ampersand not passing in a string variable via url - php

Question

I am trying to pass a big url as a string to another php page and fetch it there via $_REQUEST[]
but it's not working.
Here is the code (JavaScript) from first page:
var url="index.php?module=Contacts&return_module=Campaigns&action=UD_DetailView&popuptype=detailview&select=enable&form=EditView&form_submit=false";
var intermediate_url="choose_template.php?variable_url="+url;
window.location=intermediate_url;
The code on other page is:
<?php
echo "url = ".$_REQUEST['variable_url'];
?>
The echo I get on page choose_template.php is this :
url = index.php?module=Contacts
I don't understand. Why does it break at the occurance of first & ?
What should I do to bypass it ?

Answer 1

Try using in js:
url = encodeURIComponent(url);
Than in php:
echo "url = ". urldecode($_REQUEST['variable_url']);

Answer 2

When manipulating url, you should use urlencode and urldecode functions
http://php.net/manual/en/function.urlencode.php
http://php.net/manual/en/function.urldecode.php
In javascript:
url = encodeURIComponent(url)

Answer 3

Try using urlencode():
var url="<?php echo urlencode('index.php?module=Contacts&return_module=Campaigns&action=UD_DetailView&popuptype=detailview&select=enable&form=EditView&form_submit=false')?>";
var intermediate_url="choose_template.php??variable_url="+url;
window.location=intermediate_url;

Answer 4

If i understand correctly you what to echo out the full name of the current page: Use this to get it:
function curpage() {
$pu = 'http';
if ($_SERVER["HTTPS"] == "on") {$pu .= "s";}
$pu .= "://";
if ($_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"] != "80") {
$pu .= $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"].":".$_SERVER["SERVER_PORT"].$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];
} else {$pu .= $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"].$_SERVER["REQUEST_URI"];}
return $pu;
}
<?php echo "url = ".curpage(); ?>
This will alway work fine!