Javascript Replace Using RegEx - Ignore HTML tags: Javascript, IE 7, Regular Expressions

Javascript Replace Using RegEx - Ignore HTML tags

Hi,

I have a javascript that highlights glossary terms on my page. Everything is working fine except in the case when the glossary term inside a link. ie: <a href="page.aspx">glossary term</a>

In this case I do not want "glossary term" to be touched. How can I accomplish this? Attached is the javascript I'm using.

p.innerHTML = p.innerHTML.replace(new RegExp('('+ term.toLowerCase() + ')(?![^<]*>|[^<]*</a>)', "g"),'<a href="glossary.aspx#' + term + '" title="' + def + '" class="glossary">' + term.toLowerCase() + '</a>');

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This is my code that I'm using in C#..:

Yeah, you can translate it to vb, it's easy. Here is a nice utility here to do that: http://www.codechanger.com/

Basically the linkFinal parameter is the finalized text being passed in from the previous operation.. I work with it in here, continuing it's polishing before I display it to the user. myHits is an array of all the words that came back matching the criteria entered by the user...

Let me know if you have trouble understanding it.

    public string HitHighlighting(string[] myHits, string linkFinal)
    {
        // take it from an array to regular variable
        string hits = "";
        foreach (string value in myHits)
        {
            hits += value + " ";
        }
 
        // Do not include things within < and > tags for DE-HTMLing, searching only displayed text
        string wholeWords = "\\b(?<=>[^<]*?)" + hits.Trim() + "(?=.*<)\\b";
 
        //// Remove extra whitespaces in the search keywords
        //string noExtraWhiteSpaces = Regex.Replace(wholeWords, "\\s+", " ");
 
        // Setup the regular expression and add the Or operator.
        Regex RegExp = new Regex(wholeWords.Replace(" ", "(?=.*<)\\b|\\b(?<=>[^<]*?)").Trim(), RegexOptions.IgnoreCase);
 
        // Remove all newlines from the text that's going in to the literal control,
        // because Regex . character stops at a new line
        string noNewLines = linkFinal.Replace(System.Environment.NewLine, "");
 
        linkFinal = RegExp.Replace(noNewLines, new MatchEvaluator(ReplaceKeyWords));
 
        return linkFinal;
    }
    public string ReplaceKeyWords(Match m)
    {
        return "<!--Highlight Begin--><span class=highlight>" + m.Value + "</span><!--Highlight End-->";
    }

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Javascript Replace Using RegEx - Ignore HTML tags

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Javascript

IE 7

Regular Expressions

Regular Expressions

JavaScript

JScript

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