Hello,

I am currently developing a module to help libraries rewrite links to external databases, such as ProQuest and LexisNexis, routing those links through an EZProxy or other proxy referral server.

For example, consider a resource located at:
http://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=30164

If accessed from an on-campus IP address, the resource will be available to the student. However, if off-campus, the student would either have to use VPN to route all their internet traffic through a university IP address or use an proxy referral server, such as EZProxy.

EZProxy is easier, so from the library home page, the link is rewritten to something such as:
http://ezproxy.example-library.edu/login?url=http://www.books24x7.com/marc.asp?bookid=30164

This way, the student is presented with a login screen for authentication and then directed to the resource.

An easy module to make... or so I thought. Given the custom_url_rewrite_outbound() function, this kind of stuff should be easy to do in Drupal, but it is not. The url() function in common.inc returns the $path variable without any attempts to call custom_url_rewrite_outbout().

All would be well, if line 1408 of common.inc added the same functionality to external links in the url() function as it does for internal links. It just needs 3 lines:

    if (function_exists('custom_url_rewrite_outbound')) {
      // Modules may alter outbound links by reference.
      custom_url_rewrite_outbound($path, $options, $original_path);
    }

Other than applying a patch, does anyone know another way around this issue?

I am not talking about Apache mod_rewrite or anything similar, Clean URLs, or the Path module and URL aliases. I am looking for a way to rewrite external URLs in anchor tags (links) without creating a wrapper function for url() or l()... or using JavaScript or AJAX.

Thanks!

MT