<?php
$string = "{home,http://a.b.c/home}";
preg_match("/^[{]([^,]+),(.*)[}]$/",$string,$matches);
echo "$matches[1]\n";
echo "$matches[2]\n";
// note that $matches[0] contains the entire string if a match is found and
// $matches[1] onwards contains sub-section matches.
in this example
$matches[1] = "home";
$matches[2] = "http://a.b.c/home"
?>