Code optimization and issue with hyperlinks in chat

[Terenna]

Good evening everyone,

I'm playing around with how the chat appears. I've learned how incredibly complex the chat frame is, but I'm running into an issue I can't yet figure out.

The following code modifies how the chat appears to my liking. It works in all regards except one, if I link an item or achievement or someother hyperlink into chat, and have string(s) after the hyperlink, the color of the strings after the hyperlink turns white.

To put this in perspective, I would type "Wow look at this item: (shift click item). It's got amazing stats." and this would appear: Wow look at this item: [Sick DPS Weapon]. It's got amazing stats.

I can't for the life of me figure out why a hyperlink would cause an escape from the color sequence, or how I could get around it. If anyone has a suggestion on how to fix this, or sees a way to better optimize my code, please let me know:

local function RGBPercToHex(r, g, b)
    r = r <= 1 and r >= 0 and r or 0
    g = g <= 1 and g >= 0 and g or 0
    b = b <= 1 and b >= 0 and b or 0
    return string.format('%02x%02x%02x', r*255, g*255, b*255)
end
 
ChatFrame_AddMessageEventFilter('CHAT_MSG_CHANNEL', function() return true end)
local f = CreateFrame('frame')
f:RegisterEvent('CHAT_MSG_CHANNEL')
f:SetScript('OnEvent', function(self, event, ...)
    local type = strsub(event, 10)
    local info = ChatTypeInfo[type]
    local timeStamp
    local chatMessage, sender, senderLanguage, fullChannelName, _, senderFlags, _, channelNumber, _, _, chatLineID, senderGUID = ...
    local senderLinkDisplay = GetColoredName(event, ...)
    local playerLink = GetPlayerLink(sender, senderLinkDisplay, chatLineID, Chat_GetChatCategory(type), tostring(channelNumber))
 
    --first we get the timestamp with time(), then we format it with blizz's style with BetterDate
    --then we change the text color to a grey and add brackets and finally remove the annoying space that gets between the string and ]
    timeStamp = gsub(string.format('|cff'..RGBPercToHex(0.5, 0.5, 0.5)..'[%s]|r', BetterDate(CHAT_TIMESTAMP_FORMAT, time())), ' ', '')
 
    --properly color our channel number and following .
    channelNumber = string.format('|cff'..RGBPercToHex(info.r, info.g, info.b)..'%s|r', channelNumber)
 
    --properly color our chat message in whatever channel it is
    chatMessage = string.format('|cff'..RGBPercToHex(info.r, info.g, info.b)..'%s|r', chatMessage)
 
    --this block of code will search the chat for mentions of character's full name and change it to their class color
    local test = chatMessage:gsub('[^a-zA-Z%s]', '')
    local words = {strsplit(' ', test)}
    for i = 1, #words do
        --since we technically just changed our sentence or word to ff000000wordr or ff000000this is my sentencer
        --we need to truncate the last word's trailing r and first word's hexcode
        if i == 1 then
            words[i] = strsub(words[i], 8) --cut off the opening timestamp color hexcode
            if i == #words then
                words[i] = words[i]:sub(1, -1) --a one word message with a player name was said, now cut off the closing r, too
            end
        elseif i == #words then
            words[i] = words[i]:sub(1, -1) --cut off the closing r
        end
        local w = words[i]
        if (w and not (w == 'player' or w == 'target') and UnitName(w) and UnitIsPlayer(w)) then
            local _, class = UnitClass(w)
            local colors = RAID_CLASS_COLORS[class]
            if (colors) then --replace the words that match player names with class colors, return back to the channel color for the next word(s)
                chatMessage = gsub(chatMessage, w, '|cff'..RGBPercToHex(colors.r, colors.g, colors.b)..'%1|r|cff'..RGBPercToHex(info.r, info.g, info.b))
            end
        end
    end
    chatMessage = timeStamp..' '..channelNumber..'. '..playerLink..': '..chatMessage
 
    ChatFrame1:AddMessage(chatMessage)
end)