Strip off URL parameter with PHP
PhpPhp Problem Overview
I have some links in a powerpoint presentation, and for some reason, when those links get clicked, it adds a return parameter to the URL. Well, that return parameter is causing my Joomla site's MVC pattern to get bungled.
So, what's an efficient way to strip off this return parameter using PHP...?
Example: http://mydomain.com/index.php?id=115&Itemid=283&return=aHR0cDovL2NvbW11bml0
Php Solutions
Solution 1 - Php
The safest "correct" method would be:
- Parse the url into an array with
parse_url() - Extract the query portion, decompose that into an array using
parse_str() - Delete the query parameters you want by
unset()them from the array - Rebuild the original url using
http_build_query()
Quick and dirty is to use a string search/replace and/or regex to kill off the value.
Solution 2 - Php
In a different thread Justin suggests that the fastest way is to use strtok()
$url = strtok($url, '?');
See his full answer with speed tests as well here: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1251650/452515
Solution 3 - Php
This is to complement Marc B's answer with an example, while it may look quite long, it's a safe way to remove a parameter. In this example we remove page_number
<?php
$x = 'http://url.com/search/?location=london&page_number=1';
$parsed = parse_url($x);
$query = $parsed['query'];
parse_str($query, $params);
unset($params['page_number']);
$string = http_build_query($params);
var_dump($string);
Solution 4 - Php
parse_str($queryString, $vars);
unset($vars['return']);
$queryString = http_build_query($vars);
parse_str parses a query string, http_build_query creates a query string.
Solution 5 - Php
function removeParam($url, $param) {
$url = preg_replace('/(&|\?)'.preg_quote($param).'=[^&]*$/', '', $url);
$url = preg_replace('/(&|\?)'.preg_quote($param).'=[^&]*&/', '$1', $url);
return $url;
}
Solution 6 - Php
Procedural Implementation of Marc B's Answer after refining Sergey Telshevsky's Answer.
function strip_param_from_url( $url, $param )
{
$base_url = strtok($url, '?'); // Get the base url
$parsed_url = parse_url($url); // Parse it
$query = $parsed_url['query']; // Get the query string
parse_str( $query, $parameters ); // Convert Parameters into array
unset( $parameters[$param] ); // Delete the one you want
$new_query = http_build_query($parameters); // Rebuilt query string
return $base_url.'?'.$new_query; // Finally url is ready
}
// Usage
echo strip_param_from_url( 'http://url.com/search/?location=london&page_number=1', 'location' )
Solution 7 - Php
You could do a preg_replace like:
$new_url = preg_replace('/&?return=[^&]*/', '', $old_url);
Solution 8 - Php
Here is the actual code for what's described above as the "the safest 'correct' method"...
function reduce_query($uri = '') {
$kill_params = array('gclid');
$uri_array = parse_url($uri);
if (isset($uri_array['query'])) {
// Do the chopping.
$params = array();
foreach (explode('&', $uri_array['query']) as $param) {
$item = explode('=', $param);
if (!in_array($item[0], $kill_params)) {
$params[$item[0]] = isset($item[1]) ? $item[1] : '';
}
}
// Sort the parameter array to maximize cache hits.
ksort($params);
// Build new URL (no hosts, domains, or fragments involved).
$new_uri = '';
if ($uri_array['path']) {
$new_uri = $uri_array['path'];
}
if (count($params) > 0) {
// Wish there was a more elegant option.
$new_uri .= '?' . urldecode(http_build_query($params));
}
return $new_uri;
}
return $uri;
}
$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] = reduce_query($_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
However, since this will likely exist prior to the bootstrap of your application, you should probably put it into an anonymous function. Like this...
call_user_func(function($uri) {
$kill_params = array('gclid');
$uri_array = parse_url($uri);
if (isset($uri_array['query'])) {
// Do the chopping.
$params = array();
foreach (explode('&', $uri_array['query']) as $param) {
$item = explode('=', $param);
if (!in_array($item[0], $kill_params)) {
$params[$item[0]] = isset($item[1]) ? $item[1] : '';
}
}
// Sort the parameter array to maximize cache hits.
ksort($params);
// Build new URL (no hosts, domains, or fragments involved).
$new_uri = '';
if ($uri_array['path']) {
$new_uri = $uri_array['path'];
}
if (count($params) > 0) {
// Wish there was a more elegant option.
