How to change external links to internal links to do something before redirecting to the destination

[glennrocksvb]

why when i follow the above steps i see blank page ...and were is the html code should add in redirect page ?

When do you see the blank page? After clicking the link that should redirect to the external link? Or when loading the thread page itself? Please be more specific.

Btw, this thread does not include the implementation of the redirect page itself. This is up to you. As I mentioned in the first, there are 2 possible ways to implement this. And the second way is how Yelp does it as shown in the screenshot I attached. But this thread does not show how to implement any of those ways. What this thread shows is how to change the external links in the posts to internal links in order for you to implement any of those 2 ways.

[moded]

FYI. I posted a bug report for this in http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBV-16703

Yes i can't editing the post , when i do that my forum frozen

[moded]

why when i follow the above steps i see blank page ...and were is the html code should add in redirect page ?

[glennrocksvb]

Btw, there is a bug in vB where the backslash character "\" in the post goes away after posting or editing.

FYI. I posted a bug report for this in http://tracker.vbulletin.com/browse/VBV-16703

[glennrocksvb]

See post #7

[glennrocksvb]

What is this URL for?

[glennrocksvb]

I think he is referring to the instructions: with these: (change $redirect_path with the appropriate path of the redirect URL)

Would this be correct in his case: $redirect_path = "/test/22.html";

That's correct. But I wonder what's in that 22.html file. It should have the code to redirect to the external URL passed in the querystring.

[moded]

http://shneler.com/vb/

[moded]

attached my original bbcode.php
change to me and add redirect page http://shneler.com/test/22.html
i will test and back to you quickly

[William]

I think he is referring to the instructions: with these: (change $redirect_path with the appropriate path of the redirect URL)

Would this be correct in his case: $redirect_path = "/test/22.html";

???

[glennrocksvb]

Could you elaborate on "my site not working"? What does not work? Saying "not working" does not help.

Btw, there is a bug in vB where the backslash character "\" in the post goes away after posting or editing. I had to double the backslash to be able to show one. Make sure you copied the code in the first post correctly with backslashes preserved.

[moded]

for example this my goodbye page

http://shneler.com/test/22.html

were should add in second HTML Code:?

[moded]

Hello,
1: i try do that change this ( what i have in my
/includes/vb5/template/bbcode.php )

        // standard URL hyperlink
        return "<a href="$url" target="_blank">$text</a>";
    }

with these:

$rightlink_host = parse_url($rightlink, PHP_URL_HOST);
$forum_baseurl = vB::getDatastore()->getOption('frontendurl');
$forum_host = parse_url($forum_baseurl, PHP_URL_HOST);        

// if same host, then use the link directly
if (vB5_String::stripos($rightlink_host, $forum_host) !== false) {
    return "<a href="$rightlink" target="_blank"" . ($is_external ? ' rel="nofollow"' : '') . ">$text</a>";
}
else { // link to your redirect page and pass the encoded external link

    $redirect_path = "/link.php?url="; // specify path of the redirect URL (exclude forum base url) including the querystring parameter name

    return "<a href="" . $forum_baseurl . $redirect_path . urlencode($rightlink) . "" target="_blank"" . ($is_external ? ' rel="nofollow"' : '') . ">$text</a>";
}

Clear system cache ... after that my site not working !
2: can you please more clarification about this (change $redirect_path with the appropriate path of the redirect URL)
Thank You

[glennrocksvb]

There are cases when you want external links posted in your forum to go through your page first before redirecting to the external URL. Most sites do this. Here are the reasons why you would want to do this:

1. To track the clicks to the external links.
2. To display an interstitial page to inform/warn user that they are navigating away from your site.



See how Yelp does #2.
Without further ado, here's how to do it.

There are 2 parts to do this:

• Creating the redirect page. This is only for #2 above. For #1, you're on your own. If you already have set it up, you can skip this)
• Editing the php file to change the external links to point to the redirect page.

Create the Redirect Page:

1. Create a new page in Sitebuilder.
2. Drag and drop a PHP module.
Title: Redirecting... (or whatever you want)
PHP Code: (Change 5000 milliseconds to whatever delay you want)

$url = isset($_GET['url']) ? urldecode($_GET['url']) : '';
if ($url) {
    echo '<p>You are leaving this site and will be automatically redirected to <a href="' . htmlspecialchars($url) . '" id="vbmodsthatrock-external-link" rel="nofollow" onclick="return redirect(this.href);">' . htmlspecialchars($url) . '</a> in a moment.</p>
        <script>
            function redirect(url) {
                location.replace(url);
                return false;
            }
            // redirect to the external URL with a 5-second delay
            setTimeout(function() {
                redirect(document.getElementById("vbmodsthatrock-external-link").href);
            }, 5000); // 5000 milliseconds = 5 seconds, change accordingly
        </script>';
}
else {
    echo 'Sorry, there is no link to redirect to. You must have followed an invalid link.';
}  

3. Save the page and fill out the page information.
Save the page name: Redirecting... (or whatever you want to show up in the tab name)
Save the page URL based on the page name: redirect (this is what you're going to use when editing the PHP file)
Template option: Redirect Template


Edit the PHP File:

1. Logon to cPanel (or equivalent).
2. Edit the following PHP file:

/includes/vb5/template/bbcode.php

3. Change these:

// standard URL hyperlink
return "<a href=\"$rightlink\" target=\"_blank\"" . ($is_external ? ' rel="nofollow"' : '') . ">$text</a>";  

with these: (change $redirect_path with the appropriate path of the redirect URL)

$rightlink_host = parse_url($rightlink, PHP_URL_HOST);
$forum_baseurl = vB::getDatastore()->getOption('frontendurl');
$forum_host = parse_url($forum_baseurl, PHP_URL_HOST);        

// if same host, then use the link directly
if (vB5_String::stripos($rightlink_host, $forum_host) !== false) {
    return '<a href="$rightlink" target="_blank"' . ($is_external ? ' rel="nofollow"' : '') . ">$text</a>";
}
else { // link to your redirect page and pass the encoded external link

    // specify path of the redirect URL (exclude forum base url) including the querystring parameter name
    // this is the path you used when you created the redirect page in Sitebuilder
    $redirect_path = "/redirect?url=";

    return '<a href="' . $forum_baseurl . $redirect_path . urlencode($rightlink) . '" target="_blank"' . ($is_external ? ' rel="nofollow"' : '') . ">$text</a>";
}  

4. Clear system cache in AdminCP > Maintenance > Clear System Cache.


Screenshot:



NOTE: Since this is a PHP hack, this change will be overwritten during upgrade. So you have to re-apply this change whenever you upgrade.