Style External Links with CSS
Styling external links is a common practice on most informational sites likes Wikipedia. As a user, it's nice to know when you're being sent to another resource. Many sites do the external links check on the server side, adding a `rel=external` attribute value or `external` class to external links. In some cases that isn't possible or plausible. After trolling around the interwebs, I found the following useful CSS snippet for styling external links:
/* long version */
a[href^="http://"]:not([href*="mysite.com"]),
a[href^="https://"]:not([href*="mysite.com"]),
a[href^="//"]:not([href*="mysite.com"]), {
}
/* shorter version! */
a[href*="//"]:not([href*="mysite.com"]) {
/* external link styles, use :before or :after if you want! */
}
First you have to qualify the start of the link, then qualify the domain. Internal links wont match and external links wont match the comparison. A useful snippet and something to keep in your library in case you need it!
![Chris Coyier’s Favorite CodePen Demos]()
David asked me if I'd be up for a guest post picking out some of my favorite Pens from CodePen. A daunting task! There are so many! I managed to pick a few though that have blown me away over the past few months. If you...
![Create a CSS Cube]()
CSS cubes really showcase what CSS has become over the years, evolving from simple color and dimension directives to a language capable of creating deep, creative visuals. Add animation and you've got something really neat. Unfortunately each CSS cube tutorial I've read is a bit...
![Fade Images with MooTools LazyLoad]()
I recently received an email from a MooTools developer asking a great question about my LazyLoad class:
"I'm using your LazyLoad MooTools plugin (which is great, by the way). I have been trying to figure out how to modify it so that once an image scrolls into...
![MooTools HTML Police: dwMarkupMarine]()
We've all inherited rubbish websites from webmasters that couldn't master valid HTML. You know the horrid markup: paragraph tags with align attributes and body tags with background attributes. It's almost a sin what they do. That's where dwMarkupMarine comes in.
What if there is a link in my website like http://external.com/?referer=mysite.com ?
You add can another pattern match for whichever referer pattern you use:
a[href*="?referer"] { /* external styles */ }Thanks for the snippets :)
David, you can do the same with shorter selector:
[href*="//"]:not([href*="mysite.com"]) { }Thanks for the code :)
Nice snippets, I love this but how about browser compatibility?
So, what styles are typically used for external websites? A change in font color? Background color?
Is have used this slidely different for my wordpress site:
/* show external links differently */ a[href^="http://"]:not([href*="mydomain.com"]):before{ content: " "; width: 16px; height: 16px; background: no-repeat url('images/link.gif'); padding-right: 1.2em; }How to ignore Links With images?
example: http://jsfiddle.net/Ridermansb/NRw97/1/
@Riderman You don’t. CSS is designed to to be applied in one traversal of the DOM tree. This limits it to selectors that are based solemnly on what was before (higher up) in the dom tree. You cannot select on what comes after/deeper in the DOM tree in CSS.
In your example you are trying to style an a element based on the fact, that an img element is deeper in the tree.
Solution: use a css-class for such a elements that should ignore the styling done through the [href=??] matching selectors.
a.no-external-link-style {
/*undo styling through a[href*=”//”]:not([href*=”mysite.com”]) */
}
@Riderman Use JS / jQuery to add a class to links that wrap images, then add a css rule that removes or hides your
:before, based on that class. I’m using:after, and FontAwesome..jQuery('a img').parent().addClass('linked-img');a[href*="//"]:not([href*="mysite.com"]):after { font-family: FontAwesome; content: "\f08e"; font-size: 13px; color: #ccc; padding-left: 7px; } a.linked-img:after { display: none; }