Legacy Documentation
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URL Helper¶
The URL Helper file contains functions that assist in working with URLs. This helper is loaded using the following code:
ee()->load->helper('url');
Available Functions¶
-
cp_url
($path[, $qs = ''])¶ Create a CP Path
Parameters: - $path (string) – The path within the CP
- $qs (mixed) – The query string either as a string or an associative array
Deprecated since version 3.0.0: Use CP/URL Service instead.
-
site_url
([$uri = ''[, $protocol = NULL]])¶ Parameters: - $uri (string) – URI string
- $protocol (string) – Protocol, e.g. ‘http’ or ‘https’
Returns: Site URL
Return type: string
Returns your site URL, as specified in your config file. The index.php file (or whatever you have set as your site index_page in your config file) will be added to the URL, as will any URI segments you pass to the function, plus the url_suffix as set in your config file.
You are encouraged to use this function any time you need to generate a local URL so that your pages become more portable in the event your URL changes.
Segments can be optionally passed to the function as a string or an array. Here is a string example:
echo site_url('news/local/123');
The above example would return something like:
http://example.com/index.php/news/local/123
Here is an example of segments passed as an array:
$segments = array('news', 'local', '123'); echo site_url($segments);
This function is an alias for
EE_Config::site_url()
.
-
base_url
($uri = '', $protocol = NULL)¶ Parameters: - $uri (string) – URI string
- $protocol (string) – Protocol, e.g. ‘http’ or ‘https’
Returns: Base URL
Return type: string
Returns your site base URL, as specified in your config file. Example:
echo base_url();
This function returns the same thing as
site_url()
, without the index_page or url_suffix being appended.Also like
site_url()
, you can supply segments as a string or an array. Here is a string example:echo base_url("blog/post/123");
The above example would return something like:
http://example.com/blog/post/123
This is useful because unlike
site_url()
, you can supply a string to a file, such as an image or stylesheet. For example:echo base_url("images/icons/edit.png");
This would give you something like:
http://example.com/images/icons/edit.png
This function is an alias for
EE_Config::base_url()
.
-
current_url
()¶ Returns: The current URL Return type: string Returns the full URL (including segments) of the page being currently viewed.
Note
Calling this function is the same as doing this:
site_url(uri_string());
-
uri_string
()¶ Returns: An URI string Return type: string Returns the URI segments of any page that contains this function. For example, if your URL was this:
http://some-site.com/blog/comments/123
The function would return:
blog/comments/123
This function is an alias for
EE_Config::uri_string()
.
-
index_page
()¶ Returns: ‘index_page’ value Return type: mixed Returns your site index_page, as specified in your config file. Example:
echo index_page();
-
anchor
($uri = '', $title = '', $attributes = '')¶ Parameters: - $uri (string) – URI string
- $title (string) – Anchor title
- $attributes (mixed) – HTML attributes
Returns: HTML hyperlink (anchor tag)
Return type: string
Creates a standard HTML anchor link based on your local site URL.
The first parameter can contain any segments you wish appended to the URL. As with the
site_url()
function above, segments can be a string or an array.Note
If you are building links that are internal do not include the base URL (http://…). This will be added automatically from the information specified in your config file. Include only the URI segments you wish appended to the URL.
The second segment is the text you would like the link to say. If you leave it blank, the URL will be used.
The third parameter can contain a list of attributes you would like added to the link. The attributes can be a simple string or an associative array.
Here are some examples:
echo anchor('news/local/123', 'My News', 'title="News title"'); // Prints: <a href="http://example.com/index.php/news/local/123" title="News title">My News</a> echo anchor('news/local/123', 'My News', array('title' => 'The best news!')); // Prints: <a href="http://example.com/index.php/news/local/123" title="The best news!">My News</a> echo anchor('', 'Click here'); // Prints: <a href="http://example.com">Click Here</a>
-
anchor_popup
($uri = '', $title = '', $attributes = FALSE)¶ Parameters: - $uri (string) – URI string
- $title (string) – Anchor title
- $attributes (mixed) – HTML attributes
Returns: Pop-up hyperlink
Return type: string
Nearly identical to the
anchor()
function except that it opens the URL in a new window. You can specify JavaScript window attributes in the third parameter to control how the window is opened. If the third parameter is not set it will simply open a new window with your own browser settings.Here is an example with attributes:
$atts = array( 'width' => 800, 'height' => 600, 'scrollbars' => 'yes', 'status' => 'yes', 'resizable' => 'yes', 'screenx' => 0, 'screeny' => 0, 'window_name' => '_blank' ); echo anchor_popup('news/local/123', 'Click Me!', $atts);
Note
The above attributes are the function defaults so you only need to set the ones that are different from what you need. If you want the function to use all of its defaults simply pass an empty array in the third parameter:
echo anchor_popup('news/local/123', 'Click Me!', array());
Note
The
window_name
is not really an attribute, but an argument to the JavaScript window.open() method, which accepts either a window name or a window target.Note
Any other attribute than the listed above will be parsed as an HTML attribute to the anchor tag.
