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PHP::HTTPBuildQuery 0.09
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NAME
PHP::HTTPBuildQuery - Data structures become form-encoded query strings
SYNOPSIS
use PHP::HTTPBuildQuery qw(http_build_query);
my $query = http_build_query(
{ foo => {
bar => "baz",
quick => { "quack" => "schmack" },
},
},
);
# Query: "foo%5Bbar%5D=baz&foo%5Bquick%5D%5Bquack%5D=schmack"
# URL decoded: "foo[bar]=baz", "foo[quick][quack]=schmack"
DESCRIPTION
PHP::HTTPBuildQuery implements PHP's "http_build_query" function in
Perl. It is used to form-encode Perl data structures in URLs, so that
PHP can read them on the receiving end.
New with version 0.04 comes "http_build_query_utf8" which has an
identical syntax but deals with utf8 data instead. See the GOTCHAS
section below for details.
"http_build_query" accepts one mandatory and two optional parameters:
http_build_query( $data, $prefix, $separator );
where
* $data is a reference to the data structure (hash or array)
* $prefix is an array name for array elements at the top level. An
array at the top level, as in
http_build_query( [ 'foo', 'bar', 'baz' ]);
would create a query string like:
"0=foo&1=bar&2=baz"
which PHP can't make sense of at the receiving end, as variables
names can't start with a number. Adding a prefix, like in
http_build_query( [ 'foo', 'bar', 'baz' ], "var");
creates
"var_0=foo&var_1=bar&var_2=baz"
which then makes sense in PHP land.
* $seperator is an optional argument separator (defaults to '&'), used
to separate the fields in the encoded string.
EXAMPLES
Array
$query = http_build_query( ['foo', 'bar'] );
# Query: "name_0=foo&name_1=bar"
Hash with Array
$query = http_build_query( { foo => [ 'bar', 'baz' ] } );
# Query: "foo[0]=bar&foo[1]=baz" (not escaped for readability)
GOTCHAS
UTF8 Characters
The "uri_escape()" function used in "http_build_query" won't encode
utf8 characters. If your data is utf8 encoded, use
"http_build_query_utf8" instead.
Hash Element Order
Perl hashes have no defined order, so if you encode something like
"{ foo =" "bar", baz => "quack" }>, don't be surprised if you get
the entries in a different order:
# Query: "baz=quack&foo=bar"
Frankenstein Arrays
PHP's Frankenstein arrays handle numeric indexing and hash-like
lookups transparently. For example, you could have a data structure
like
# PHP
$a = array(
'foo' => 'bar',
'baz',
);
# PHP
and you could access both its numeric and associative elements:
# PHP
print $a[0];
# prints: 'baz'
# PHP
print $a[foo];
# prints: 'bar'
PHP's "http_build_query" function would transform the Frankenstein
array above to
"foo=bar&0=baz"
or, better, with a prefix of 'name', to
"foo=bar&name_0=baz"
In Perl, on the other hand, there's hashes for associative lookups
and arrays for numerically indexed containers, so you can't mix and
match, and there's no way to define a data structure to print out
the query string above.
Special Characters
"http_build_query" creates a PHP-specific encoding format which
can't handle ']' or '[' characters in its keys (they're ok in hash
values, though). This module won't check against this case, it will
just generate form strings that won't be decodable afterwards. Make
sure to filter your data before passing it to "http_build_query()".
THANKS
Thanks to the following Yahoos who provided advice, ideas and code: Sara
Golemon, Rasmus Lerdorf, Evan Miller.
COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
COPYRIGHT & LICENSE
Copyright (c) 2008-2012 Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. The copyrights
to the contents of this file are licensed under the Perl Artistic
License (ver. 15 Aug 1997)
AUTHOR
2008, Mike Schilli <
[email protected]>
