Opencart selected link has a class - php

Question

So I have a class selected, which should only be active when you are on the page of the link you pressed, and I am trying to get it in the code with php and asking if the current page is equal to any of the links and the one link that is equal should get the class.
<?php if ($categories) { ?>
<div class="menu col-sm-5 noPadding">
<?php foreach ($categories as $category) {
$url = "http://$_SERVER[SERVER_NAME]$_SERVER[REQUEST_URI]";
$isIt = $category['href']; ?>
<?php if ($url == $isIt){ ?>
<a class="selected" href="<?php echo $category['href']; ?>"><?php echo $category['name']; ?></a>
<?php } else { ?>
<?php echo $category['name']; ?>
<?php } ?>
<?php } ?>
</div>
<?php } ?>
This is all in opencart and I would like to continue using foreach instead of having to code every link in by itself.
I've tried echoing them out and I get exactly the same things written.
Ok so this is the output from var_dump($categories)
array (size=4)
'name' => string 'Desktops' (length=8)
'children' =>
array (size=0)
empty
'column' => string '1' (length=1)
'href' => string 'http://localhost/openC/index.php?route=product/category&path=20' (length=67)
1 =>
array (size=4)
'name' => string 'Components' (length=10)
'children' =>
array (size=0)
empty
'column' => string '1' (length=1)
'href' => string 'http://localhost/openC/index.php?route=product/category&path=25' (length=67)
2 =>
array (size=4)
'name' => string 'Cameras' (length=7)
'children' =>
array (size=0)
empty
'column' => string '1' (length=1)
'href' => string 'http://localhost/openC/index.php?route=product/category&path=33' (length=67)
3 =>
array (size=4)
'name' => string 'MP3 Players' (length=11)
'children' =>
array (size=0)
empty
'column' => string '4' (length=1)
'href' => string 'http://localhost/openC/index.php?route=product/category&path=34' (length=67)

Answer 1

Try this:
<?php if ($categories) {
$url = "http://$_SERVER[HTTP_HOST]$_SERVER[REQUEST_URI]"; ?>
<div class="menu col-sm-5 noPadding">
<?php foreach ($categories as $category) { ?>
<?php if ($url == html_entity_decode($category['href'])){ ?>
<a class="selected" href="<?php echo $category['href']; ?>"><?php echo $category['name']; ?></a>
<?php } else { ?>
<?php echo $category['name']; ?>
<?php } ?>
<?php } ?>
</div>
<?php } ?>