w/_\.]*(\?\S+)?)?)?)@', '<a href="$1">$1</a>', $text);

Can anyone spot any problems with using this ?


PS - I saw this comment:

Great regex, thanks ! Small thing : the '-' (dash) is missing - URL like this fails (http://web5.uottawa.ca/admingov/regl...-methodes.html)

Where should I add the "-" ?

Thanks

[Atli]

I would guess the comment means it should be:

$text = preg_replace('@(https?://([-\w\.]+)+(:\d+)?(/([\w/_\.\-]*(\?\S+)?)?)?)@', '<a href="$1">$1</a>', $text);

This fixes the problem with the URL posted in the comment, at least.

[jeddiki]

Hi again,

I tried that regex in my script but it is not doing anything.

This is my script:

It is taking the product details out of a database and displaying them.
The description often contains a url

while($row = mysql_fetch_assoc($result)){
   extract($row);
  $descript = preg_replace('@(https?://([-\w\.]+)+(:\d+)?(/([\w/_\.\-]*(\?\S+)?)?)?)@', '<a href="$1">$1</a>', $descrip);
  $extr = $totearn-$earn;				
  $disp1 = "<b><span style = \"color:maroon;\">$Rctr) $cat</span><br><span style = \"color:darkblue;\">$title</span> ID: $id</b><br>";
  $disp2 = "$descript<br>";
  $disp3 = "<b>$/sale: $earn, +/mth: $rebill, Pop: $pop, Gravity: $grav, Comm%: $comm, Refers: $refer, Total Earn: $totearn</b>";
  echo "<div style=\"width: 800px; text-align: left;\">
  <span>$disp1</span>
  <span>$disp2</span>
  <span>$disp3</span>
 <br><br>
 </div>";

the result of this can be see live here:
script-test

When you see the form just click on the "Analyze Clickbank Now" button
and you will see a list of results.

The results have urls - but none of them are converted :(

Have I done something wrong ?

PS
Just a thought - does that regex only work on https urls?
If so, how do I make it work on all ?

[kovik]

not sure what you mean, that regex will match example.com

and these too:

something.examp le.com
http://what.how.com/wow.html?#$%^&* something%20%30 else

Not tested and it does need some work. It was given to you as a start, not as a final solution.




Dan

@dlite:

What I was saying is that your regex also matches this:
http://what.how.comwow .html?#$%^&*som ething%20%30els e

You made the slash after the domain optional.

[kovik]

@jeddiki:

Firstly, there's no need to surround the entire regex in parentheses. The full regex match exists in $0.

Secondly, your current regex requires a http/https protocol. To make it optional, surround the protocol in parentheses and add a question mark after it.

Thirdly, the domain portion of your regex allows for 1 character TLDs. It also allows for TLDs with dashes. These do not exist. Change "([-\w\.]+)+" to "([-\w]\.)+(\w{2,})". This gives you multiple strings followed by periods, and then a 2 or more character string (without dashes).

The rest looks fine from here.

[jeddiki]

Hi,

Thanks for your help,

I tried to follow what you said but I get this error:

Warning: preg_replace() [function.preg-replace]: Compilation failed: missing terminating ] for character class at offset 68 in /home/guru54gt5/public_html/sys/cb_search.php on line 208

this is the regex:

$descript = preg_replace('@ ( (https?://)? ([-\w]\.)+(\w{2,})+(: \d+)?(/([\w/_\.\]*(\?\S+)?)?)?)@ ', '<a href="$1">$1</a>', $descrip);

Can you see where I have gone wrong ?

[Dormilich]

the character class opened at offset 44 should be closed at offset 52, but its closing brace is escaped, holding the character class open.

[jeddiki]

Again, thanks for the input,

I have changed the expression to:

$descript = preg_replace('@ ( (https?://)? ([-\w]\.)+(\w{2,})+(: \d+)?(/([\w/_\.]*(\?\S+)?)?)?)@ ', '<a href="$1">$1</a>', $descrip);

Now it doesn't error - but it does not convert the urls to
hyperlinks either :(

The result can be seen here: clickbank tool

When you click on the big button, you get a list

You see on the list in position 2 there is a url:

Http://www.conversational-hypnosis.com/affiliate.php.

and then in position 4 another one:

At MaverickMoneyMakers.com/Bonus.

and position 6:

www.affilorama.com/affiliates

None of them got converted.

[kovik]

Firstly, get rid of the whitespace in the regex. You need to explicitly tell it to ignore whitespace if you don't want it to interpret the whitespace as \s characters.

Secondly, I made a mistake in my regex correction. Change "([-\w]\.)" to "([-\w]+\.)". Also, I just noticed that your regex doesn't allow dashes anywhere but in the domain. Why is that?

[jeddiki]

OK,

I got rid of the spaces.

and added that "+"

I also added a couple of "-" s

so now I have :

$descript = preg_replace('@ ((https?://)?([-\w]+\.)+(-\w{2,})+(:\d+)? (/([-\w/_\.]*(\?\S+)?)?)?)@ ', '<a href="$1">$1</a>', $descrip);

But alas, no improvement

[kovik]

... Take the dash out of the TLD. The way you wrote it requires that the first character is a dash, and TLDs don't even have dashes at all.

Also, are you aware that you use $descript and $descrip?