Insert a Link Using CSS

Asked 2/10, 2008 at 23:42 Answered 25/6, 2013 at 15:9

I'm hand-maintaining an HTML document, and I'm looking for a way to automatically insert a link around text in a table. Let me illustrate:

<table><tr><td class="case">123456</td></tr></table>

I would like to automatically make every text in a TD with class "case" a link to that case in our bug tracking system (which, incidentally, is FogBugz).

So I'd like that "123456" to be changed to a link of this form:

<a href="http://bugs.example.com/fogbugz/default.php?123456">123456</a>

Is that possible? I've played with the :before and :after pseudo-elements, but there doesn't seem to be a way to repeat the case number.

Ownership answered 2/10, 2008 at 23:42 Comment(1)

What do you mean automatically? You will need to run some application over your HTML that will convert it to the desired results. – Sister 2/10, 2008 at 23:48

Not in a manner that will work across browsers. You could, however, do that with some relatively trivial Javascript..

function makeCasesClickable(){
    var cells = document.getElementsByTagName('td')
    for (var i = 0, cell; cell = cells[i]; i++){
        if (cell.className != 'case') continue
        var caseId = cell.innerHTML
        cell.innerHTML = ''
        var link = document.createElement('a')
        link.href = 'http://bugs.example.com/fogbugz/default.php?' + caseId
        link.appendChild(document.createTextNode(caseId))
        cell.appendChild(link)
    }
}

You can apply it with something like onload = makeCasesClickable, or simply include it right at the end of the page.

Nowise answered 2/10, 2008 at 23:47 Comment(1)

Careful about blindly wrapping those TD contents in links; block-level elements might show up, and they're not valid inside A tags. Also, I'd find the right table and get its child elements and not just scoop up all the TDs in the document. – Lashaun 3/10, 2008 at 4:27

here is a jQuery solution specific to your HTML posted:

$('.case').each(function() {
  var link = $(this).html();
  $(this).contents().wrap('<a href="example.com/script.php?id='+link+'"></a>');
});

in essence, over each .case element, will grab the contents of the element, and throw them into a link wrapped around it.

Gaughan answered 3/10, 2008 at 0:3 Comment(0)

Not possible with CSS, plus that's not what CSS is for any way. Client-side Javascript or Server-side (insert language of choice) is the way to go.

Frunze answered 2/10, 2008 at 23:50 Comment(0)

I don't think it's possible with CSS. CSS is only supposed to affect the looks and layout of your content.

This seems like a job for a PHP script (or some other language). You didn't give enough information for me to know the best way to do it, but maybe something like this:

function case_link($id) {
    return '<a href="http://bugs.example.com/fogbuz/default.php?' . $id . '">' . $id . '</a>';
}

Then later in your document:

<table><tr><td class="case"><?php echo case_link('123456'); ?></td></tr></table>

And if you want an .html file, just run the script from the command line and redirect the output to an .html file.

Appetence answered 2/10, 2008 at 23:52 Comment(0)

You could have something like this (using Javascript). Inside <head>, have

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
  function getElementsByClass (className) {
    var all = document.all ? document.all :
      document.getElementsByTagName('*');
    var elements = new Array();
    for (var i = 0; i < all.length; i++)
      if (all[i].className == className)
        elements[elements.length] = all[i];
    return elements;
  }

  function makeLinks(className, url) {
    nodes = getElementsByClass(className);
    for(var i = 0; i < nodes.length; i++) {
      node = nodes[i];
      text = node.innerHTML
      node.innerHTML = '<a href="' + url + text + '">' + text + '</a>';
    }
  }
</script>

And then at the end of <body>

<script type="text/javascript" language="javascript">
  makeLinks("case", "http://bugs.example.com/fogbugz/default.php?");
</script>

I've tested it, and it works fine.

Ringe answered 3/10, 2008 at 0:6 Comment(0)

-3

I know this is an old question, but I stumbled upon this post looking for a solution for creating hyperlinks using CSS and ended up making my own, could be of interest for someone stumbling across this question like I did:

Here's a php function called 'linker();'that enables a fake CSS attribute

connect: 'url.com';

for an #id defined item. just let the php call this on every item of HTML you deem link worthy. the inputs are the .css file as a string, using:

$style_cont = file_get_contents($style_path);

and the #id of the corresponding item. Heres the whole thing:

    function linker($style_cont, $id_html){

    if (strpos($style_cont,'connect:') !== false) {

        $url;
        $id_final;
        $id_outer = '#'.$id_html;
        $id_loc = strpos($style_cont,$id_outer);    

        $connect_loc = strpos($style_cont,'connect:', $id_loc);

        $next_single_quote = stripos($style_cont,"'", $connect_loc);
        $next_double_quote = stripos($style_cont,'"', $connect_loc);

        if($connect_loc < $next_single_quote)
        {   
            $link_start = $next_single_quote +1;
            $last_single_quote = stripos($style_cont, "'", $link_start);
            $link_end = $last_single_quote;
            $link_size = $link_end - $link_start;
            $url = substr($style_cont, $link_start, $link_size);
        }
        else
        {
            $link_start = $next_double_quote +1;
            $last_double_quote = stripos($style_cont, '"', $link_start);
            $link_end = $last_double_quote;
            $link_size = $link_end - $link_start;
            $url = substr($style_cont, $link_start, $link_size);    //link!
        }

        $connect_loc_rev = (strlen($style_cont) - $connect_loc) * -1;
        $id_start = strrpos($style_cont, '#', $connect_loc_rev);
        $id_end = strpos($style_cont,'{', $id_start);
        $id_size = $id_end - $id_start;
        $id_raw = substr($style_cont, $id_start, $id_size);
        $id_clean = rtrim($id_raw);                             //id!

        if (strpos($url,'http://') !== false) 
        {
            $url_clean = $url;
        }
        else
        {
            $url_clean = 'http://'.$url;
        };

        if($id_clean[0] == '#')
        {
            $id_final = $id_clean;

            if($id_outer == $id_final)
            {
                echo '<a href="';
                echo $url_clean;
                echo '" target="_blank">';
            };
        };
    };
};

this could probably be improved/shortened using commands like .wrap() or getelementbyID() because it only generates the <a href='blah'> portion, but seeing as </a> disappears anyway without a opening clause it still works if you just add them everywhere :D

Glendon answered 25/6, 2013 at 15:9 Comment(0)

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