Pass complex URL as parameter in PHP

Question

I'm trying to pass a complex URL as a url parameter but the problem occurs if the url contains & for example I want to pass the following link as a parameter

http://www.google.ps/search?hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=42F&rls=org.mozilla%3Aen-US%3Aofficial&q=The+type+%27Microsoft.Practices.ObjectBuilder.Locator%27+is+defined+in+an+assembly+that+is+not+referenced.+You+must+add+a+reference+to+assembly+&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=

I'm trying to get a URL as a parameter from a user and redirect user to this URL.

How could I handle this in PHP?

The whole Story:

I'm trying to make some ads analytics on flash files so user submit flash ads to a website which contains a link to the required webpage.

Now,my client needs to know how many times this flash file was clicked.To solve this I 'll till every one who submits flash to write a link to my client webpage and pass the required URL as a parameter as follows

http://myclientwebpage.com/disp.php?link=www.google.com&id=16

by this way I can update my database and get a count for how many times this link was clicked

Can you explain further what you actually want to do with it? — Andre Backlund
– Andre Backlund, Commented May 5, 2011 at 12:20
If I understand correctly, "www.google.com&id=16" in your example is the link that needs to be encoded. So, instead of echo "href='http://myclientwebpage.com/disp.php?link=" . $link . "'" write echo "href='http://myclientwebpage.com/disp.php?link=" . rawurlencode($link) . "'". Then, in disp.php code, you'll have $_GET['link'] which will contain "www.google.com&id=16" (not just "www.google.com"). — binaryLV
– binaryLV, Commented May 5, 2011 at 16:51
I think the only problem should be the ampersand & which should be written as %26 in the original URI. All other characters can be introduced as is. — Brethlosze
– Brethlosze, Commented Jan 17, 2019 at 19:54

binaryLV · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 12:47:52Z

16

Use urlencode() or rawurlencode().

You wrote:

I'm trying to get a URL as a parameter from a user and redirect user to this URL.

But you didn't answer the question - how do you get that URL? How does user provide you with it? Is it written in <input type='text'/>? Or does user click some link that contains URL as one of parameters? Or is passed as ID of some URL that is stored in DB?

One case that comes into my mind - replacing URLs in plain text and sending user to some "redirecting page" before opening real page, so final page does not see HTTP referrer which might contain some secure data (e.g., session ID). In this case, you would write

<a href='redirect.php?link=<?php echo rawurlencode($url); ?>'>
    <?php echo htmlspecialchars($url); ?>
</a>

instead of

<a href='redirect.php?link=<?php echo $url; ?>'>
    <?php echo htmlspecialchars($url); ?>
</a>

edited May 5, 2011 at 12:47

answered May 5, 2011 at 12:17

binaryLV

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7 Comments

Feras Odeh Over a year ago

The problem is that I got this URL from $_GET

binaryLV Over a year ago

And what is the problem? If you get this URL from $_GET['url'] and want to put it into href attribute of a tag, then it would be something like <a href='?link=<?php echo rawurlencode($_GET['url']); ?>'>next link</a>, then in "next page" you would get it via $_GET['link'].

James C Over a year ago

@binaryLV I suspect the problem here is that the URL isn't being urlencoded properly into the URL

Feras Odeh Over a year ago

array 'link' => string 'www.google.ps/search?hl=en' (length=26) 'id' => string '13' (length=2)

binaryLV Over a year ago

@Feras Odeh, what exactly are you doing with that URL? Step by step. How do you get it and what you need to do with it?

|

Andre Backlund · Accepted Answer · 2011-05-05 12:50:10Z

0

From what I understand, you'll need to replace & into &.

$url = str_replace('&', '&amp;', $url);

& is reserved, used for separating GET parameters, & is for writing a literal ampersand in a URL.

answered May 5, 2011 at 12:50

Andre Backlund

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2 Comments

binaryLV Over a year ago

Andre Backlund, I'd advise to use rawurlencode() or urlencode() (rather than to replace single character), as URL may contain not only '&', but also other special characters (e.g., '#' is the first that comes into my mind).

Brethlosze Over a year ago

I think the only problem should be the ampersand & which should be written as %26 in the original URI. All other characters can be introduced as is.

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