PHP preg_replace adding http:// only when missing

[traq]

Try this - #\b(?:[url]http://)?(www\.)?(([/url][a-z0-9_-]{2,}\.)+[a-z]{2,}(/[\w\+\-\?\&\;]*)*)\b#i

#                         delimiter (start of pattern)
  \b                      word boundary
    (?:http://)?          optional, non-capturing "http://"
    (www\.)?              optional, capturing (will be $1) "www."
    (                     start of capturing group (will be $2)
      (                     start of sub-pattern (will be $3)
        [a-z0-9_-]{2,}        something that looks like a domain name
        \.                    followed by a dot
      )+                    end of $3 - one or more matches
      [a-z]{2,}             followed by something that looks like a TLD
      (                     start of sub-pattern (will be $4)
        /                     a slash
        [\w\+\-\?\&\;]*       followed by something that looks like a path and/or query string
      )*                    end of $4 - zero or more matches
    )                     end of $2 - one match only ($2 also contains $3 and $4)
  \b                      word boundary
#i                        delimiter (end of pattern), case-insensitive

tested:

$text = "Looking for marketers who want to work. Ready to change your life? Trevo offers one product - an all natural, vegan, kosher nutritional supplement with 174 nutraceuticals. Visit www.SoCal.trevobuilder.com for product info & to purchase. Find me on facebook at Trevo SoCal or @TrevoSoCal on twitter. Low start up, cost covers first 3 bottles or larger packages available. No registration fees. Start making money this week! Visit trevocorporate.com/coach/sjahr to register on the Presidential Elite team.";

$regexp = "#\b(?:http://)?(www\.)?([a-z0-9_-]{2,}\.[a-z]{2,}(/[\w\+\-\?\&\;]*)*)\b#i";

$hypertext = preg_replace( $regexp,'<a href="http://$1$2">$1$2</a>',$text );

print htmlentities( $hypertext ); 

Note that this pattern will match most (not all) valid URLs, and will not match most (not all) non-URL text. It might be a good, workable compromise for your purpose.

Edit: I changed this after posting it. Compare and make sure you're using this version.

[james438]

Why do you want to add the http:// to each url if it is not there? Are you looking to hyperlink the urls or do you have a script that already does that? I am also interested, because I like to collect pcre patterns/scripts that relate to manipulating urls.

EDIT: Actually, I notice that traq's script does just that, but I do not believe that was specifically asked for, but it may be what you were looking for. I have one that does what traq posted, but mine specifically avoids hyperlinking urls that are missing the www prefix.

[traq]

I notice that traq's script does just that [turns urls into hyperlinks], but I do not believe that was specifically asked for...

Whup, you're right. I wrote that without re-reading the thread. If you don't want the URLs hyperlinked, just replace

preg_replace( $regexp,'<a href="http://$1$2">$1$2</a>',$text ); 

with

preg_replace( $regexp,'http://$1$2',$text ); 

[qwikad.com]

traq I realized that was an issue and changed it to

preg_replace( $regexp,'http://$1$2',$text );

Still it's not doing what I want it to do. You see, I've made a lot (and I mean a lot) of changes to my markdown over the months and I am wondering if something else is now interfering with your code. The way the URLs looked was something like this:

http://www.someurl.comwww.someurl.com

...and despite the fact they had http:// in them, they stopped being clickable (all URLs in the entire website stopped being clickable).

I wonder if the "print htmlentities" had something to do with that.

I also wonder if a one liner (like the one I mentioned before) if modified can solve the issue. Is there a way to tell this line to add http:// only if www. is present in a URL and ignore a URL altogether if it already has http:// ? (sorry for being redundant).

$text = preg_replace( '/^(?:http:\/\/)?(.*)/', "http://$1", $text); 

Thanks!

[traq]

...and despite the fact they had http:// in them, they stopped being clickable (all URLs in the entire website stopped being clickable).
I wonder if the "print htmlentities" had something to do with that.

I used htmlentities for the test so you could see the HTML output. Simply do print instead.

...and despite the fact they had http:// in them, they stopped being clickable (all URLs in the entire website stopped being clickable).

the text "http://" does not create hyperlinks. If you removed the anchor markup from the replacement pattern (i.e., you replaced '<a href="http://$1$2">$1$2</a>' with 'http://$1$2'), then I would not expect the URLs to be hyperlinked.

You hadn't mentioned markdown earlier. Are you using a markdown parser? At what point?

I also wonder if a one liner (like the one I mentioned before) if modified can solve the issue. Is there a way to tell this line to add http:// only if www. is present in a URL and ignore a URL altogether if it already has http:// ? (sorry for being redundant).

I would hesitate to say until I know more about what you are actually doing - the above makes it clear that we do not have all the necessary information.

[qwikad.com]

traq, I spent sometime browsing the web and I came upon this little function:

<?php
/*** example usage ***/
$string='http://www.phpro.org';
echo makelink($string);

/**
*
* Function to make URLs into links
*
* @param string The url string
*
* @return string
*
**/
function makeLink($string){

/*** make sure there is an http:// on all URLs ***/
$string = preg_replace("/([^\w\/])(www\.[a-z0-9\-]+\.[a-z0-9\-]+)/i", "$1http://$2",$string);
/*** make all URLs links ***/
$string = preg_replace("/([\w]+:\/\/[\w-?&;#~=\.\/\@]+[\w\/])/i","<a target=\"_blank\" href=\"$1\">$1</A>",$string);
/*** make all emails hot links ***/
$string = preg_replace("/([\w-?&;#~=\.\/]+\@(\[?)[a-zA-Z0-9\-\.]+\.([a-zA-Z]{2,3}|[0-9]{1,3})(\]?))/i","<A HREF=\"mailto:$1\">$1</A>",$string);

return $string;
}

?>

If I take that first line and re-do it to fit my markdown, do you think it may do what I want it to?

