Magento custom url added with current page url

Question

I am printing my custom URL's in footer which I am getting from database, Some thing like this Assume this contains www.google.com link.

 <li><a href="<?php echo $links['link_url']?>"><?php echo $links['title'] ?></a></li>

When I click on this link at footer it rediecting with my current page url www.mydomainname.com/www.google.com

How can I avoid attaching my current domain name to it? It should be redirect to "www.google.com"

Answer 1

What you are viewing is the default behaviour <a /> HTML tag. if the parameter specified in the href section is a relative term, then browser will append that parameter to the current url, while clicking on that link.

Here the parameter is www.google.com. For browser, it is a relative term and hence it is appending it to the current URL. Hence url will turn into [your_current_url]/www.google.com.

The solution is use the absolute url instead of relative term. ie use http:://www.google.com. ie your link should look like this.

<li><a href="http:://<?php echo $links['link_url']?>">
    <?php echo $links['title'] ?>
</a></li>

or simply

<li><a href="//<?php echo $links['link_url']?>">
     <?php echo $links['title'] ?>
</a></li>

That will do the trick.