JavaScript parse bbcode url

Question

I have been trying for a while to parse bbcode URL tags in JavaScript.

For example,

[url=http://examp.le]linktext[/url]

should become

<a href="http://examp.le">linktext</a>.

I have done much research on this and have an awful understanding of regexes. So the question is, how can I do this?

If you have done much research on this, you should have at least something which works partly, right? Could you put that in your question? — Jerry
– Jerry, Commented Jan 4, 2014 at 18:27
I suggest you do not use regex for parsing BBCode as it's very difficult when you have multiple types of tags which may be used wrongly: [b]bold [u]underlined and bold[/b] wut[/u]. This should not be parsed like <strong>bold <u>underlined and bold</strong> wut</u> since that HTML isn't valid. — Jochem Kuijpers
– Jochem Kuijpers, Commented Jan 4, 2014 at 18:30
I only need to parse URL tags, but thank you for the advice. — Ethan McTague
– Ethan McTague, Commented Jan 4, 2014 at 19:04

Olegas · Accepted Answer · 2014-01-04 19:12:29Z

6

You can try this regexp:

\[url=([^\s\]]+)\s*\](.*(?=\[\/url\]))\[\/url\]

Regular expression visualization

So, in JavaScript you can use something like this:

text = text.replace(/\[url=([^\s\]]+)\s*\](.*(?=\[\/url\]))\[\/url\]/g, '<a href="$1">$2</a>')

If you'd like to parse the short format

[url]http://ya.ru[/url]

which must transform to

<a href="http://ya.ru">http://ya.ru</a>

You'll need the following regexp:

\[url\](.*(?=\[\/url\]))\[\/url\]

Regular expression visualization

And the corresponding JavaScript:

 text = text.replace(/\[url\](.*(?=\[\/url\]))\[\/url\]/g, '<a href="$1">$1</a>')

answered Jan 4, 2014 at 18:25

Olegas

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1 Comment

I wouldn't do it with regex. BB code needs a parser, since it is a markup with open/end tag similar to HTML.