PHP Generate Links

The following code can be used throughout your existing PHP classes. If you use a similar URI pattern, you won't have any issues with instantly plugging the methods into your existing code. Otherwise, you may have to tweak them slightly.

To generate a link, you'll call the generateLink() method from your file and pass either NULL or an associative array with key/value pairs to add onto the URI.

i.e.
Example URI: http://example.com/index.php?page=view_by_size&type=0&id=10&xxx=something
$this->_frequent->generateLink(array("type" => "2"));

Read the comments above each method to understand what's happening:

	<?php
	class Frequent {
	/**
	* String query to associative array
	*
	* Grabs the URI string from the address bar
	* Since all of my pages start with a ?page=__something__, I split the uri string into 2 segments and at that point
	* and discard the http://example.com (i.e. $uri[0])
	* Split the remainder of into it's own segments using the & sign as the delimiter
	* Initialize the $segments array and assign the "page" key to it (again, since ?page=__something__ will always be the first portion of the URI string
	* Remove the page value from the $uri array since we don't need it any more
	*
	* Loop through the remainder of the $uri values and split them using the = sign as the delimiter. Store into $temp variable
	* - i.e. $uri will look like this at this point:
	* array("type=2",
	* "id=10",
	* "xxx=something"
	* );
	*
	* Assign $temp[0] as the key to $segments array and $temp[1] as value to $segments array
	* - i.e. $temp will look like this:
	* array("type" => "2",
	* "id" => "10",
	* "xxx" => "something"
	* );
	*
	* The loop will also take care of any long strings that might have been created
	* - i.e. ?page=__something__&type=2&id=10&xxx=something&xxx=something2&xxx=something3
	* - In this example, each xxx key will get overwritten with the last xxx
	*
	* Any additional segments are appended last: that is if an array of key => value pairs is passed
	* - i.e. $add_segment = array("final" => "3");
	* In this example the final $segments array will look like this:
	* array("type" => "2",
	* "id" => "10",
	* "xxx" => "something"
	* "final" => "3"
	* );
	*
	* Also, since $add_segments is passed last, if the same key name is passed as one already assigned to segments,
	* the already assigned key will get overwritten.
	*
	* @param $add_segment | Must be either NULL or Array
	* @return array $segments;
	*/
	public function uriToArray($add_segment = NULL) {
	$uri = $_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
	$uri = explode("?page=", $uri);
	unset($uri[0]);
	$uri = explode("&", $uri[1]);
	$segments["page"] = $uri[0];
	unset($uri[0]);
	foreach($uri as $segment) {
	$temp = explode("=", $segment);
	$segments[$temp[0]] = $temp[1];
	}
	if ($add_segment !== NULL) {
	foreach($add_segment as $key => $value) {
	$segments[$key] = $value;
	}
	}
	return $segments;
	}
	/**
	* Generates a link
	*
	* Grabs the segments from the uriToArray() method and passes any additional segments via $add_segment
	* - i.e. $this->_frequent_obj->generateLink(array("type" => "2"));
	* - If no additional segments, NULL will be passed
	* Since ?page=__something__ is always the first GET variable, the $link string is initialized with the ?page=XXX
	* The page key/value pair is unset from the $link_array variable since we don't want to pass it again
	* The rest of the key => value pairs are run added to the $link string variable via &key=value
	* The link is returned after all values have been concatenated
	*
	* @param array $add_segment
	* @return string $link
	*/
	public function generateLink($add_segment = NULL) {
	$link_array = $this->uriToArray($add_segment);
	$link = "?page=" . $link_array["page"];
	unset($link_array["page"]);
	foreach($link_array as $key => $value) {
	$link .= "&" . $key . "=" . $value;
	}
	return $link;
	}
	}

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