replace URL with HTML Links javascript

Question

i am using the next function to match urls inside a given text and replace them for html links. The regex is working great but currently i am only replacing the first match.

Does anyone knows how I can replace all the url? I guess i should be using exec command but i did not really figured how to do it.

function replaceURLWithHTMLLinks(text) {
    var exp = /(\b(https?|ftp|file):\/\/[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|])/i;
    return text.replace(exp,"<a href='$1'>$1</a>"); 
}

Answer 1

Add a "g" to the end of the Regex to enable global matching.

/ig;

e.g:

function replaceURLWithHTMLLinks(text) {
  var exp = /(\b(https?|ftp|file):\/\/[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|])/ig;
  return text.replace(exp,"<a href='$1'>$1</a>"); 
}

Answer 2

You might also want to look at how the URL Tool for Ubiquity finds urls

Answer 3

I had to do the opposite, and make html links into just the URL, but I modified your regex and it works like a charm, thanks :)

var exp = /<a\s.*href=['"](\b(https?|ftp|file):\/\/[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|])['"].*>.*<\/a>/ig;

source = source.replace(exp,"$1");

Answer 4

works pretty well for me

Answer 5

Thanks, this was very helpful. I also wanted something that would link things that looked like a URL -- as a basic requirement, it'd link something like www.yahoo.com, even if the http:// protocol prefix was not present. So basically, if "www." is present, it'll link it and assume it's http://. I also wanted emails to turn into mailto: links. EXAMPLE: www.yahoo.com would be converted to www.yahoo.com

Here's the code I ended up with (combination of code from this page and other stuff I found online, and other stuff I did on my own):

function Linkify(inputText) {
    //URLs starting with http://, https://, or ftp://
    var replacePattern1 = /(\b(https?|ftp):\/\/[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|])/gim;
    var replacedText = inputText.replace(replacePattern1, '<a href="$1" target="_blank">$1</a>');

    //URLs starting with www. (without // before it, or it'd re-link the ones done above)
    var replacePattern2 = /(^|[^\/])(www\.[\S]+(\b|$))/gim;
    var replacedText = replacedText.replace(replacePattern2, '$1<a href="http://$2" target="_blank">$2</a>');

    //Change email addresses to mailto:: links
    var replacePattern3 = /(\w+@[a-zA-Z_]+?\.[a-zA-Z]{2,6})/gim;
    var replacedText = replacedText.replace(replacePattern3, '<a href="mailto:$1">$1</a>');

    return replacedText
}

In the 2nd replace, the (^|[^\/]) part is only replacing www.whatever.com if it's not already prefixed by // -- to avoid double-linking if a URL was already linked in the first replace. Also, it's possible that www.whatever.com might be at the beginning of the string, which is the first "or" condition in that part of the regex.

This could be integrated as a jQuery plugin as Jesse P illustrated above -- but I specifically wanted a regular function that wasn't acting on an existing DOM element, because I'm taking text I have and then adding it to the DOM, and I want the text to be "linkified" before I add it, so I pass the text through this function. Works great.

Answer 6

The e-mail dection of Travitron's answer above did not work for me, so I extended/replaced it with the following (C# code):

// Change e-mail addresses to mailto: links.
const RegexOptions o = RegexOptions.Multiline | RegexOptions.IgnoreCase;
const string pat3 = @"([a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.]+)@([a-zA-Z0-9_\-\.]+)\.([a-zA-Z]{2,6})";
const string rep3 = @"<a href=""mailto:$1@$2.$3"">$1@$2.$3</a>";
text = Regex.Replace(text, pat3, rep3, o);

This allows for e-mail addresses like "[email protected]".

Answer 7

The best script to do this: http://benalman.com/projects/javascript-linkify-process-lin/

Answer 8

it works perfectly! thanks!

Answer 9

your code is very beautiful

Answer 10

Worked perfectly. Thakns a lot.

Answer 11

I've made some small modifications to Travis's code (just to avoid any unnecessary redeclaration - but it's working great for my needs, so nice job!):

function linkify(inputText) {

var replaceText, replacePattern1, replacePattern2, replacePattern3;

//URLs starting with http://, https://, or ftp://
replacePattern1 = /(\b(https?|ftp):\/\/[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%?=~_|!:,.;]*[-A-Z0-9+&@#\/%=~_|])/gim;
replacedText = inputText.replace(replacePattern1, '<a href="$1" target="_blank">$1</a>');

//URLs starting with www. (without // before it, or it'd re-link the ones done above)
replacePattern2 = /(^|[^\/])(www\.[\S]+(\b|$))/gim;
replacedText = replacedText.replace(replacePattern2, '$1<a href="http://$2" target="_blank">$2</a>');

//Change email addresses to mailto:: links
replacePattern3 = /(\w+@[a-zA-Z_]+?\.[a-zA-Z]{2,6})/gim;
replacedText = replacedText.replace(replacePattern3, '<a href="mailto:$1">$1</a>');

return replacedText
}