$new_uri .= '?' . urldecode(http_build_query($params));
}
// Update server variable.
$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] = $new_uri;
}
}, $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
NOTE: Updated with urldecode() to avoid double encoding via http_build_query() function.
NOTE: Updated with ksort() to allow params with no value without an error.
Solution 9 - Php
This one of many ways, not tested, but should work.
$link = 'http://mydomain.com/index.php?id=115&Itemid=283&return=aHR0cDovL2NvbW11bml0';
$linkParts = explode('&return=', $link);
$link = $linkParts[0];
Solution 10 - Php
Wow, there are a lot of examples here. I am providing one that does some error handling. It rebuilds and returns the entire URL with the query-string-param-to-be-removed, removed. It also provides a bonus function that builds the current URL on the fly. Tested, works!
Credit to Mark B for the steps. This is a complete solution to tpow's "strip off this return parameter" original question -- might be handy for beginners, trying to avoid PHP gotchas. :-)
<?php
function currenturl_without_queryparam( $queryparamkey ) {
$current_url = current_url();
$parsed_url = parse_url( $current_url );
if( array_key_exists( 'query', $parsed_url )) {
$query_portion = $parsed_url['query'];
} else {
return $current_url;
}
parse_str( $query_portion, $query_array );
if( array_key_exists( $queryparamkey , $query_array ) ) {
unset( $query_array[$queryparamkey] );
$q = ( count( $query_array ) === 0 ) ? '' : '?';
return $parsed_url['scheme'] . '://' . $parsed_url['host'] . $parsed_url['path'] . $q . http_build_query( $query_array );
} else {
return $current_url;
}
}
function current_url() {
$current_url = 'http' . (isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) ? 's' : '') . '://' . "{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}{$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']}";
return $current_url;
}
echo currenturl_without_queryparam( 'key' );
?>
Solution 11 - Php
$var = preg_replace( "/return=[^&]+/", "", $var );
$var = preg_replace( "/&{2,}/", "&", $var );
Second line will just replace && to &
Solution 12 - Php
very simple
$link = "http://example.com/index.php?id=115&Itemid=283&return=aHR0cDovL2NvbW11bml0"
echo substr($link, 0, strpos($link, "return") - 1);
//output : http://example.com/index.php?id=115&Itemid=283
Solution 13 - Php
@MarcB mentioned that it is dirty to use regex to remove an url parameter. And yes it is, because it's not as easy as it looks:
$urls = array(
'example.com/?foo=bar',
'example.com/?bar=foo&foo=bar',
'example.com/?foo=bar&bar=foo',
);
echo 'Original' . PHP_EOL;
foreach ($urls as $url) {
echo $url . PHP_EOL;
}
echo PHP_EOL . '@AaronHathaway' . PHP_EOL;
foreach ($urls as $url) {
echo preg_replace('#&?foo=[^&]*#', null, $url) . PHP_EOL;
}
echo PHP_EOL . '@SergeS' . PHP_EOL;
foreach ($urls as $url) {
echo preg_replace( "/&{2,}/", "&", preg_replace( "/foo=[^&]+/", "", $url)) . PHP_EOL;
}
echo PHP_EOL . '@Justin' . PHP_EOL;
foreach ($urls as $url) {
echo preg_replace('/([?&])foo=[^&]+(&|$)/', '$1', $url) . PHP_EOL;
}
echo PHP_EOL . '@kraftb' . PHP_EOL;
foreach ($urls as $url) {
echo preg_replace('/(&|\?)foo=[^&]*&/', '$1', preg_replace('/(&|\?)foo=[^&]*$/', '', $url)) . PHP_EOL;
}
echo PHP_EOL . 'My version' . PHP_EOL;
foreach ($urls as $url) {
echo str_replace('/&', '/?', preg_replace('#[&?]foo=[^&]*#', null, $url)) . PHP_EOL;
}
returns:
Original example.com/?foo=bar example.com/?bar=foo&foo=bar example.com/?foo=bar&bar=foo@AaronHathaway example.com/? example.com/?bar=foo example.com/?&bar=foo
@SergeS example.com/? example.com/?bar=foo& example.com/?&bar=foo
@Justin example.com/? example.com/?bar=foo& example.com/?bar=foo
@kraftb example.com/ example.com/?bar=foo example.com/?bar=foo
My version example.com/ example.com/?bar=foo example.com/?bar=foo
As you can see only @kraftb posted a correct answer using regex and my version is a little bit smaller.
