Query Strings

[writeCLICK]

Help!

Is there a script available that can be used to automatically determine "name = value" pairs of query strings?

Thanks.
Jeff

[TheDefender]

Can you give an example, or go into a bit more detail about what exactly you are trying to do?

[drew010]

yes, in php the values in the query strings automatically become available in the superglobal array $GET.
if you have the url page.php?first=something&second=another
in your script you will have to auto defined variables like this:
$GET['first']
and
$_GET['second']

it is similar for a form that gets posted, all form fields get put in the $_POST array.

[writeCLICK]

Thanks for responding to my request for help!

My goal is to be able to quickly determine 'name=value' pairs of URLs. For example ... if I wanted to do determine the 'name=value' pairs of the forms used on Monster.com, HotJobs.com, etc. ... how would I do it. I can manually (visually) figure it out - but a script would be easier.

Also, if a Web site form uses the POST method rather than the GET method ... can the above be accomplished easily?

Again, thanks for the help!

Jeff

[TheDefender]

Yeah, it's like drew talked about...

Say you had:
http://www.yourdomain.com/page.php?name=joe&id=2&yadda=yadda

Then, by doing:
$name = $GET['name'];
$id = $GET['id'];
$yadda = $_GET['yadda'];

you have your name=value pairs.

If the form data was posted, then you would have to go to the posting form first, and view the source, to see what the actual variable names would be, and it would be somthing like:

$name = $POST['name'];
$id = $POST['id'];
$yadda = $_POST['yadda'];

I am not sure if this answers your question, because I still don't fully understand what it is that you are trying to do. Maybe I am overanalyzing your question... who knows.

[BuzzLY]

I think what he is saying is that he doesn't know what the name/value pairs are going to be in advance.

Try this:

echo "<p>POST variables:<br>\n";
foreach ($_POST as $key=>$value) {
  echo " - $key = $value<br>\n";
}
echo "</p>\n";
echo "<p>GET variables:<br>\n";
foreach ($_GET as $key=>$value) {
  echo " - $key = $value<br>\n";
}
echo "</p>";

You can, of course, do the same thing for other globals.

[BuzzLY]

If you are trying to take someone else's query_string, then simply use [man]parse_str[/man].

For this, I'm gonna have to tell you to RTFM. 😉 That's your punishment for PM'ing me with your question :evilgrin:

[writeCLICK]

To all of you that helped me - thanks! Please accept my apology for not sticking to the BB.

My ultimate goal is to have an application that will allow me to enter a URL into a text box (on an HTML page), then have a PHP application determine and display the 'name=value' pairs.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

Jeff

[TheDefender]

Somthing along these lines should get you started:

$urltoparse = "http://www.nothing.net/index.php?pid=1&sid=5&nada=help";
$myparsedurl = parse_url($urltoparse);
$params = explode("&", $myparsedurl['query']);
$countparams = count($params);
FOR($i = 0; $i < $countparams; $i++) echo "<BR/>".$params[$i];

// This is what the above outputs
// pid=1
// sid=5
// nada=help

You could further explode your $params arrays so you could control the names and values, but if all you want is the name=value key pair, then this should do.

[writeCLICK]

TheDefender -

I am starting to understand. I will give it a try, and keep you posted on my results.

Thanks.

[TheDefender]

Sounds good. Let us know if you need any more help with it. (Buzz, sorry. I couldn't throw him into the manual like that, because the parse() functions can be a little confusing when trying to figure out how to apply them... and besides, he didn't PM me ;-)) LOL

[writeCLICK]

TheDefender -

Do I have to create an HTML page and form ... to enter the URL ... and pass data on to the PHP page!

Or, can I simply use the code above to manually enter URL and view results?

Thanks.
Jeff

[TheDefender]

Either way... Obviously, your script will be more flexible if you build a form to post the variable to instead of hard setting the URL, since it would afford you the opportunity to check multiple URLs... I guess what I am saying is that building the form would better suit your needs.

