I have a query string with a parameter value that contains the norwegian character å encoded as %e5. The page contains a form with an action attribute which is automatically filled by ASP.Net. When the URL is output into said attribute it is printed with a full two byte encoding: %u00e5.
When posting back this seems to be ok when debugging the code behind. However the page actually does a redirect to itself (for some other reason) and the redirect location header looks like this: Location: /myFolder/MyPage.aspx?Param1=%C3%A5
So the %e5 has been translated to %C3%A5 which breaks the output somehow.
In HTML text the broken characters look like å after having been output via HttpUtility.HtmlEncode.
The entire web application is ISO8859-1 encoded.
PS. When removing the u00 from the output %u00e5 in the action attribute before posting the form, everything is output nicely. But the error seems to be the translation from %e5 to %C3%A5. (And of course the self redirect, but that's another matter.)
Any pointers?
The solution I ended up with was encoding the redirect URL manually.
public void ReloadPage()
{
UrlBuilder url = new UrlBuilder(Context, Request.Path);
foreach (string queryParam in Request.QueryString.AllKeys)
{
string queryParamValue = Request.QueryString[queryParam];
url.AddQueryItem(queryParam, queryParamValue);
}
Response.Redirect( url.ToString(), true);
}
The url.AddQueryItem basically does HttpContext.Server.UrlDecode(queryParamValue) and the url.ToString builds the query string and for each query item does HttpContext.Server.UrlEncode( queryParamValue).
The UrlBuilder is a class already present in our library, so once I found the problem and realized that C#/.Net didn't provide tools for this, coding the fix was quick :)
Related
I am trying to decode a percentage encoded string passed from a PHP script to my C# application. The PHP encrypts the data, so there are many special characters that I percentage encode.
Here's the string I'm passing in the URL:
%C9%90%04L%EFEA%D1U%AFi%CBc%3A%E5%D0%40Q%D6%1Bn%C9%C3%B5%0FT%FC%E5h%95m%EF%BF%24tB%A6%D1%08%3B%83%A1%CF%1B%99Zo%02
But it has trouble percentage decoding parts of it: when I fetch the query string, like so:
var queryString = HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString;
var token = queryString["token"];
The variable token, though, equals this:
%C9%90%04L%EF%BF%BDEA%EF%BF%BDU%EF%BF%BDI%EF%BF%BDC%3A%EF%BF%BD%EF%BF%BD%40Q%EF%BF%BD%1BN%EF%BF%BD%C3%B5%0FT%EF%BF%BD%EF%BF%BDH%EF%BF%BDM%EF%BF%BD%24TB%EF%BF%BD%EF%BF%BD%08%3B%EF%BF%BD%EF%BF%BD%EF%BF%BD%1B%EF%BF%BDZO%02
This is definitely not what I put into the query string. When looking at it, the first time it messes up is %EF(starts 11th character into the original query string). Instead of %EF it shows: %EF%BF%BD. When I searched a little, I found this webpage which says the "Hex UTF-8 Bytes" are EF BF BD.
EDIT:
Forgot to mention, QueryString looks like this:
token=%c9%90%04L%ef%bf%bdEA%ef%bf%bdU%ef%bf%bdi%ef%bf%bdc%3a%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%40Q%ef%bf%bd%1bn%ef%bf%bd%c3%b5%0fT%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bdh%ef%bf%bdm%ef%bf%bd%24tB%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%08%3b%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%1b%ef%bf%bdZo%02&oauth_token_secret=S%23%2bw%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bdX%17%ef%bf%bd0%ef%bf%bd%60%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd*%ef%bf%bdi%08%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%07%ef%bf%bd%12RS07%ef%bf%bdgl%1e%ef%bf%bd%d7%832%d1%a1%ef%bf%bd%275%ef%bf%bdv%ef%bf%bd
You might be looking for the HttpServerUtility.UrlDecode method:
HttpContext.Current.Server.UrlDecode(HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString["token"]);
Your error is somewhere else...
