public function getParams()
    {

        // initialize the array for the params
        $params = array();

        // prepare the params, e. g. explode them into an array
        if ($paramsAvailable = reset($this->params)) {
            foreach (array_keys($paramsAvailable) as $paramKey) {
                $params[$paramKey] = $this->getParam($paramKey);
            }
        }

        // return the params
        return $params;
    }