Encode flat text URL to clickable URL

Question

I have developed a nice little FAQ for my site. Everything is stored in a MySQL database from Category, Question and Answer, the columns are all defined as VARCHAR(255). I use the following code before adding anything I input to the database and only I have access to what gets added, edited or deleted.

htmlspecialchars($_POST['xxxxxx'])

What is the best way to get the data from the database and echo it out as clickable URL's using PHP? Most of the information I have found seems to be 10 - 12 years old and many functions are now deprecated. I am not so sure security would not be an issue as it does not allow user input unless it is from myself. I know this question has been asked many times but I only find outdated code.

I was not sure if that was a good idea to do it that way of if it needed some encoding or something — Dion, Jan 15 '22 at 18:23

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 15 '22 at 18:21

1

This solution will catch all http/https/www and convert to clickable links.

Convert plain text URLs into HTML hyperlinks in PHP

$url = '/(http|https|ftp|ftps)://[a-zA-Z0-9-.]+.[a-zA-Z]{2,3}(/\S*)?/';
$string= preg_replace($url, '$0', $string); echo $string;

answered Jan 15 '22 at 18:21

Amir Abedini

26
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I will try that and post back. I did notice it came from a 12 year old post though – Dion Jan 15 '22 at 18:30
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the best way is to rebuild URL with regex its old post but I think works well – Amir Abedini Jan 15 '22 at 18:39
the post above worked well, I clicked it as the answer. This is just what i was looking for. 'Tips Hat' – Dion Jan 15 '22 at 18:43

Encode flat text URL to clickable URL

1 Answers1