# Links and flowing text

This tutorial explains how to insert links (internal and external) and shows a new text writing mode. It also contains a basic HTML parser.

    <?php
    require('fpdf.php');

    class PDF extends FPDF
    {
    protected $B = 0;
    protected $I = 0;
    protected $U = 0;
    protected $HREF = '';

    function WriteHTML($html)
    {
        // HTML parser
        $html = str_replace("\n",' ',$html);
        $a = preg_split('/<(.*)>/U',$html,-1,PREG_SPLIT_DELIM_CAPTURE);
        foreach($a as $i=>$e)
        {
            if($i%2==0)
            {
                // Text
                if($this->HREF)
                    $this->PutLink($this->HREF,$e);
                else
                    $this->Write(5,$e);
            }
            else
            {
                // Tag
                if($e[0]=='/')
                    $this->CloseTag(strtoupper(substr($e,1)));
                else
                {
                    // Extract attributes
                    $a2 = explode(' ',$e);
                    $tag = strtoupper(array_shift($a2));
                    $attr = array();
                    foreach($a2 as $v)
                    {
                        if(preg_match('/([^=]*)=["\']?([^"\']*)/',$v,$a3))
                            $attr[strtoupper($a3[1])] = $a3[2];
                    }
                    $this->OpenTag($tag,$attr);
                }
            }
        }
    }

    function OpenTag($tag, $attr)
    {
        // Opening tag
        if($tag=='B' || $tag=='I' || $tag=='U')
            $this->SetStyle($tag,true);
        if($tag=='A')
            $this->HREF = $attr['HREF'];
        if($tag=='BR')
            $this->Ln(5);
    }

    function CloseTag($tag)
    {
        // Closing tag
        if($tag=='B' || $tag=='I' || $tag=='U')
            $this->SetStyle($tag,false);
        if($tag=='A')
            $this->HREF = '';
    }

    function SetStyle($tag, $enable)
    {
        // Modify style and select corresponding font
        $this->$tag += ($enable ? 1 : -1);
        $style = '';
        foreach(array('B', 'I', 'U') as $s)
        {
            if($this->$s>0)
                $style .= $s;
        }
        $this->SetFont('',$style);
    }

    function PutLink($URL, $txt)
    {
        // Put a hyperlink
        $this->SetTextColor(0,0,255);
        $this->SetStyle('U',true);
        $this->Write(5,$txt,$URL);
        $this->SetStyle('U',false);
        $this->SetTextColor(0);
    }
    }

    $html = 'You can now easily print text mixing different styles: <b>bold</b>, <i>italic</i>,
    <u>underlined</u>, or <b><i><u>all at once</u></i></b>!<br><br>You can also insert links on
    text, such as <a href="http://www.fpdf.org">www.fpdf.org</a>, or on an image: click on the logo.';

    $pdf = new PDF();
    // First page
    $pdf->AddPage();
    $pdf->SetFont('Arial','',20);
    $pdf->Write(5,"To find out what's new in this tutorial, click ");
    $pdf->SetFont('','U');
    $link = $pdf->AddLink();
    $pdf->Write(5,'here',$link);
    $pdf->SetFont('');
    // Second page
    $pdf->AddPage();
    $pdf->SetLink($link);
    $pdf->Image('logo.png',10,12,30,0,'','http://www.fpdf.org');
    $pdf->SetLeftMargin(45);
    $pdf->SetFontSize(14);
    $pdf->WriteHTML($html);
    $pdf->Output();
    ?>

[Demo]

The new method to print text is Write(). It's very close to MultiCell(); the differences are:

- The end of line is at the right margin and the next line begins at the left one
- The current position moves at the end of the text

So it allows to write a chunk of text, alter the font style, then continue from the exact place we left it. On the other hand, you cannot justify it.
The method is used on the first page to put a link pointing to the second one. The beginning of the sentence is written in regular style, then we switch to underline and finish it. The link is created with AddLink(), which returns a link identifier. The identifier is passed as third parameter of Write(). Once the second page is created, we use SetLink() to make the link point to the beginning of the current page.
Then we put an image with an external link on it. An external link is just a URL. It's passed as last parameter of Image().
Finally, the left margin is moved after the image with SetLeftMargin() and some text in HTML format is output. A very simple HTML parser is used for this, based on regular expressions. Recognized tags are <b>, <i>, <u>, <a> and <br>; the others are ignored. The parser also makes use of the Write() method. An external link is put the same way as an internal one (third parameter of Write()). Note that Cell() also allows to put links.