Getting Query Parameters in Javascript
- by PhubarBaz
I find myself needing to get query parameters that are passed into a web app on the URL quite often. At first I wrote a function that creates an associative array (aka object) with all of the parameters as keys and returns it. But then I was looking at the revealing module pattern, a nice javascript design pattern designed to hide private functions, and came up with a way to do this without even calling a function.
What I came up with was this nice little object that automatically initializes itself into the same associative array that the function call did previously.
// Creates associative array (object) of query params
var QueryParameters = (function()
{
var result = {};
if (window.location.search)
{
// split up the query string and store in an associative array
var params = window.location.search.slice(1).split("&");
for (var i = 0; i < params.length; i++)
{
var tmp = params[i].split("=");
result[tmp[0]] = unescape(tmp[1]);
}
}
return result;
}());
Now all you have to do to get the query parameters is just reference them from the QueryParameters object. There is no need to create a new object or call any function to initialize it.
var debug = (QueryParameters.debug === "true");
or
if (QueryParameters["debug"]) doSomeDebugging();
or loop through all of the parameters.
for (var param in QueryParameters) var value = QueryParameters[param];
Hope you find this object useful.
