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ID the Body Based on URL

<?php
	$url = explode('/',$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
	$dir = $url[1] ? $url[1] : 'home';
?>

<body id="<?php echo $dir ?>">

This would turn http://domain.tld/blog/home into "blog" (the second level of the URL structure). If at the root, it will return "home".

Here is an alternate method:

<?php
       $page = $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'];
       $page = str_replace("/","",$page);
       $page = str_replace(".php","",$page);
       $page = str_replace("?s=","",$page);
       $page = $page ? $page : 'index'
?>

This would turn http://domain.tld/blog/home into "domaintldbloghome", which is far more specific. It also will remove ".php" file extensions and the default WordPress search parameter.

More Secure Method

function curr_virtdir($echo=true){
        $url = explode('/',$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
        $dir = $url[1] ? $url[1] : 'home'; // defaults to this if in the root
        $dir = htmlentities(trim(strip_tags($dir))); // prevent injection into the DOM through this function
        if ($echo) echo $dir;
        return echo $dir; // ie. curr_virtdir(false)
}
function get_curr_virtdir(){
        curr_virtdir(false);
}

Returns the "middle" directory value:

On http://css-tricks.com it would return "home"
On http://css-tricks.com/snippets it would return "snippets"
On http://css-tricks.com/forums/viewforum.php?f=6 it would return "forums"

The strip_tags() and htmlentities() functions prevent malicious code from being insterted into the URL and ran, e.g.

<body id="foo"><script>alert("Booo");</script>

Usage for IDing the body:

<body id="<?php curr_virtdir(); ?>">

Other usage:

<?php
  if ( get_curr_virtdir() == "store" ){
    echo "Welcome to our awesome store !";
  } elseif ( get_curr_virtdir() == "home" ){
    echo "Welcome home :-)";
  } else {
    echo "Welcome on some other page";
  }
?>

Subscribe to The Thread

  1. Ant

    Hmm, I used simplier code, without throught on security. I should reconsider this.

    Reply ↓
  2. Mike

    This was very helpful. Im using the alternate method (second one from the top). How would I keep the id selector to the first two directories. Say I have: domain.com/products/ramps/singlefoldramps.html
    Would return id=”productsramps” and not use the third dir in the id tag?

    Reply ↓
  3. Steffen

    I tend to use the . This also gives a lot of usefull information, similar to theese examples:
    http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags/body_class

    Reply ↓
  4. Biscutty

    Getting a syntax error on line6 of the secure version:

    return echo $dir; // ie. curr_virtdir(false)

    Any ideas?

    Reply ↓
  5. Biscutty

    Removed the “echo” – seems to have sorted it.

    function curr_virtdir($echo=true){
    $url = explode(‘/’,$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']);
    $dir = $url[1] ? $url[1] : ‘home’; // defaults to this if in the root
    $dir = htmlentities(trim(strip_tags($dir))); // prevent injection into the DOM through this function
    if ($echo) echo $dir;
    return $dir;

    Reply ↓
  6. Edmundo Junior

    None of this tips works for me, can you help me guys?

    My problem is, I have a site with two subdirectorys, I wanna output

    example.com/dir1/dir2
    example.com/dir1/dir2/dir3

    The second and third directories always change. How can the ID be just the second directory (dir2)?

    Thank you in advance!

    Reply ↓

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