text-autolinker

text-autolinker

Converts text into HTML, by automatically linking the URLs and twitter elements such as username and hashtags.

• Twitter @usersname and #hashtags into <a> links
• Twitter photo and video links into <a>
• URLs into <a>
• Email addresses into <a href="mailto:">
• Natural language dates: today at 4:15pm into <time>
• Custom words/term <a> linking

Install

npm install text-autolinker

Run

1. Move into the project directory $ cd text-autolinker
2. Run $ npm install
3. Run $ node bin/text-autolinker.js
4. Connect to the server using http://localhost:3007

Use

var autolinker = require('text-autolinker');
var options = {
  text: 'Meeting @glennjones today at 4:10pm',
  publishedDate: '2014-08-08'
};
autolinker.parse(options, function(err, result){
  // do something with data
});

Available options

• className
  • autoLink - the class for any link added, the default is auto-link
  • url - the class added any web address links, the default is u-url
  • email - the class added any web address links, the default is u-email
  • user - the class added for twitter username links, the default is h-x-username
  • tag - the class added for tag links, the default is p-category
  • photo - the class added for twitter photo links, the default is u-photo
  • video - the class added for twitter video links, the default is u-video
  • date - the class for any time tag added, the default is auto-date-discovery dt-start
• escapeHtml - switch to escape the text, default is true
• expandUrls - switch to expanded any shortened urls, default is true
• urls - JSON object of terms to link as urls

Twitter usersname and hashtags parsing

The module will parse Twitter @usersname and #hashtags from the text. It wraps these items in <a> tags with classes. The text "@glennjones likes #javascript" is parsed into:

<a class=\"auto-link h-x-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/glennjones\">&#x40;glennjones</a> likes <a class=\"auto-link p-category\" href=\"https://twitter.com/search?q=#javascript&amp;src=hash\">&#x23;javascript</a>

The parser also provides metadata for usersname and hashtags:

{
  "html": "<a class=\"auto-link h-x-username\" href=\"https://twitter.com/glennjones\">&#x40;glennjones</a> likes <a class=\"auto-link p-category\" href=\"https://twitter.com/search?q=#javascript&amp;src=hash\">&#x23;javascript</a>",
  "account": [{
    "match": "@glennjones",
    "username": "glennjones",
    "domain": "twitter.com"
  }],
  "category": ["javascript"]
}

Twitter photo and video link parsing

The module will parse Twitter photo and video links from the text. It wraps these items in <a> tags with classes. Where possible the links are expanded. The text "I like pic.twitter.com/FzYI36MKFN and vine.co/v/b55LOA1dgJU" is parsed into:

I like <a class=\"auto-link u-photo\" href=\"https://twitter.com/adactio/status/501407682558177282/photo/1\">https://twitter.com/adactio/status/501407682558177282/photo/1</a> and <a class=\"auto-link u-video\" href=\"https://vine.co/v/b55LOA1dgJU\">vine.co&#x2f;v&#x2f;b55LOA1dgJU</a>

The parser also provides metadata for media types:

{
  "html": "I like <a class=\"auto-link u-photo\" href=\"https://twitter.com/adactio/status/501407682558177282/photo/1\">https://twitter.com/adactio/status/501407682558177282/photo/1</a> and <a class=\"auto-link u-video\" href=\"https://vine.co/v/b55LOA1dgJU\">vine.co&#x2f;v&#x2f;b55LOA1dgJU</a>",
  "media": [{
    "match": "pic.twitter.com/FzYI36MKFN",
    "type": "image",
    "url": "https://pic.twitter.com/FzYI36MKFN",
    "expanded": "https://twitter.com/adactio/status/501407682558177282/photo/1"
  },{
    "match": "vine.co/v/b55LOA1dgJU",
    "type": "video",
    "url": "https://vine.co/v/b55LOA1dgJU"
 }]
}

URL parsing

The module will parse any word that looks like a URL. It wraps these items in <a> tags with classes. Where possible the links are expanded. The text "I like http://glennjones.net" is parsed into:

  I like <a class=\"auto-link u-url\" href=\"http://glennjones.net\">http://glennjones.net</a>

The parser also provides metadata for URLs:

{
  "html": "I like <a class=\"auto-link u-url\" href=\"http://glennjones.net\">http://glennjones.net</a>",
  "url": [{
    "match": "http://glennjones.net",
    "expanded": "http://glennjones.net"
  }]
}

Email parsing

The module will parse any word that looks like a email address. It wraps these items in <a href="mailto:"> tags with classes. The text "Contact me at [e-mail]" is parsed into:

Contact me at <a class=\"auto-link u-email\" href=\"mailto:[e-mail]\">[e-mail]</a>

The parser also provides metadata for URLs:

{
  "html": "Contact me at <a class=\"auto-link u-email\" href=\"mailto:[e-mail]\">[e-mail]</a>",
  "email": [{
    "address": "[e-mail]",
    "local": "joe.bloggs",
    "domain": "eaxmpla.com"
  }]
}

Time parsing

The module will try and parse any time from natural language. Some examples are:

• 15 May 2014
• 15th May 2014
• 14 Jun 2014
• Aug 17 2014
• 9 May 2014 at 16:10
• 9 May 2014 at 4:10pm
• 4:10pm
• this Monday
• yesterday, today, tonight and tomorrow

For this function to work well you need to provide a publishedDate. This should be in the ISO format and where possible have the correct timezone information i.e 2014-05-15T04:10:00-04:00. The parser will add date and time using the HTML5 <time> tag:

<time class=\"auto-date-discovery\" datetime=\"2014-08-08T16:10:00\">today at 4:10pm</time>

The parser also provides metadata for dates:

{
  "html": "<time class=\"auto-date-discovery dt-start\" datetime=\"2014-08-08T16:10:00\">today at 4:10pm</time>",
  "time": [{
    "start": {
      "year": 2014,
      "month": 7,
      "day": 8,
      "hour": 16,
      "minute": 10,
      "second": 0,
      "meridiem": "pm"
    },
    "startDate": "2014-08-08T15:10:00.000Z",
    "referenceDate": "2014-08-08T23:00:00.000Z",
    "text": "today at 4:10pm"
  }]
}

Custom words/term

You can add words/term to the options.urls array and have them linked within the HTML output automatically :

options.urls": [{
  "match": "transmat.io",
  "expanded": "https://transmat.io"
}]

Errors

The error format can have any combination of 4 properties; code, error, message and validation. The fourth property validation, is added if a input value is in the incorrect format.

{
  "statusCode": 400,
  "error": "Bad Request",
  "message": "the value of b must be a number",
  "validation": {
    "source": "path",
    "keys": [
      "b"
    ]
  }
}

Mocha integration test

The project has a number integration and unit tests. To run the test, cd to project directory type the following command

$ mocha --reporter list