Solution 14 - Php
Remove Get Parameters From Current Page
<?php
$url_dir=$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
$url_dir_no_get_param= explode("?",$url_dir)[0];
echo $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].$url_dir_no_get_param;
Solution 15 - Php
This should do it:
public function removeQueryParam(string $url, string $param): string
{
$parsedUrl = parse_url($url);
if (isset($parsedUrl[$param])) {
$baseUrl = strtok($url, '?');
parse_str(parse_url($url)['query'], $query);
unset($query[$param]);
return sprintf('%s?%s',
$baseUrl,
http_build_query($query)
);
}
return $url;
}
Solution 16 - Php
Simple solution that will work for every url
With this solution $url format or parameter position doesn't matter, as an example I added another parameter and anchor at the end of $url:
https://example.com/index.php?id=115&Itemid=283&return=aHR0cDovL2NvbW11bml0&bonus=test#test2
Here is the simple solution:
$url = 'https://example.com/index.php?id=115&Itemid=283&return=aHR0cDovL2NvbW11bml0&bonus=test#test2';
$url_query_stirng = parse_url($url, PHP_URL_QUERY);
parse_str( $url_query_stirng, $url_parsed_query );
unset($url_parsed_query['return']);
$url = str_replace( $url_query_stirng, http_build_query( $url_parsed_query ), $url );
echo $url;
Final result for $url string is:
https://example.com/index.php?id=115&Itemid=283&bonus=test#test2
Solution 17 - Php
Some of the examples posted are so extensive. This is what I use on my projects.
function removeQueryParameter($url, $param){
list($baseUrl, $urlQuery) = explode('?', $url, 2);
parse_str($urlQuery, $urlQueryArr);
unset($urlQueryArr[$param]);
if(count($urlQueryArr))
return $baseUrl.'?'.http_build_query($urlQueryArr);
else
return $baseUrl;
}
Solution 18 - Php
function remove_attribute($url,$attribute)
{
$url=explode('?',$url);
$new_parameters=false;
if(isset($url[1]))
{
$params=explode('&',$url[1]);
$new_parameters=ra($params,$attribute);
}
$construct_parameters=($new_parameters && $new_parameters!='' ) ? ('?'.$new_parameters):'';
return $new_url=$url[0].$construct_parameters;
}
function ra($params,$attr)
{ $attr=$attr.'=';
$new_params=array();
for($i=0;$i<count($params);$i++)
{
$pos=strpos($params[$i],$attr);
if($pos===false)
$new_params[]=$params[$i];
}
if(count($new_params)>0)
return implode('&',$new_params);
else
return false;
}
//just copy the above code and just call this function like this to get new url without particular parameter
echo remove_attribute($url,'delete_params'); // gives new url without that parameter
Solution 19 - Php
I know this is an old question but if you only want to remove one or few named url parameter you can use this function:
function RemoveGet_Regex($variable, $rewritten_url): string {
$rewritten_url = preg_replace("/(\?)$/", "", preg_replace("/\?&/", "?", preg_replace("/((?<=\?)|&){$variable}=[\w]*/i", "", $rewritten_url)));
return $rewritten_url;
}
function RemoveGet($name): void {
$rewritten_url = "https://$_SERVER[HTTP_HOST]$_SERVER[REQUEST_URI]";
if(is_array($name)) {
for($i = 0; $i < count($name); $i++) {
$rewritten_url = RemoveGet_Regex($name[$i], $rewritten_url);
$is_set[] = isset($_GET[$name[$i]]);
}
$array_filtered = array_filter($is_set);
if (!empty($array_filtered)) {
header("Location: ".$rewritten_url);
}
}
else {
$rewritten_url = RemoveGet_Regex($name, $rewritten_url);
if(isset($_GET[$name])) {
header("Location: ".$rewritten_url);
}
}
}
In the first function preg_replace("/((?<=\?)|&){$variable}=[\w]*/i", "", $rewritten_url) will remove the get parameter, and the others will tidy it up. The second function will then redirect.
RemoveGet("id"); will remove the id=whatever from the url. The function can also work with arrays. For your example,
Remove(array("id","Item","return"));
Solution 20 - Php
<? if(isset($_GET['i'])){unset($_GET['i']); header('location:/');} ?>
This will remove the 'i' parameter from the URL. Change the 'i's to whatever you need.