//Helper function for external URLs public function valid_url($url) { if ((strpos($url, 'http') === 0) || (strpos($url, 'mailto') === 0)) { return $url; } else if (strpos($url, '@') !== false) { return 'mailto:' . $url; } else if (strpos($url, '/') === 0) { return View::url($url); //site path (not an external url) } else { return 'http://' . $url; } }