-
mailto
($email, $title = '', $attributes = '')¶ Parameters: - $email (string) – E-mail address
- $title (string) – Anchor title
- $attributes (mixed) – HTML attributes
Returns: A “mail to” hyperlink
Return type: string
Creates a standard HTML e-mail link. Usage example:
echo mailto('[email protected]', 'Click Here to Contact Me');
As with the
anchor()
tab above, you can set attributes using the third parameter:$attributes = array('title' => 'Mail me'); echo mailto('[email protected]', 'Contact Me', $attributes);
-
safe_mailto
($email, $title = '', $attributes = '')¶ Parameters: - $email (string) – E-mail address
- $title (string) – Anchor title
- $attributes (mixed) – HTML attributes
Returns: A spam-safe “mail to” hyperlink
Return type: string
Identical to the
mailto()
function except it writes an obfuscated version of themailto
tag using ordinal numbers written with JavaScript to help prevent the e-mail address from being harvested by spam bots.
-
auto_link
($str, $type = 'both', $popup = FALSE)¶ Parameters: - $str (string) – Input string
- $type (string) – Link type (‘email’, ‘url’ or ‘both’)
- $popup (bool) – Whether to create popup links
Returns: Linkified string
Return type: string
Automatically turns URLs and e-mail addresses contained in a string into links. Example:
$string = auto_link($string);
The second parameter determines whether URLs and e-mails are converted or just one or the other. Default behavior is both if the parameter is not specified. E-mail links are encoded as
safe_mailto()
as shown above.Converts only URLs:
$string = auto_link($string, 'url');
Converts only e-mail addresses:
$string = auto_link($string, 'email');
The third parameter determines whether links are shown in a new window. The value can be TRUE or FALSE (boolean):
$string = auto_link($string, 'both', TRUE);
-
url_title
($str, $separator = '-', $lowercase = FALSE)¶ Parameters: - $str (string) – Input string
- $separator (string) – Word separator
- $lowercase (string) – Whether to transform the output string to lower-case
Returns: URL-formatted string
Return type: string
Takes a string as input and creates a human-friendly URL string. This is useful if, for example, you have a blog in which you’d like to use the title of your entries in the URL. Example:
$title = "What's wrong with CSS?"; $url_title = url_title($title); // Produces: Whats-wrong-with-CSS
The second parameter determines the word delimiter. By default dashes are used. Preferred options are:
-
(dash) or_
(underscore)Example:
$title = "What's wrong with CSS?"; $url_title = url_title($title, 'underscore'); // Produces: Whats_wrong_with_CSS
The third parameter determines whether or not lowercase characters are forced. By default they are not. Options are boolean
TRUE
/FALSE
.Example:
$title = "What's wrong with CSS?"; $url_title = url_title($title, 'underscore', TRUE); // Produces: whats_wrong_with_css
-
prep_url
($str = '')¶ Parameters: - $str (string) – URL string
Returns: Protocol-prefixed URL string
Return type: string
This function will add
http://
in the event that a protocol prefix is missing from a URL.Pass the URL string to the function like this:
$url = prep_url('example.com');
-
redirect
($uri = '', $method = 'auto', $code = NULL)¶ Parameters: - $uri (string) – URI string
- $method (string) – Redirect method (‘auto’, ‘location’ or ‘refresh’)
- $code (string) – HTTP Response code (usually 302 or 303)
Return type: void
Does a “header redirect” to the URI specified. If you specify the full site URL that link will be built, but for local links simply providing the URI segments to the controller you want to direct to will create the link. The function will build the URL based on your config file values.
The optional second parameter allows you to force a particular redirection method. The available methods are
auto
,location
andrefresh
, with location being faster but less reliable on IIS servers. The default isauto
, which will attempt to intelligently choose the method based on the server environment.The optional third parameter allows you to send a specific HTTP Response Code - this could be used for example to create 301 redirects for search engine purposes. The default Response Code is 302. The third parameter is only available with
location
redirects, and notrefresh
. Examples:if ($logged_in == FALSE) { redirect('/login/form/'); } // with 301 redirect redirect('/article/13', 'location', 301);
Note
In order for this function to work it must be used before anything is outputted to the browser since it utilizes server headers.
Note
For very fine grained control over headers, you should use the
EE_Output::set_header()
method.Note
When the
location
method is used, an HTTP status code of 303 will automatically be selected when the page is currently accessed via POST and HTTP/1.1 is used.Important
This function will terminate script execution.