Wraps all URLs in anchor tags with a `href` and `target` inside some given text.

wrapURLs.js

var wrapURLs = function (text, new_window) {
  var url_pattern = /(?:(?:https?|ftp):\/\/)?(?:\S+(?::\S*)?@)?(?:(?!10(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!127(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!169\.254(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!192\.168(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!172\.(?:1[6-9]|2\d|3[0-1])(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[01]\d|22[0-3])(?:\.(?:1?\d{1,2}|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])){2}(?:\.(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4]))|(?:(?:[a-z\x{00a1}\-\x{ffff}0-9]+-?)*[a-z\x{00a1}\-\x{ffff}0-9]+)(?:\.(?:[a-z\x{00a1}\-\x{ffff}0-9]+-?)*[a-z\x{00a1}\-\x{ffff}0-9]+)*(?:\.(?:[a-z\x{00a1}\-\x{ffff}]{2,})))(?::\d{2,5})?(?:\/[^\s]*)?/ig;
  var target = (new_window === true || new_window == null) ? '_blank' : '';
  
  return text.replace(url_pattern, function (url) {
    var protocol_pattern = /^(?:(?:https?|ftp):\/\/)/i;
    var href = protocol_pattern.test(url) ? url : 'http://' + url;
    return '<a href="' + href + '" target="' + target + '">' + url + '</a>';
  });
};

wrapURLs.md

wrapURLs

Wraps all URLs in anchor tags with a href and target inside some given text.

Parameters

Name	Type	Description
text	String	The text that may or may not containing URLs.
new_window	Boolean	Determines if the URLs should be opened in a new window (optional - defaults to true).

Returns

Returns a String in which URLs have been replaced with anchors tag linking to the URL.

Example

wrapURLs('Google is pretty awesome! Take a look at http://www.google.com.');
// Returns 'Google is pretty awesome! Take a look at <a href="http://www.google.com" target="_blank">http://www.google.com</a>.'

Credit

The URL Regex used here is taken from @diegoperini submission at https://mathiasbynens.be/demo/url-regex.

wrapURLs.php

<?php

$wrapURLs = function ($text, $new_window = true) {
  $url_pattern = '/(?:(?:https?|ftp):\/\/)?(?:\S+(?::\S*)?@)?(?:(?!10(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!127(?:\.\d{1,3}){3})(?!169\.254(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!192\.168(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?!172\.(?:1[6-9]|2\d|3[0-1])(?:\.\d{1,3}){2})(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[01]\d|22[0-3])(?:\.(?:1?\d{1,2}|2[0-4]\d|25[0-5])){2}(?:\.(?:[1-9]\d?|1\d\d|2[0-4]\d|25[0-4]))|(?:(?:[a-z\x{00a1}\-\x{ffff}0-9]+-?)*[a-z\x{00a1}\-\x{ffff}0-9]+)(?:\.(?:[a-z\x{00a1}\-\x{ffff}0-9]+-?)*[a-z\x{00a1}\-\x{ffff}0-9]+)*(?:\.(?:[a-z\x{00a1}\-\x{ffff}]{2,})))(?::\d{2,5})?(?:\/[^\s]*)?/iu';
  $target = $new_window ? '_blank' : '';
  
  return preg_replace_callback($url_pattern, function (array $url_array) use ($target) {
    $url = implode($url_array, '');
    $protocol_pattern = '/^(?:(?:https?|ftp):\/\/)/iu';
    $href = preg_match($protocol_pattern, $url) ? $url : 'http://'.$url;
    return '<a href="'.$href.'" target="'.$target.'">'.$url.'</a>';
  }, $text);
};

For the JS version, It can be added as a String prototype like this:
String.prototype.wrapURLs = function(new_window){ // same body of the original function, simply replaced the parameter "text" with the keyword "this" }

then calling it like so:

Just sharing this, since the original function has been very useful for me :)
Thanks