textbox to recognize url create link

[Thing]

I'm working on making a form that when submitted checks to see if the user has typed in a link, if so it converts it to a hyperlink. This is for a news submission form on one of my sites. I don't really care if it is a popup like SPF has, or not. Just wanted to see if anyone here has done something similiar, and which route they took. Thanks!

[fillup07]

Yes...
Search this forum, as functions have been posted here pretty recently.

[TheTank]

Here's a function that I use. I'm pretty sure I took it from a post here. Probably in the Funky Functions thread, but I haven't checked lately.

Function LinkURLs(tempTxt)
  Dim regEx
  Set regEx = New RegExp
  regEx.Global = True
  regEx.IgnoreCase = True

  'Hyperlink Email Addresses
  regEx.Pattern = "([_.a-z0-9-]+@[_.a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,3})" 
  tempTxt = regEx.Replace(tempTxt, "<a href=""mailto:$1"">$1</a>")

  'Hyperlink URL's
  regEx.Pattern = "((www\.|(http|https|ftp|news|file)+\:\/\/)[_.a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z0-9\/_:@=.+?,##%&~-]*[^.|\'|\# |!|\(|?|,| |>|<|;|\)])"
  tempTxt = regEx.Replace(tempTxt, "<a href=""$1"" target = '_blank'>$1</a>")          

  'Make <a href="www = <a href="http://www
  tempTxt = Replace(tempTxt, "href=""www", "href=""http://www")

  LinkURLs = tempTxt
End Function

[Thing]

Thanks Tank I'll give it a shot!

I did search with no results. Must have used the wrong keywords

[Thing]

You just wanted to hit 700!!!

[Nolan]

I've got a whole PrepareText function that I use, and I used the function above in it, and it renders the text odd... before I used this function, the text rendered normally, like this:

http://www.fark.com
www.fark.com
fark.com
fakeaddress@yahoo.com

After this function, the text is rendered like this:

http://www.fark.com www.fark.com fark.com
fakeaddress@yahoo.com

===========================
I have never been good with regular expressions, is there anything in the above that would prevent the end line/line break from being converted properly to a <br> tag (that happens elsewhere in the function).

[fillup07]

Maybe I was imagining things. Lol, I can assure you that it wasn't for 700 posts though... but thanks for pointing that out.

Let me know how that function goes for you.

[Thing]

It worked perfect man. Exactly what I needed. Thanks!

[Thing]

That function does not work well with apostrophes ('). It also didn't like the "target='_blank'". I fixed both the errors:

  
Function LinkURLs(tempTxt)
   Dim regEx
   Set regEx = New RegExp
   regEx.Global = True
   regEx.IgnoreCase = True
 temptxt = replace(temptxt, "'", "''")
   'Hyperlink Email Addresses
   regEx.Pattern = "([_.a-z0-9-]+@[_.a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,3})"
   tempTxt = regEx.Replace(tempTxt, "<a href=""mailto:$1"">$1</a>")
   'Hyperlink URL's
   regEx.Pattern = "((www\.|(http|https|ftp|news|file)+\:\/\/)[_.a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z0-9\/_:@=.+?,##%&~-]*[^.|\'|\# |!|\(|?|,| |>|<|;|\)])"
   tempTxt = regEx.Replace(tempTxt, "<a href=""$1"" target=""_blank"">$1</a>")
   'Make <a href="www = <a href="http://www
   tempTxt = Replace(tempTxt, "href=""www", "href=""http://www")
   LinkURLs = tempTxt
End Function

[TheTank]

I had not run across the apostrophy problem, but I have different functin created based if I want to target _blank or not. That's just my standard one.

Good job on the apostrophes. I'll have to add that in.

[asp_funda]

Ahem, a mod, if you please.

Function LinkURLs(tempTxt, tgt)
   'Prefix underscore(_) to tgt
   tgt = "_" & tgt
   'If tgt is blank, set it to self.
   If Trim(tgt)="_" Then
   tgt = "_self"
   End If


   Dim regEx
   Set regEx = New RegExp
   regEx.Global = True
   regEx.IgnoreCase = True
 temptxt = replace(temptxt, "'", "''")
   'Hyperlink Email Addresses
   regEx.Pattern = "([_.a-z0-9-]+@[_.a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,3})"
   tempTxt = regEx.Replace(tempTxt, "<a href=""mailto:$1"">$1</a>")
   'Hyperlink URL's
   regEx.Pattern = "((www\.|(http|https|ftp|news|file)+\:\/\/)[_.a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z0-9\/_:@=.+?,##%&~-]*[^.|\'|\# |!|\(|?|,| |>|<|;|\)])"

   tempTxt = regEx.Replace(tempTxt, "<a href=""$1"" target=" & tgt & ">$1</a>")
   'Make <a href="www = <a href="http://www
   tempTxt = Replace(tempTxt, "href=""www", "href=""http://www")
   LinkURLs = tempTxt
End Function

This one has an additional parameter(optional) & you can set target as you please, ie., self, top, blank, parent, etc. If none is specified, it is set as self. Also, don't use underscores(_) for specifying the target in the parameter. Its added automatically later.

[Thing]

We should all just keeping adding to this function until it is the "perfect" function lol We could even market it out to large firms and sell it for thousands!!!

[asp_funda]

We should all just keeping adding to this function until it is the "perfect"
function lol We could even market it out to large firms and sell it for
thousands!!!

Ha Ha Ha
So in fit for that, here's another mod.

Another thing that I thought of & that was left in the previous mod. What if
we wanna target a frame rather than the window attribute. So here's another mod.

Function LinkURLs(tempTxt, tgt, frm)
'Prefix underscore(_) to tgt if frm=0 or null
If (CInt(frm)=0) OR (CInt(frm)="") Then
tgt = "_" & tgt
End If
'If tgt is blank, set it to self.
If (Trim(tgt)="_") OR (Trim(tgt)="") Then
tgt = "_self"
End If
 
Dim regEx
Set regEx = New RegExp
regEx.Global = True
regEx.IgnoreCase = True
temptxt = replace(temptxt, "'", "''")
'Hyperlink Email Addresses
regEx.Pattern = "([_.a-z0-9-]+@[_.a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z]{2,3})"
tempTxt = regEx.Replace(tempTxt, "<a href=""mailto:$1"">$1</a>")
'Hyperlink URL's
regEx.Pattern = "((www\.|(http|https|ftp|news|file)+\:\/\/)[_.a-z0-9-]+\.[a-z0-9\/_:@=.+?,##%&~-]*[^.|\'|\# |!|\(|?|,| |>|<|;|\)])"
tempTxt = regEx.Replace(tempTxt, "<a href=""$1"" target=" & tgt & ">$1</a>")
'Make <a href="www = <a href="http://www
tempTxt = Replace(tempTxt, "href=""www", "href=""http://www")
LinkURLs = tempTxt
End Function

Ok NOW, so this function above now also supports targetting frames. Just
another optional parameter added by name of frm. If this parameter is set to
any number but 0, it will not add an underscore(_) to the parameter tgt
which specifies the target name. So if its omitted, then also it will add
underscore(_).
So, if you wanna target a frame, just set frm to any number, better be 1 of
ease of things.


So there!! Any more mods are more than welcome.