jQuery: replace() or wrap() http://name.tld/request_url?parameter with <a href="this">...</a> ?

Question

Ist there any better way to replace/wrap the h*tp://name.tld/request_url?parameter or h*tps://name.tld/request_url?parameter text in some certain html elements with an <a href>

HTML

<div id="posts">
  <div class="post">
    Tweet text 1 http://google.com and other text.
  </div>
  <div class="post">
    Tweet text 2 https://www.google.com and other text.
  </div>
  <div class="post">
    Tweet text 3
  </div>
  <div class="post">
    ...
  </div>
</div>

JavaScript

jQuery('#posts .post').each( function () {
 elem = jQuery(this);
 elem.html(
   elem.text()
    .replace(/(http?:\/\/?\S+)/g, "<a href='$1'>$1</a>")
 ); 
});

Any jQuery.wrap() alternative would be nice too...

Answer 1

There isn't a much better way, though you can simplify it a bit, like this:

jQuery('#posts .post').each( function () {
  jQuery(this).html(function(i, html) {
    return html.replace(/(http?:\/\/?\S+)/g, "<a href='$1'>$1</a>");
  }); 
});

Use this approach only if you're assured the posts don't contain HTML already, otherwise use what you have.

jQuery works with DOM nodes, not text inside nodes, or rather it does since it's just JavaScript...but it doesn't provide a lot of additional functionality for doing so. jQuery, including .wrap(), focuses around DOM manipulation, not text.