Breadcrumb menu PHP generating additional blank anchor links - php

Question

Lets say I have the following URL:
https://site.website/products/products-level-2
And on products-level-2 I have a breadcrumb hero section. What I'm expecting to see is:
Products / Products Level 2
However, with my current approach, I'm seeing:
/ Products / Products Level 2 /
^^ the above has the following HTML output:
<!-- link 1 - not needed -->
<a class="crumbMenu" href="site.website"> </a>
<span class="slash">/</span>
<!-- link 2 -->
<a class="crumbMenu" href="site.website//products">Products </a>
<span class="slash">/</span>
<!-- link 3 -->
<a class="crumbMenu" href="site.website//products/products-level-2">Products Level 2</a>
<span class="slash">/</span>
<!-- link 4 - not needed -->
<a class="crumbMenu" href="site.website//products/products-level-2"> </a>
<span class="slash">/</span>
The above has the following issues:
It's outputting blank / not needed anchor links.
In the href, it's outputting double // (i.e. site.website//products)
I also do not want the last item (i.e products level 2) to be a link (since the user is viewing the breadcrumb on that page).
I don't want / to appear at the start and end of the breadcrumb.
Here is my current approach:
<?php
// 1. Get URL
$crumbs = explode("/",$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]);
$address = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
// 2. Strip extras
$build = '';
foreach($crumbs as $crumb){
$build .= '/'.$crumb;
$crumb = ucfirst(str_replace(array(".php","_"),array(""," "),$crumb) . ' ');
echo
"<a class='crumbMenu' href=".$address.$build.">".$crumb."</a>
<span class='slash'>/</span> ";
}
?>

Answer 1

To solve 1,2,4 just remove the leading and trailing slashes. To solve 3 you need to make a simple if:
// 1. Get URL
$crumbs = explode("/", trim($_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"], '/'));
$address = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
// 2. Strip extras
$build = '';
$lastKey = count($crumbs) - 1;
foreach($crumbs as $key => $crumb){
$build .= '/'.$crumb;
$crumb = ucfirst(str_replace(array(".php","_"),array(""," "),$crumb) . ' ');
echo $key < $lastKey
? "<a class='crumbMenu' href=".$address.$build.">".$crumb."</a>
<span class='slash'>/</span>"
: $crumb;
}
Demo: https://3v4l.org/BqD7C

Answer 2

Solution:
The final working code you end up with is as follows:
<?php
// 1. Get URL
$crumbs = explode("/",$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"]);
array_filter($crumbs);
$count = count($crumbs);
$address = $_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'];
// 2. Strip extras
$build = '';
$i = 0;
foreach($crumbs as $crumb) {
$href = (++$i != $count ? 'href="' . $address . $build . '"' : '');
$build .= '/'.$crumb;
$crumb = ucfirst(str_replace(array(".php","_"),array(""," "),$crumb) . ' ');
echo
"<a class='crumbMenu' " . $href . ">".$crumb."</a>
<span class='slash'>/</span> ";
}
?>
Explanation:
1. It's outputting blank / not needed anchor links.
Simply run array_filter, this will remove any blank elements in the array.
array_filter($crumbs);
2. In the href, it's outputting double // (i.e. site.website//products)
The reason this happens is because it iterates through the blank element in the array first and as this adds a forward slash by default, by the second loop there is already a forward slash present, so it doubles up.
This issue is solved in the solution to question 1.
3. I also do not want the last item (i.e products level 2) to be a link (since the user is viewing the breadcrumb on that page).
After running array_filter on $crumbs you'll want to count how many elements are in the array using:
$count = count($crumbs);
Then when you are looping through the array, you'll want to workout when the loop is the last loop of the array:
$i = 0;
foreach($crumbs as $crumb) {
$href = (++$i != $count ? 'href="' . $address . $build . '"' : '');
// ...rest of foreach
$build .= '/' . $crumb;
$crumb = ucfirst(str_replace(array(".php","_"),array(""," "),$crumb) . ' ');
echo "<a class='crumbMenu' " . $href . ">".$crumb."</a><span class='slash'>/</span> ";
}
4. I don't want / to appear at the start and end of the breadcrumb.
This was resolved with my solution to your first question right at the top of this answer.

Answer 3

/* A character used as a divider between the breadcrumbs */
$separator = ' / ';
/* The current page uri from which to build breadcrumb trail */
$uri='https://'.$_SERVER['HTTP_HOST'].'/products/computers/microsoft/laptops/acer/professional';
/* capture the path and explode to create an array - removing empty entries in the process */
$crumbs=array_filter( explode( '/', parse_url( $uri, PHP_URL_PATH ) ) );
/* The host and protocol for building correct links */
$host=sprintf( '%s://%s/', parse_url( $uri, PHP_URL_SCHEME ), parse_url( $uri, PHP_URL_HOST ) );
/* placeholder array to store generated links */
$html=[];
/* iterate through the array and build relevant HTML content - append to output array */
foreach( $crumbs as $index => $crumb ){
/* tweak the text displayed */
$crumb = ucfirst( str_replace( array( ".php", "_" ), array( "", " " ), $crumb ) );
/* the path should be all the previous breadcrumb crumbs */
$path=[];
for( $i=1; $i < $index; $i++ ) $path[]=$crumbs[ $i ];
$path=implode( DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR, $path );
/* create the link used in the html display */
$html[]= ( $index==count( $crumbs ) ) ? sprintf('<span>%s</span>', $crumb ) : sprintf("<a href='%s%s' class='crumbMenu'>%s</a>", $host, $path, $crumb );
}
echo $uri, "
<style>
#breadcrumbs{border:1px solid gray;padding:1rem;font-family:calibri,verdana,arial}
#breadcrumbs *{padding:1rem;}
#breadcrumbs a,
#breadcrumbs span:hover{color:blue}
#breadcrumbs a:hover{color:red;}
#breadcrumbs span{font-weight:bolder;}
</style>
<div id='breadcrumbs'>",
implode( $separator, $html ),
"</div>";