Get the full URL in PHP

Have a look at $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'], i.e.

$actual_link = "http://$_SERVER[HTTP_HOST]$_SERVER[REQUEST_URI]";

(Note that the double quoted string syntax is perfectly correct)

If you want to support both HTTP and HTTPS, you can use

$actual_link = (isset($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && $_SERVER['HTTPS'] === 'on' ? "https" : "http") . "://$_SERVER[HTTP_HOST]$_SERVER[REQUEST_URI]";

Editor's note: using this code has security implications. The client can set HTTP_HOST and REQUEST_URI to any arbitrary value it wants.


Short version to output link on a webpage

$url =  "//{$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']}{$_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']}";

$escaped_url = htmlspecialchars( $url, ENT_QUOTES, 'UTF-8' );
echo '<a href="' . $escaped_url . '">' . $escaped_url . '</a>';

Here are some more details about the issues and edge cases of the //example.com/path/ format

Full version

function url_origin( $s, $use_forwarded_host = false )
{
    $ssl      = ( ! empty( $s['HTTPS'] ) && $s['HTTPS'] == 'on' );
    $sp       = strtolower( $s['SERVER_PROTOCOL'] );
    $protocol = substr( $sp, 0, strpos( $sp, '/' ) ) . ( ( $ssl ) ? 's' : '' );
    $port     = $s['SERVER_PORT'];
    $port     = ( ( ! $ssl && $port=='80' ) || ( $ssl && $port=='443' ) ) ? '' : ':'.$port;
    $host     = ( $use_forwarded_host && isset( $s['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST'] ) ) ? $s['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST'] : ( isset( $s['HTTP_HOST'] ) ? $s['HTTP_HOST'] : null );
    $host     = isset( $host ) ? $host : $s['SERVER_NAME'] . $port;
    return $protocol . '://' . $host;
}

function full_url( $s, $use_forwarded_host = false )
{
    return url_origin( $s, $use_forwarded_host ) . $s['REQUEST_URI'];
}

$absolute_url = full_url( $_SERVER );
echo $absolute_url;

This is a heavily modified version of http://snipplr.com/view.php?codeview&id=2734 (Which no longer exists)

URL structure:

scheme://username:password@domain:port/path?query_string#fragment_id

The parts in bold will not be included by the function

Notes:

  • This function does not include username:password from a full URL or the fragment (hash).
  • It will not show the default port 80 for HTTP and port 443 for HTTPS.
  • Only tested with http and https schemes.
  • The #fragment_id is not sent to the server by the client (browser) and will not be added to the full URL.
  • $_GET will only contain foo=bar2 for an URL like /example?foo=bar1&foo=bar2.
  • Some CMS's and environments will rewrite $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI'] and return /example?foo=bar2 for an URL like /example?foo=bar1&foo=bar2, use $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] in this case.
  • Keep in mind that an URI = URL + URN, but due to popular use, URL now means both URI and URL.
  • You should remove HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST if you do not plan to use proxies or balancers.
  • The spec says that the Host header must contain the port number unless it is the default number.

Client (Browser) controlled variables:

  • $_SERVER['REQUEST_URI']. Any unsupported characters are encoded by the browser before they are sent.
  • $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'] and is not always available according to comments in the PHP manual: http://php.net/manual/en/reserved.variables.php
  • $_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_HOST'] gets set by balancers and is not mentioned in the list of $_SERVER variables in the PHP manual.

Server controlled variables:

  • $_SERVER['HTTPS']. The client chooses to use this, but the server returns the actual value of either empty or "on".
  • $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT']. The server only accepts allowed numbers as ports.
  • $_SERVER['SERVER_PROTOCOL']. The server only accepts certain protocols.
  • $_SERVER['SERVER_NAME'] . It is set manually in the server configuration and is not available for IPv6 according to kralyk.

