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+##########
+URL Helper
+##########
+
+The URL Helper file contains functions that assist in working with URLs.
+
+.. contents:: Page Contents
+
+Loading this Helper
+===================
+
+This helper is loaded using the following code
+
+::
+
+	$this->load->helper('url');
+
+The following functions are available:
+
+site_url()
+==========
+
+Returns your site URL, as specified in your config file. The index.php
+file (or whatever you have set as your site index_page in your config
+file) will be added to the URL, as will any URI segments you pass to the
+function, and the url_suffix as set in your config file.
+
+You are encouraged to use this function any time you need to generate a
+local URL so that your pages become more portable in the event your URL
+changes.
+
+Segments can be optionally passed to the function as a string or an
+array. Here is a string example
+
+::
+
+	echo site_url("news/local/123");
+
+The above example would return something like:
+http://example.com/index.php/news/local/123
+
+Here is an example of segments passed as an array
+
+::
+
+	$segments = array('news', 'local', '123');
+	echo site_url($segments);
+
+base_url()
+===========
+
+Returns your site base URL, as specified in your config file. Example
+
+::
+
+	echo base_url();
+
+This function returns the same thing as `site_url`, without the
+index_page or url_suffix being appended.
+
+Also like site_url, you can supply segments as a string or an array.
+Here is a string example
+
+::
+
+	echo base_url("blog/post/123");
+
+The above example would return something like:
+http://example.com/blog/post/123
+
+This is useful because unlike `site_url()`, you can supply a string to a
+file, such as an image or stylesheet. For example
+
+::
+
+	echo base_url("images/icons/edit.png");
+
+This would give you something like:
+http://example.com/images/icons/edit.png
+
+current_url()
+=============
+
+Returns the full URL (including segments) of the page being currently
+viewed.
+
+uri_string()
+============
+
+Returns the URI segments of any page that contains this function. For
+example, if your URL was this
+
+::
+
+	http://some-site.com/blog/comments/123
+
+The function would return
+
+::
+
+	/blog/comments/123
+
+index_page()
+============
+
+Returns your site "index" page, as specified in your config file.
+Example
+
+::
+
+	echo index_page();
+
+anchor()
+========
+
+Creates a standard HTML anchor link based on your local site URL
+
+::
+
+	<a href="http://example.com">Click Here</a>
+
+The tag has three optional parameters
+
+::
+
+	anchor(uri segments, text, attributes)
+
+The first parameter can contain any segments you wish appended to the
+URL. As with the site_url() function above, segments can be a string or
+an array.
+
+.. note:: If you are building links that are internal to your application
+	do not include the base URL (http://...). This will be added automatically
+	from the information specified in your config file. Include only the
+	URI segments you wish appended to the URL.
+
+The second segment is the text you would like the link to say. If you
+leave it blank, the URL will be used.
+
+The third parameter can contain a list of attributes you would like
+added to the link. The attributes can be a simple string or an
+associative array.
+
+Here are some examples
+
+::
+
+	echo anchor('news/local/123', 'My News', 'title="News title"');
+
+Would produce: <a href="http://example.com/index.php/news/local/123"
+title="News title">My News</a>
+
+::
+
+	echo anchor('news/local/123', 'My News', array('title' => 'The best news!'));
+
+Would produce: <a href="http://example.com/index.php/news/local/123"
+title="The best news!">My News</a>
+
+anchor_popup()
+==============
+
+Nearly identical to the anchor() function except that it opens the URL
+in a new window. You can specify JavaScript window attributes in the
+third parameter to control how the window is opened. If the third
+parameter is not set it will simply open a new window with your own
+browser settings. Here is an example with attributes
+
+::
+
+	$atts = array(               
+		'width'      => '800',               
+		'height'     => '600',               
+		'scrollbars' => 'yes',               
+		'status'     => 'yes',               
+		'resizable'  => 'yes',               
+		'screenx'    => '0',               
+		'screeny'    => '0'             
+	);
+
+	echo anchor_popup('news/local/123', 'Click Me!', $atts);
+
+Note: The above attributes are the function defaults so you only need to
+set the ones that are different from what you need. If you want the
+function to use all of its defaults simply pass an empty array in the
+third parameter
+
+::
+
+	echo anchor_popup('news/local/123', 'Click Me!', array());
+
+mailto()
+========
+
+Creates a standard HTML email link. Usage example
+
+::
+
+	echo mailto('me@my-site.com', 'Click Here to Contact Me');
+
+As with the anchor() tab above, you can set attributes using the third
+parameter.
+
+safe_mailto()
+=============
+
+Identical to the above function except it writes an obfuscated version
+of the mailto tag using ordinal numbers written with JavaScript to help
+prevent the email address from being harvested by spam bots.
+
+auto_link()
+===========
+
+Automatically turns URLs and email addresses contained in a string into
+links. Example
+
+::
+
+	$string = auto_link($string);
+
+The second parameter determines whether URLs and emails are converted or
+just one or the other. Default behavior is both if the parameter is not
+specified. Email links are encoded as safe_mailto() as shown above.
+
+Converts only URLs
+
+::
+
+	$string = auto_link($string, 'url');
+
+Converts only Email addresses
+
+::
+
+	$string = auto_link($string, 'email');
+
+The third parameter determines whether links are shown in a new window.
+The value can be TRUE or FALSE (boolean)
+
+::
+
+	$string = auto_link($string, 'both', TRUE);
+
+url_title()
+===========
+
+Takes a string as input and creates a human-friendly URL string. This is
+useful if, for example, you have a blog in which you'd like to use the
+title of your entries in the URL. Example
+
+::
+
+	$title = "What's wrong with CSS?";
+	$url_title = url_title($title);  // Produces:  Whats-wrong-with-CSS
+
+The second parameter determines the word delimiter. By default dashes
+are used. Options are: dash, or underscore
+
+::
+
+	$title = "What's wrong with CSS?";
+	$url_title = url_title($title, 'underscore');  // Produces:  Whats_wrong_with_CSS
+
+The third parameter determines whether or not lowercase characters are
+forced. By default they are not. Options are boolean TRUE/FALSE
+
+::
+
+	$title = "What's wrong with CSS?";
+	$url_title = url_title($title, 'underscore', TRUE);  // Produces:  whats_wrong_with_css
+
+prep_url()
+----------
+
+This function will add http:// in the event that a scheme is missing
+from a URL. Pass the URL string to the function like this
+
+::
+
+	$url = "example.com";
+	$url = prep_url($url);
+
+redirect()
+==========
+
+Does a "header redirect" to the URI specified. If you specify the full
+site URL that link will be build, but for local links simply providing
+the URI segments to the controller you want to direct to will create the
+link. The function will build the URL based on your config file values.
+
+The optional second parameter allows you to choose between the
+"location" method (default) or the "refresh" method. Location is faster,
+but on Windows servers it can sometimes be a problem. The optional third
+parameter allows you to send a specific HTTP Response Code - this could
+be used for example to create 301 redirects for search engine purposes.
+The default Response Code is 302. The third parameter is *only*
+available with 'location' redirects, and not 'refresh'. Examples
+
+::
+
+	if ($logged_in == FALSE)
+	{      
+		redirect('/login/form/', 'refresh');
+	}
+
+	// with 301 redirect
+	redirect('/article/13', 'location', 301);
+
+.. note:: In order for this function to work it must be used before anything
+	is outputted to the browser since it utilizes server headers.
+
+.. note:: For very fine grained control over headers, you should use the
+	`Output Library </libraries/output>` set_header() function.