Question

I am passing a string through a URL to another page whenever a link is clicked.

The original a tag and its href are created via a PHP while loop as follows:

<a href=".($row['secondary'] == 'true' ? "secondary_imgs.php?imgId=".$row['imgId']."
    &imgTitle=".$row['imgTitle']."" : "new_arrivals_img/".$row['imgURL']."").">

Note: The a tag does contain other attributes but I removed them for simplicity.

The href is then appended, with the current window dimensions, using the following jQuery function:

$("a[href^='secondary_imgs.php']").click(function(){
    var pageWidth = $(window).width();
    var pageHeight = $(window).height();
    var url = $(this).attr('href');
    var idx = url.indexOf('&pageWidth=');
    if (idx != -1) {
        url = url.substr(0, idx);
    }
    url += '&pageWidth=' + pageWidth + '&pageHeight=' + pageHeight;
    $(this).attr('href', url);
});

My question is, what method(s) of encoding the URL should I use in this case, seeing as it will need to be done with first PHP, then jQuery/JavaScript, and finally decoded via PHP?
Or will it need to be done in both PHP and jQuery/JavaScript? The original PHP $row['imgTitle'] will always have at least spaces in it, and so I know it needs to be done then for sure. But seeing as the appended values will always be a variable equalling a number, does that need to be encoded as well?

I know there are several methods of encoding/decoding URLs in each coding language, and my knowledge isn’t adequate enough to make the choice.

If someone could also provide an example of how I would perform each step, it would be much appreciated.

Answer 1

You should use urlencode() in PHP to encode URI components.

The equivalent function in javascript is encodeURIComponent().

PHP will decode parameters encoded like this automatically.

So, in you PHP:

'<a href="..&imgTitle='.urlencode($row['imgTitle'])

And equivalently, in your javascript:

'&someparam=' + encodeURIComponent(someValue)