Related:

What is the difference between HTTP_HOST and SERVER_NAME in PHP?
Is Port Number Required in HTTP "Host" Header Parameter?
https://stackoverflow.com/a/28049503/175071


Examples for: https://(www.)example.com/subFolder/myfile.php?var=blabla#555

// ======= PATHINFO ====== //
$x = pathinfo($url);
$x['dirname']      🡺 https://example.com/subFolder
$x['basename']     🡺                               myfile.php?var=blabla#555 // Unsecure! 
$x['extension']    🡺                                      php?var=blabla#555 // Unsecure! 
$x['filename']     🡺                               myfile

// ======= PARSE_URL ====== //
$x = parse_url($url);
$x['scheme']       🡺 https
$x['host']         🡺         example.com
$x['path']         🡺                    /subFolder/myfile.php
$x['query']        🡺                                          var=blabla
$x['fragment']     🡺                                                     555

//=================================================== //
//========== self-defined SERVER variables ========== //
//=================================================== //
$_SERVER["DOCUMENT_ROOT"]  🡺 /home/user/public_html
$_SERVER["SERVER_ADDR"]    🡺 143.34.112.23
$_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"]    🡺 80(or 443 etc..)
$_SERVER["REQUEST_SCHEME"] 🡺 https                                         //similar: $_SERVER["SERVER_PROTOCOL"] 
$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST']      🡺         example.com (or with WWW)             //similar: $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"]
$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]    🡺                       /subFolder/myfile.php?var=blabla
$_SERVER["QUERY_STRING"]   🡺                                             var=blabla
__FILE__                   🡺 /home/user/public_html/subFolder/myfile.php
__DIR__                    🡺 /home/user/public_html/subFolder              //same: dirname(__FILE__)
$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]    🡺                       /subFolder/myfile.php?var=blabla
parse_url($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"], PHP_URL_PATH)🡺  /subFolder/myfile.php 
$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]       🡺                       /subFolder/myfile.php

// ==================================================================//
//if "myfile.php" is included in "PARENTFILE.php" , and you visit  "PARENTFILE.PHP?abc":
$_SERVER["SCRIPT_FILENAME"]🡺 /home/user/public_html/parentfile.php
$_SERVER["PHP_SELF"]       🡺                       /parentfile.php
$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]    🡺                       /parentfile.php?var=blabla
__FILE__                   🡺 /home/user/public_html/subFolder/myfile.php

// =================================================== //
// ================= handy variables ================= //
// =================================================== //
//If site uses HTTPS:
$HTTP_or_HTTPS = ((!empty($_SERVER['HTTPS']) && $_SERVER['HTTPS']!=='off') || $_SERVER['SERVER_PORT']==443) ? 'https://':'http://' );            //in some cases, you need to add this condition too: if ('https'==$_SERVER['HTTP_X_FORWARDED_PROTO'])  ...

//To trim values to filename, i.e. 
basename($url)             🡺 myfile.php

//excellent solution to find origin
$debug_files = debug_backtrace();       
$caller_file = count($debug_files) ? $debug_files[count($debug_files) - 1]['file'] : __FILE__;

Notice ! ! !

  • hashtag # parts were manually used in the above example just for illustration purposes, however, server-side languages (including php) can't natively detect them (Only Javascript can do that, as hashtag is only browser/client side functionality ).
  • DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR returns \ for Windows-type hosting, instead of /.

For WordPress

//(let's say, if wordpress is installed in subdirectory:  http://example.com/wpdir/)
home_url()                      🡺 http://example.com/wpdir/        //if is_ssl() is true, then it will be "https"
get_stylesheet_directory_uri()  🡺 http://example.com/wpdir/wp-content/themes/THEME_NAME  [same: get_bloginfo('template_url') ]
get_stylesheet_directory()      🡺 /home/user/public_html/wpdir/wp-content/themes/THEME_NAME
plugin_dir_url(__FILE__)        🡺 http://example.com/wpdir/wp-content/themes/PLUGIN_NAME
plugin_dir_path(__FILE__)       🡺 /home/user/public_html/wpdir/wp-content/plugins/PLUGIN_NAME/

Tags:

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