Convert Twitter @mentions, #hashtags and URLs within a string to anchor links.

tweet linkifier

<?php
  // Convert URL's with protocol prefix
    $tweet = ereg_replace("[a-zA-Z]+://([-]*[.]?[a-zA-Z0-9_/-?&%])*", "<a href=\"\\0\">\\0</a>", $tweet);

  //Convert URL with just www.
    $tweet = ereg_replace("(^| |\n)(www([-]*[.]?[a-zA-Z0-9_/-?&%])*)", "\\1<a href=\"http://\\2\">\\2</a>", $tweet);

  //Convert # hashtags
    $tweet = ereg_replace("(^| |\n)(\#([-]*[.]?[a-zA-Z0-9_/-?&%])*)", "\\1<a href=\"http://search.twitter.com/search?q=\\2\">\\2</a>", $tweet);
    $tweet = str_replace("/#", "/", $tweet);

  //Convert @ replies
    $tweet = ereg_replace("(^| |\n)(\@([-]*[.]?[a-zA-Z0-9_/-?&%])*)", "\\1@<a href=\"http://www.twitter.com/\\2\">\\2</a>", $tweet);
    $tweet = str_replace("/@", "/", $tweet);
    $tweet = str_replace(">@", ">", $tweet);

  // Make the time prettier
    $createstamp = $post->get('pubDate');
    $relative_time = niceTime(strtotime($createstamp));
?>

<?php echo $tweet ?> <span>posted <a href="<?php echo $tweet_link ?>"><?php echo $relative_time ?></a>&nbsp;</span>