@username tagging

Some thoughts off the top of my head, I have no idea if they are good or not, just brainstorming :)

• Use jQuery UI autocomplete
• When user types a "@" surround that by a specific span with ID, perhaps use a random number or some other way to make it unique
• initialize that span as an autocomplete element
• user continues typing, updating the span, causing the autocomplete to trigger database lookups (you can point the source parameter to a JSON API, basically a route using set up using the API lessons on LaraCasts)

Then in the controller all you have to do is look for a user beginning with the term passed in by jquery UI autocomplete.

Thanks, Mike. I'm going to revisit this through the week. Haha.

I have a helper function like this:

function link_usernames($text)
{
    return preg_replace('~(^|\s)@([[:alnum:]_]+)~', '$1<a href="'.url('$2').'/">@$2</a>', $text);
}

Just change the URL to link how you'd like. :-)

@david Awesome!

Is there any way to make Markdown automatically process @usernames into the above? I'm using the graham-campbell/markdown package. Can you add custom rules or something?

The simplest way is to just pass your converted Markdown into that helper. I also have a @markdown Blade extension that I use so I would be tempted to call the linking function in there.