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Retrieving query string parameters in HTML

J

jsnuff1

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Oct 4, 2003
730
340
NY
I have a simple HTML site and users us this address to load it,

http://mysite.com/index.html?name=john

now how do i retrieve that name string using HTML code?

I tried something like this

<html>
<head>
</head>
<body>

My name is: <% =Request.querystring("name")%> !

<body>
</html>


which I found searching for the answer, but it does not work.

Any suggestions?
 
not sure about html but in php which is a standard web server language it be an easy
Code: 
<?=$_GET['name']?>
, also <% =Request.querystring("name")%> might be associated with another language asp maybe? which would explain why your script doesn't work.
 
As angelwatt said, HTML is not a programming language. However, I wrote this Javascript function awhile back when I was in a similar situation (no server-side scripting):

Code: 
          function qs(search_for) {
		var query = window.location.search.substring(1);
		var parms = query.split('&');
		for (var i=0; i<parms.length; i++) {
			var pos = parms[i].indexOf('=');
			if (pos > 0  && search_for == parms[i].substring(0,pos)) {
				return parms[i].substring(pos+1);;
			}
		}
		return "";
	}

That should return either the value of the key you pass in as the parameter, or an empty string if that key was not found. In your case, use it like

Code: 
<script type="text/javascript">
  document.write(qs("name"));
</script>

At the spot you want the name to appear.
 
If your website is using ASP, then this is how you would get the query string on the server side (the code behind):

Code: 
string username = Request.QueryString["name"];
 
themoonisdown09 said:
If your website is using ASP, then this is how you would get the query string on the server side (the code behind):

Code: 
string username = Request.QueryString["name"];
Click to expand...

But he's obviously not using any kind of server-side scripting, which is why the PHP and ASP solutions he found previously won't work. With straight HTML and no server-side, Javascript is the only option.
 
Folks, don't forget SSI (server side includes) if you run Apache.

Full details including examples here, it's pretty amazing what you can do:

http://www.sean.co.uk/a/webdesign/serverside_includes_tutorial.shtm
and
http://http-server.carleton.ca/~dmcfet/html/ssi.html

The idea is to embed SSI statements within your HTML, the server will parse the SSI and include it in the browser output. And you can even pass the query string as well, such as:

(Set a variable to be the current query string, then print the variable variable where you want it, in this case a stylesheet name)

HTML: 
<!--#set var="chosenstyle" value="$QUERY_STRING" -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="<!--#echo var="chosenstyle"-->.css" type="text/css">

With SSI, it's all processed server side, no client dependencies like JS and no programming languages required. You can do conditionals, set and retreive variables, get the server time, reference server variables such as QUERY_STRING and others, browser detect, do MSIE conditionals and other cool tricks such as those listed here:

http://httpd.apache.org/docs/1.3/howto/ssi.html

-jim
 

Given that you're limited to using JavaScript, what angelwatt said is right on
the proverbial money, and the solution presented by mrogers is a very good
basic answer.

I couldn't resist the urge to tinker, though, and came up with a little variant.
If you split around both the '&' and the '=', you get a ready-made array.

Now your search doesn't have to bother with substrings; it's a simple string
compare on every even array element; when you match, the odd one's your
answer.

Then, just to cover all bases, I allowed that there might be more than one
"name=value" pair, with a different value for the same name.

Also, I didn't like the idea of processing the Query-String every time I needed
to extract a value, so I kept the result array around.

Here's what I came up with:

// Return an array:
// item [J*2] is the Jth variable name
// item [(J*2)+1] is the Jth variable value
// Zero-length array if no Query-String Parameters
// Do it in a single step.
function getVarVals(){
var queryParams = window.location.search.substring(1);

var resltArray = new Array;
var qpSplit = new RegExp('[&=]');

resltArray = queryParams.split(qpSplit);
return resltArray;
}


// Globalize the array of Query-String Parameters
// Globalize the index last examined.
var GlobalQueryString = getVarVals();
var gqsIndx = 0;

// Retrieve the value associated with the named QS parameter.
// To allow for more than one instance occuring in the QS line,
// set the Global Query String Index to just after the last
// one retrieved, i.e., the first one to start the next search.
// Let the caller manage tracking it; the second parameter to
// this function is the index number at which to start the search.
// If not found, return null and reset gqsIndx to zero.
function getQSval(parmNam, initlIndx) {
var foundIndx = 0;
var reslt = null;
var indx = ((initlIndx+1)&(-2)) ; // Normalize to next even no.
for ( indx = indx ; indx < GlobalQueryString.length ; indx +=2 ) {
if ( parmNam == GlobalQueryString[indx] ) {
reslt = GlobalQueryString[indx+1];
foundIndx = indx+1;
break;
}
}
gqsIndx = foundIndx;
return reslt;
}


// A simple-minded test.
// Show all instances of a given named QS variable
function showQSvals(parmNam) {
document.write('Values for '+parmNam+'<br>');
while ( valVal = getQSval(parmNam, gqsIndx) ) {
document.write(valVal +'<br>');
}
}


In my test-case I had

?TVal=TestValue&SVal=SecondValue&TVal=Twicet&SVal=Thricet

(as well as another test case with no QS Params).

Anyway, I thought I'd make my small contribution of this tweak to this forum.

Keep up the good work!
 
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