$text = preg_replace('/([^\w\/])(www\.[a-z0-9\-]+\.[a-z0-9\-]+)/i', "$1http://$2", $text);

Is it going to add http:// to all links that have www and skip those that already have http://? I'd appreciate if you test it for me. I can't test it live on our classifieds until late at night when I don't have so many people posting ads. Don't want to make their links go all berserk if something is wrong with the code, even temporarily.


Thank you.

[Deadweight]

$string = 'Looking for marketers who want to work. Ready to change your life? Trevo offers one product - an all natural, vegan, kosher nutritional supplement with 174 nutraceuticals. Visit www.SoCal.trevobuilder.com for product info & to purchase. Find me on facebook at Trevo SoCal or @TrevoSoCal on twitter. Low start up, cost covers first 3 bottles or larger packages available. No registration fees. Start making money this week! Visit trevocorporate.com/coach/sjahr to register on the Presidential Elite team. Welcome to facebook.com.';
$new_string = '';
$string_explode = explode(' ',$string);
  
foreach($string_explode as $key){
    $check = strpos($key,'.') !== false?weblink($key):$key.' ';
    echo $check;
}
  
function weblink($test){
    $ch = curl_init();

  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, $test);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_HEADER, true);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_NOBODY, true);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, true);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_FOLLOWLOCATION, true);
  curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_MAXREDIRS, 10);

  $data = curl_exec($ch); 
  $info = curl_getinfo($ch); 
  $code = $info['http_code']; 

  curl_close($ch);
  
  $good_array = array(100,101,200,201,202,203,206,300,301,302,304);
  
  if(in_array($code,$good_array)){
     $add = preg_match('/http:\/\//',$test)?'':'http://';
    return '<a href="'.$add.$test.'">'.$test.'</a> ';
  }else{
    return $test.' ' ;  
  }
} 

FYI i added something to test if it does work. At the very end i added "Welcome to facebook.com." To test if the period would mess up my code and it doesnt. However, if it is ? ! or something weird then the website will not exists. I will have to fix that. - If you want me to fix this problem let me know. Its easy.

Another note: "trevocorporate.com/coach/sjahr" doesnt work so it will not place a link around the website.

[traq]

traq, I spent sometime browsing the web and I came upon this little function:

[ . . . code . . . ]

If I take that first line and re-do it to fit my markdown, do you think it may do what I want it to?

TBH, that seems to attempt the same task as my code snippet, but doesn't do as well. It won't catch URLs without "www", for example, nor URLs with a path component.

As for your "markdown," I don't know, because you have not explained how/ when/ what you are doing with markdown (beyond the fact that you're using it).

I'd appreciate if you test it for me. I can't test it live on our classifieds until late at night when I don't have so many people posting ads. Don't want to make their links go all berserk if something is wrong with the code, even temporarily.

I thought you might be a "cowboy coder." It would be well worth your while to do your dev/ testing locally, instead of on you live site. It is much less stressful, and much easier to recover from mistakes. It is not difficult at all to set up Apache + PHP on your local computer.

[ ... ]
FYI i added something to test if it does work. At the very end i added "Welcome to facebook.com." To test if the period would mess up my code and it doesnt. However, if it is ? ! or something weird then the website will not exists. I will have to fix that. - If you want me to fix this problem let me know. Its easy.

Another note: "trevocorporate.com/coach/sjahr" doesnt work so it will not place a link around the website.

@Crazykld69, I am not sure what you are trying to contribute with this post. The code you offered doesn't seem to address any of the OP's questions.

If you do have something to contribute, please edit your post to more clearly explain.

[qwikad.com]

treq, I just tested it. The code is doing exactly what I want it to do. I will still need to post a bunch of ads to ensure it works in all possible situations, but as of now it seems to be working perfectly. It's this one:

$text = preg_replace('/([^\w\/])(www\.[a-z0-9\-]+\.[a-z0-9\-]+)/i', "$1http://$2", $text);

In all honesty, I tried to implement the function you suggested, it wouldn't work. That's why I was looking for a one-liner to at least help the URLs that start with www. I am pretty sure if you had access to my files you would make it work, but unfortunately you are limited by my weak attempts to explain what I want to accomplish. But thank you for nudging me in the right direction nonetheless.

[traq]

You can use my regex as a "one-liner" - no problem. I didn't realize that's why you were still looking for another answer. (You just want "http://" added, correct? no HTML added?)

$text = preg_replace( 
    "#\b(?:http://)?(www\.)?([a-z0-9_-]{2,}\.[a-z]{2,}(/[\w\+\-\?\&\;]*)*)\b#i"
   ,"http://$1$2"
   ,$text 
); 

If you're still having trouble integrating it with markdown, you'll need to explain ho you're using it.

In any case, glad to have helped.