Ever wished you could avoid the ugly array style $_GET vars in PHP?
1) www.mydomain.com/?cat=1&cat=12&cat=5
Looks so much better than
2) www.mydomain.com/?cat[]=1&cat[]=12&cat[]=5
Unfortunately PHP’s internal storage for GCP $_GET,$_POST,$_COOKIE works like arrays therefor you cannot send the same request variable key more than once as the latter will replace all previous values, i.e:
$_GET['cat'] = 1;
$_GET['cat'] = 12;
$_GET['cat'] = 5; // cat now has only 1 value of 5
Below is a solution I came up with for the Zend Framework, but this can easily be adapted to use in conventional PHP.
1: First create the below class and save it in your Library:
<?php
class CC_Controller_Request_Http extends Zend_Controller_Request_Http {
/**
* Retrieve an array of $_GET parameters with the same key name
*
* If no match is found an empty array is returned
* If the $key is an alias, the actual key aliased will be used.
*
* @param string $key
* @param array $default Default values to use if key not found
* @return array
*/
public function getParamMultiQuery($key, array $default = array())
{
$keyName = (null !== ($alias = $this->getAlias($key))) ? $alias : $key;
$query = $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'];
$vars = array();
foreach (explode('&', $query) as $pair) {
list($qkey, $value) = explode('=', $pair);
if($qkey != $keyName || '' == trim($value)){
continue;
}
$vars[$qkey][] = urldecode($value);
}
return (count($vars)==0) ? array($keyName=>$default) : $vars;
}
/**
* Retrieve an array of all $_GET parameters by same key name
*
* @return array
*/
public function getParamsMultiQuery()
{
$query = $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'];
$vars = array();
foreach (explode('&', $query) as $pair) {
list($key, $value) = explode('=', $pair);
if('' == trim($value)){
continue;
}
$vars[$key][] = urldecode($value);
}
return $vars;
}
}2: In your Application Bootstrap file add the below “highlighted” snippet
<?php
class Bootstrap extends Zend_Application_Bootstrap_Bootstrap
{
protected function _initAppAutoload()
{
$moduleLoad = new Zend_Application_Module_Autoloader(array(
'namespace' => '',
'basePath' => APPLICATION_PATH
));
}
function _initApplication ()
{
$this->bootstrap('frontcontroller');
$front = $this->getResource('frontcontroller');
$front->setRequest('CC_Controller_Request_Http');
}3: Optionally you can now create a base Controller for all your Controller, this is only for convenience, can be skipped.
<?php
class CC_Controller_BaseController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
/**
* Return an array of values matching 1 parameter in the {@link $_request Request object}
* grouped by the same $_GET name
*
* @param string $key
* @param array $default Default values to use if key not found
* @return array
*/
protected function _getParamMultiQuery($key, array $default = array())
{
return $this->getRequest()->getParamMultiQuery($key, $default);
}
/**
* Return an array of values matching all parameters in the {@link $_request Request object}
* grouped by the same $_GET name
*
* @return array
*/
protected function _getParamsMultiQuery()
{
return $this->getRequest()->getParamsMultiQuery();
}
}4.1: Usage, this is how you would access the Request object to retrieve multiple $_GET values. Use this method only if you applied step 3 with base Controller.
Sample url for this controller: mydomain.com/search/?cat=1233&cat=44&cat=7866&foo=abc&bar=1&cat=32
<?php
class SearchController extends CC_Controller_BaseController
{
public function indexAction()
{
$allMultiVars = $this->_getParamsMultiQuery();
$multiCats = $this->_getParamMultiQuery('cat');
//echo '<pre>'; print_r($allMultiVars);
if(count($multiCats['cat'])){
$model = new Model_Products();
$data = $model->fetchAll('cats_id IN ('.implode(',', $multiCats).')');
}4.2: Usage, this is how you would access the Request object to retrieve multiple $_GET values. Use this method if you applied step 3 with base Controller OR NOT.
Sample url for this controller: mydomain.com/search/?cat=1233&cat=44&cat=7866&foo=abc&bar=1&cat=3
<?php
class SearchController extends Zend_Controller_Action
{
public function indexAction()
{
$allMultiVars = $this->getRequest()->getParamsMultiQuery();
$multiCats = $this->getRequest()->getParamMultiQuery('cat');
//the standard ZF way
$allZf = $this->_getParams();
$zfCat = $this->_getParam('cat');
/*
* $zfCats will always only return 1 value,this is caused by PHP
* and not ZF.
* Optionally you can pass default array values if nothing is found
* $multiCats will be populated and returned
*/
$multiCats = $this->getRequest()->getParamMultiQuery('cat', array(233,55,1));
//echo '<pre>'; print_r($allMultiVars);
if(count($multiCats['cats'])){
$model = new Model_Products();
$data = $model->fetchAll('cats_id IN ('.implode(',', $multiCats).')');
}Hope this helps someone!
