Question

What is the php code to append class=”external” to links that are posted and are not the domain.

For example my site is http://www.mysite.com and you post a link to http://www.mysite.com/news and a link to http://www.yoursite.com

How do I set it so only non “mysite.com” links have the class specified?

Answer 1

Another approach would be using CSS3 selectors but they are not supported by Internet Explorer 6 (see: http://www.webdevout.net/browser-support-css#css3selectors):

    // external link style
    a:link[href^="http://"] {
        background-color: #990000;
    }   
    // internal link style
    a:link, a:link[href^="http://www.mydomain.com"] {
        background-color: #009900;
        color: #000000;
    }

You would not need to change your links programmatically!

<a href="somelink.htm">some link</a>
<a href="http://www.mydomain.com/anotherlink.htm">another link</a>

… would result in a link with internal link style.

<a href="http://www.otherdomain.com">external link</a>

… would result in a link with external link style.