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Url

class Cake\View\Helper\UrlHelper(View $view, array $config = [])

The UrlHelper makes it easy for you to generate URLs from your other helpers. It also gives you a single place to customize how URLs are generated by overriding the core helper with an application one. See the Aliasing Helpers section for how to do this.

Generating URLs

Cake\View\Helper\UrlHelper::build(mixed $url = null, boolean|array $full = false)

Returns a URL pointing to a combination of controller and action. If $url is empty, it returns the REQUEST_URI, otherwise it generates the URL for the controller and action combo. If full is true, the full base URL will be prepended to the result:

echo $this->Url->build([
    "controller" => "Posts",
    "action" => "view",
    "bar",
]);

// Output
/posts/view/bar

Here are a few more usage examples:

URL with extension:

echo $this->Url->build([
    "controller" => "Posts",
    "action" => "list",
    "_ext" => "rss",
]);

// Output
/posts/list.rss

URL (starting with ‘/’) with the full base URL prepended:

echo $this->Url->build('/posts', true);

// Output
http://somedomain.com/posts

URL with GET parameters and fragment anchor:

echo $this->Url->build([
    "controller" => "Posts",
    "action" => "search",
    "?" => ["foo" => "bar"],
    "#" => "first",
]);

// Output
/posts/search?foo=bar#first

The above example uses the ? key which is useful when you want to be explicit about the query string parameters you are using, or if you want a query string parameter that shares a name with one of your route placeholders.

URL for named route:

// Assuming a route is setup as a named route:
// $router->connect(
//     '/products/:slug',
//     [
//         'controller' => 'Products',
//         'action' => 'view',
//     ],
//     [
//         '_name' => 'product-page',
//     ]
// );

echo $this->Url->build(['_name' => 'product-page', 'slug' => 'i-m-slug']);
// Will result in:
/products/i-m-slug

The 2nd parameter allows you to define options controlling HTML escaping, and whether or not the base path should be added:

$this->Url->build('/posts', [
    'escape' => false,
    'fullBase' => true,
]);

URL with asset timestamp wrapped by a <link rel="preload"/>, here pre-loading a font. Note: The file must exist and Configure::read('Asset.timestamp') must return true or 'force' for the timestamp to be appended:

echo $this->Html->meta([
    'rel' => 'preload',
    'href' => $this->Url->assetUrl(
        '/assets/fonts/yout-font-pack/your-font-name.woff2'
    ),
    'as' => 'font',
]);

New in version 3.3.5: build() accepts an array as the 2nd argument as of 3.3.5

New in version 3.6.0: The timestamp option was added to build().

If you are generating URLs for CSS, Javascript or image files there are helper methods for each of these asset types:

// Outputs /img/icon.png
$this->Url->image('icon.png');

// Outputs /js/app.js
$this->Url->script('app.js');

// Outputs /css/app.css
$this->Url->css('app.css');

// Force timestamps for one method call.
$this->Url->css('app.css', ['timestamp' => 'force']);

// Or disable timestamps for one method call.
$this->Url->css('app.css', ['timestamp' => false]);

New in version 3.2.4: The asset helper methods were added in 3.2.4.

New in version 3.6.0: The timestamp option was added to asset helper methods.

For further information check Router::url in the API.