[writeCLICK]

TheDefender -

Thank you, again!

Might the form and script look as follows:

HTML Page (form):

<html>
<head>
<title>Parse URL</title>
<body>
<p><font face="Arial"><b>Parse URL</b></font></p>
<form action="ParseUrl.php" method="get">
<font face="Arial" size="2"><b><i>
Enter URL: </i></b></font>
<input type="text" name="urltoparse" size="97"><br>
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>
</body>
</htm>

PHP Script

<html>
<head>
<title>
</head>
<body>
<h3> Parsed URL Results</h3>
<?
$urltoparse = "";
$myparsedurl = parse_url($urltoparse);
$params = explode("&", $myparsedurl['query']);
$countparams = count($params);
FOR($i = 0; $i < $countparams; $i++) echo "<BR/>".$params[$i];
?>
</body>
</html>

Thank you.
Jeff

[TheDefender]

Make this change on the php portion...

<? 
$urltoparse = [b]$_POST['urltoparse'][/b]; 
$myparsedurl = parse_url($urltoparse); 
$params = explode("&", $myparsedurl['query']); 
$countparams = count($params); 
FOR($i = 0; $i < $countparams; $i++) echo "<BR/>".$params[$i]; 
?>

Also, change the METHOD on your FORM tag to POST instead of GET.

[writeCLICK]

I must be doing something wrong...!

I made the changes you noted, but unable to view results in my browser 🙁

So far, I have uploaded two pages to my server. They include an HTML page and a PHP page. The HTML has the form that presumably passes the data to the PHP page. Here is the code for both pages:

HTML (form) Page:

<html>
<head>
<title>Parse URL</title>
<body>
<p><font face="Arial"><b>Parse URL</b></font></p>
<form action="ParseUrl.php" method="POST">
<font face="Arial" size="2"><b><i>
Enter URL: </i></b></font>
<input type="text" name="urltoparse" size="97"><br>
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>
</body>
</htm>

PHP Page:

<html>
<head>
<title>
</head>
<body>
<h3> Parsed URL Results</h3>
<?
$urltoparse = $_POST['urltoparse'];
$myparsedurl = parse_url($urltoparse);
$params = explode("&", $myparsedurl['query']);
$countparams = count($params);
FOR($i = 0; $i < $countparams; $i++) echo "<BR/>".$params[$i];
?>

</body>
</html>

I take it that the echo command should display the results... ! However, nothing is displayed.

Here is the URL that was tested:

http://jobsearch.monster.com/jobsearch.asp?q=engineer&lid=552&fn=4&sort=rv&vw=b&cy=US&re=14&brd=1%2C1862%2C1863

Have I done something wrong or should my server have different settings?

Thanks for your help!

[laserlight]

hmm... this might be an alternative:

<?php
$params = array();
parse_str($_POST['urltoparse'], $params);
foreach ($params as $name => $value)
	echo "<br />" . $name . "=" . $value;
?>

[writeCLICK]

Update:

In an attempt to figure out why results are not displayed, I changed my PCs security settings. Consequently, I get the following message in my browser:

CGI-limits reached, please try again later!

Am I going from bad to worse?

Thanks.

[writeCLICK]

Correction to my last post...

The C'GI-limits reached, please try again later!' is displayed in notepad not my browser. Sorry!

[laserlight]

Test with just 1 page, called say parseurl.php

<html>
<head>
<title>Parse URL</title>
</head>
<body>
<?php
if (isset($_POST['submit']) && !empty($_POST['url'])) {
	$url_components = parse_url($_POST['url']);
	parse_str($url_components['query'], $params);
	foreach ($params as $name => $value)
		echo $name . "=" . $value . "<br>\n";
}
?>
<form action="<?php echo $_SERVER['PHP_SELF']; ?>" method="post">
<input type="text" name="url"><br>
<input type="submit" name="submit">
</form>
</body>
</html>