Shorten URL by removing empty GET variables and simplifying variable names

Question

I am working on a website where an URL is composed after submitting a GET form. The form values are passed as an array of variables of which at least one must be defined for the search on the database to work. I would like to shorten the URL by removing the empty form elements and to make it more user-friendly by simplifying the variable names.

At the moment, the URL looks like this (just with a lot more variables):

http://localhost/example/search?FormName[name]=lorem+ipsum&FormName[id]=&FormName[age]=&yt0=Search

I aim to make it look like this:

http://localhost/example/search?name=lorem+ipsum

In order to do this, I’ve got the following questions:

• I’ve read that it’s not possible to remove the empty form elements with only PHP when using the GET method because this is the standard behaviour of the html form. Is there a way to do this with the urlManager from yii?

• Can I replace “FormName[name]” with something shorter like “name” without changing the variable name, e.g., with regular expressions?

• And at last but not least: What does the “yt0=Search” signify and how can I remove it from the URL?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

The parameter names come from the form's fields' name attributes.

So to make the form query for name=lorem+ipsum the input would have to look like this:

<form method="get" action="/example/search">
    <input type="text" name="name" value="lorem ipsum">
    <button type="submit">Search</button>
</form>

You should look at the name attributes, I'm guessing they are generated by some code you are using to create the code? The empty query parameters come from other input fields in the form. If you want full control of the query string, create the form by hand.

Answer 2

I recommend you following solution: First, you need to define html form with POST method:

<form method="post" action="/example/getSearchTerms">
    <input type="text" name="name" value="lorem ipsum">
    <button type="submit">Search</button>
</form>

Second, you need to define getSearchTerms action in your ExampleController:

public function actionGetSearchTerms()
{
    $this->render(Yii::app()->baseUrl.'/example/search/'.$_POST['name']);
}

Then, you need to define main search action:

public function search($name)
{
    //do search operation here.
}

Finally, you need to add a url-manager rule:

"example/search/<name>"=>"example/search"

In this solution, getSearchTerms action is responsible for receiving user entered text, and then pass values to search action. Now your url can be http://localhost/example/search/sampleText . Note you can skip adding url-manager rule if you like. In this case, your url must be like http://localhost/example/search/name/sampleText. In fact, we can remove "name" part from url by adding url-manager rule.

Answer 3

Simple method, if jQuery is an option:

<script src="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/3.2.1/jquery.min.js"></script>
<script type="text/javascript">
    (function($) {
        $('form').submit(function() { // ## Clean GET on Submit
            $('form input').each(function() { // ## Check each Input
                if ($(this).val().length == 0) { // ## If Empty
                    $(this).attr('disabled', true); // ## Disable Input
                }
            });
        });
    })(jQuery);
</script>

Answer 4

$('#your-form').submit(function () {
    var data = $(this).serializeArray().filter(function (item) {
        return !!item.value;
    });
    var param = jQuery.param(data);
    window.location = this.action + (param ? "?" + param : "");
    return false;
});