tweet_parser.rb

# This code will take the raw source text from a tweet and add appropriate links to #hastags, @ replies, and links.  The ugly stuff in there is dealing with various formats of html character codes

    def to_html
        self.text.gsub("&amp;","&").gsub(/(http:\/\/([\w+?\.\w+])+([a-zA-Z0-9\~\!\@\#\$\%\^\&\*\(\)_\-\=\+\\\/\?\.\:\;\'\,]*)?)/,'<a href="\1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">\1</a>').gsub(/@(\w+)/,'@<a href="http://twitter.com/\1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">\1</a>').gsub(/&#/,"~begonia~~").gsub(/#(\w+)/,' #<a href="http://twitter.com/#search?q=%23\1" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">\1</a>').gsub(/~begonia~~/,"&#") 
    end