HttpUrlQuery Library

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Introduction

If you've ever written a Web application even half-worth its byte-size in usefulness, you've probably used the query string method of transferring data between individual pages and scripts. In developing such an application, you may have also noticed that the querystrings have to be crafted by hand, ensuring that all standards are followed (such as concatenation of the field/values and the leading ? character), not to mention the obligatory calls to Server.UrlEncode()-like functions to ensure your querystring will be legible to a Web browser. This hand-crafting can lead to errors that virtually cripple your application not to mention the visitor's experience.

Presented here is a fully object-oriented way of handling this querystring mess.

The HttpUrlQuery class introduces a light-weight layer over your querystring operations that lets you manipulate individual fields and their values in a clean familiar fashion, without writing unecessary code to ensure their validity with the standards.

Updates

December 8, 2003

Added the Current static property that gives you access to the querystring contained in the current context, usually the current page. The property returns a HttpUrlQuery object making it just as simple to work with. Example:

HttpUrlQuery cqs = HttpUrlQuery.Current;
string name = cqs["username"];
 
/* or more briefly, but less effective for repeat operations: */
 
string name = HttpUrlQuery.Current["username"];

Note that the object returned by the Current property uses standard separator and leading strings, such as ? = and &

Should you need to modify these strings, you'll need to make a copy of the object returned from the Current property, as shown in the first part of the preceeding example.

Example

Declare a HttpUrlQuery object, and instantiate it with contents of current page's querystring. Note that this instantiation can also be done from a variety of sources, including a NameValueCollection, or another HttpUrlQuery object.

HttpUrlQuery qs = new HttpUrlQuery(Page.Request.QueryString);

qs.Remove("name");

qs.Set("name", "George Vorgen-Peterson");

qs["equation"] = "2 + 2 - 3 = 1";

Response.Redirect("page.aspx" + qs.ToString();

Comments, questions, and suggestions are welcome. Enjoy.

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