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Helpers

Url

The URL view helper is used to create a string representation of the routes that you define within your application. The syntax for the view helper is $this->url($name, $params, $options, $reuseMatchedParameters), using the following definitions for the helper arguments:

  • $name: The name of the route you want to output.
  • $params: An array of parameters that is defined within the respective route configuration.
  • $options: An array of options that will be used to create the URL.
  • $reuseMatchedParams: A flag indicating if the currently matched route parameters should be used when generating the new URL.

Let's take a look at how this view helper is used in real-world applications.

Basic Usage

The following example shows a simple configuration for a news module. The route is called news and it has two optional parameters called action and id.

// In a configuration array (e.g. returned by some module's module.config.php)
'router' => [
    'routes' => [
        'news' => [
            'type'    => 'segment',
            'options' => [
                'route'       => '/news[/:action][/:id]',
                'constraints' => [
                    'action' => '[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_-]*',
                ],
                'defaults' => [
                    'controller' => 'news',
                    'action'     => 'index',
                ],
            ],
        ],
    ],
],

First, let's use the view helper to create the output for the URL /news without any of the optional parameters being used:

<a href="<?= $this->url('news'); ?>">News Index</a>

This will render the output:

<a href="/news">News Index</a>

Now let's assume we want to get a link to display the detail page of a single news entry. For this task, the optional parameters action and id need to have values assigned. This is how you do that:

<a href="<?= $this->url('news', ['action' => 'details', 'id' => 42]); ?>">
    Details of News #42
</a>

This will render the output:

<a href="/news/details/42">News Index</a>

Query String Arguments

Most SEO experts agree that pagination parameters should not be part of the URL path; for example, the following URL would be considered a bad practice: /news/archive/page/13. Pagination is more correctly accomplished using a query string arguments, such as /news/archive?page=13. To achieve this, you'll need to make use of the $options argument from the view helper.

We will use the same route configuration as defined above:

// In a configuration array (e.g. returned by some module's module.config.php)
'router' => [
    'routes' => [
        'news' => [
            'type'    => 'segment',
            'options' => [
                'route'       => '/news[/:action][/:id]',
                'constraints' => [
                    'action' => '[a-zA-Z][a-zA-Z0-9_-]*',
                ],
                'defaults' => [
                    'controller' => 'news',
                    'action'     => 'index',
                ],
            ],
        ],
    ],
],

To generate query string arguments from the view helper, you need to assign them as the third argument using the query key like this:

<?php
$url = $this->url(
    'news',
    ['action' => 'archive'],
    [
        'query' => [
            'page' => 13,
        ],
    ]
);
?>
<a href="<?= $url; ?>">News Archive Page #13</a>

The above code sample would output:

<a href="/news/archive?page=13">News Archive Page #13</a>

Fragments

Another possible entry within the $options array is the assignment of URL fragments (typically used to link to in-page anchors), denoted with using the fragment key. Let's assume we want to enter a link for users to directly jump to the comment section of a details page:

<?php
$url = $this->url(
    'news',
    ['action' => 'details', 'id' => 42],
    [
        'fragment' => 'comments',
    ]
);
?>
<a href="<?= $url; ?>">Comment Section of News #42</a>

The above code sample would output:

<a href="/news/details/42#comments">Comment Section of News #42</a>

You can use fragment and query options at the same time!

<?php
$url = $this->url(
    'news',
    ['action' => 'details', 'id' => 42],
    [
        'query' => [
            'commentPage' => 3,
        ],
        'fragment' => 'comments',
    ]
);
?>
<a href="<?= $url; ?>">Comment Section of News #42</a>

The above code sample would output:

<a href="/news/details/42?commentPage=3#comments">Comment Section of News #42</a>

Fully Qualified Domain Name

Another possible entry within the $options array is to output a fully qualified domain name (absolute URL), denoted using the force_canonical key:

<?php
$url = $this->url(
    'news',
    [],
    [
        'force_canonical' => true,
    ]
);
?>
<a href="<?= $url; ?>">News Index</a>

The above code sample would output:

<a href="http://www.example.com/news">News Index</a>

Reusing Matched Parameters

When you're on a route that has many parameters, often times it makes sense to reuse currently matched parameters instead of assigning them explicitly. In this case, the argument $reuseMatchedParams will come in handy.

As an example, we will imagine being on a detail page for our news route. We want to display links to the edit and delete actions without having to assign the ID again:

// Currently url /news/details/777

<a href="<?= $this->url('news', ['action' => 'edit'], null, true); ?>">Edit Me</a>
<a href="<?= $this->url('news', ['action' => 'delete'], null, true); ?>">Delete Me</a>

Notice the true argument in the fourth position. This tells the view helper to use the matched id (777) when creating the new URL:

<a href="/news/edit/777">Edit Me</a>
<a href="/news/delete/777">Edit Me</a>

Shorthand

Due to the fact that reusing parameters is a use case that can happen when no route options are set, the third argument for the URL view helper will be checked against its type; when a boolean is passed, the helper uses it to set the value of the $reuseMatchedParams flag:

$this->url('news', ['action' => 'archive'], null, true);
// is equal to
$this->url('news', ['action' => 'archive'], true);