Test if links are external with jQuery / javascript?

Question

How do I test to see if links are external or internal? Please note:

1. I cannot hard code the local domain.
2. I cannot test for "http". I could just as easily be linking to my own site with an http absolute link.
3. I want to use jQuery / javascript, not css.

I suspect the answer lies somewhere in location.href, but the solution evades me.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I know this post is old but it still shows at the top of results so I wanted to offer another approach. I see all the regex checks on an anchor element, but why not just use window.location.host and check against the element's host property?

function link_is_external(link_element) {
    return (link_element.host !== window.location.host);
}

With jQuery:

$('a').each(function() {
    if (link_is_external(this)) {
        // External
    }
});

and with plain javascript:

var links = document.getElementsByTagName('a');
for (var i = 0; i < links.length; i++) {
    if (link_is_external(links[i])) {
        // External
    }
}