Requests, Urls and Variables

A PAD url names the page in the query string:

url page
/myapp/ index.pad
/myapp/?about about.pad
/myapp/?admin/users admin/users.pad
/myapp/?about&who=world about.pad, with a parameter

Parameters become variables

Everything after the page name arrives as plain variables: &who=world is $who in the page's PHP and {$who} in its template. The optional pipe reads one that may not be there:

PHP
 HTML
fragments/requests_1.pad 		Result 
<p>Hello {$who | optional}!</p>
<p><a href="?pages/requests_and_urls&who=world">say who you are</a></p>

Hello world!

say who you are

Building urls: the {?var} form

The third variable spelling writes a variable as a url fragment - {?city} renders &city=value, encoded and ready to append to a link:

PHP
 HTML
fragments/requests_2.pad 		Result 
{set $city = 'Den Haag'/}
<p>As a url fragment: {?city}</p>
<p><a href="?pages/requests_and_urls{?city}">a link carrying it along</a></p>

As a url fragment: &city=Den+Haag

a link carrying it along

Forms

A form posts back to the page it is on - no action needed - and its fields arrive as variables like any other - the note typed here comes back as $note:

PHP
 HTML
fragments/requests_3.pad 		Result 
<form method="post">
  <input type="text" name="note" value="">
  <input type="submit" value="send">
</form>
<p>The note said: {$note | optional}</p>

The note said:

Two habits keep this safe: pass what a visitor typed through padMakeSafe ( $input, $len ) before using it, and give variables set in _inits.php names a form field would never use - a form field named the same would be overwritten.

Carrying more than a url can

What is too much, or too private, for a query string stays on the server: a name listed in $padSessionVars in _config/config.php is kept in the session and is there again on the visitor's next page, and the request never fills it.