Programmatically determine Joomla homepage

If both mod_rewrite and 301’s are out in full force the home page is not going to be identifiable by a Server query_string containing “frontpage.” To determine if the current code is on the home page:

$s = filter_var($_REQUEST['QUERY_STRING'], FILTER_SANITIZE_SPECIAL_CHARS);
if (empty($s)) {

//you’re on the home page

}