I created a new web page in a .Net 4.0 project, and put this in the Page_Load:
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
var queryString = HttpContext.Current.Request.QueryString;
var token = queryString["token"];
throw new Exception(token);
}
Then I ran the page by going to this URL which matches the querystring you gave above:
http://localhost:27151/test.aspx?token=%c9%90%04L%ef%bf%bdEA%ef%bf%bdU%ef%bf%bdi%ef%bf%bdc%3a%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%40Q%ef%bf%bd%1bn%ef%bf%bd%c3%b5%0fT%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bdh%ef%bf%bdm%ef%bf%bd%24tB%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%08%3b%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%ef%bf%bd%1b%ef%bf%bdZo%02
The page decoded the token and displayed it in the exception message as this:
ɐL�EA�U�i�c:��#Q�n�õT��h�m�$tB��;����Zo
(The URL is encoding a binary string so when the actual string is printed, there are some characters that don't get displayed.)
If you run this and the token actually prints "%C9%90%04L..." then your token has probably been double encoded. All of the percent signs will be replaced with "%25" so your URL would look like this:
http://localhost:27151/test.aspx?token=%25c9%2590%2504L%25ef%25bf%25bdEA%25ef%25bf%25bdU%25ef%25bf%25bdi%25ef%25bf%25bdc%253a%25ef%25bf%25bd%25ef%25bf%25bd%2540Q%25ef%25bf%25bd%251bn%25ef%25bf%25bd%25c3%25b5%250fT%25ef%25bf%25bd%25ef%25bf%25bdh%25ef%25bf%25bdm%25ef%25bf%25bd%2524tB%25ef%25bf%25bd%25ef%25bf%25bd......
Since you didn't mention the "%25", the error is somewhere else in your code. The URL you think you are using is not the one being decoded.
I have the below asp.net page which accepts a "url" query string key whose value can be an un-encoded url:
http://localhost:4104/WebSiteForTest/TinyUrl.aspx?url=http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&q=life&oq=life&aq=f&aqi=g-s1g9&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=2803373l2803701l2l2803826l4l4l0l0l0l0l188l453l0.3l3l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=94681dc4659502d1&biw=1680&bih=883
Now from this page, how would that be possible to read the text after ".aspx?"?
I checked the Request.Url.AbsoluteUri property and it only showed
"http://localhost:4104/WebSiteForTest/TinyUrl.aspx?url=http://www.google.co.uk/"
I also checked with the Request.QueryString with the below code:
private void getQueryString()
{
var sb = new StringBuilder();
var queryStringCount = Request.QueryString.Keys.Count;
for (int keyIndex = 0; keyIndex < queryStringCount; keyIndex++)
{
sb.Append(Request.QueryString.Keys[keyIndex]).Append("=").Append(Request.QueryString[keyIndex]);
if (keyIndex != (queryStringCount - 1))
{
sb.Append("&");
}
}
}
However, the code after "#" doesn't appear in any query string.
how would that be possible to read the text after ".aspx?"?
if you say it's not possible, how Google uses "#" in their url then when you search for something?!
http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&site=&q=life&oq=life&aq=f&aqi=g-s1g9&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=3317l3630l0l3755l4l4l0l0l0l0l125l391l3.1l4l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=94681dc4659502d1&biw=1680&bih=849
Thanks,
It's not possible to get value after anchor on server side, you can check this with fiddler or something similar, you should deal with this on client. Browser simply strips all after anchor.
Retrieving Anchor Link In URL for ASP.Net
c# get complete URL with "#"
Update:
I don't know how google exactly do this, but if you look with fiddler after initial request there goes another without #, here is a fidller log for request from your question :
so my advice is look with fiddler how google do this, or maybe ask another question
Use Request.QueryString
http://localhost:4104/WebSiteForTest/TinyUrl.aspx?url=http://www.google.co.uk/#hl=en&q=life&oq=life&aq=f&aqi=g-s1g9&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=2803373l2803701l2l2803826l4l4l0l0l0l0l188l453l0.3l3l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=94681dc4659502d1&biw=1680&bih=883
<%=Request.QueryString("url")%> will get the ?url parameter
I assume you're using C# to do this. You can easily get the parameters and their values by iterating through the request object. Or in this case, since you know the name of the parameter, simply do this:
String url = Request.QueryString["url"];
More information on iterating through your request parameters can be found here.
The Uri Type works as well.
String yourHttpUri ="....";
Uri yourURI = new Uri(yourHttpUri);
yourURI.query // "?url=http://www.google.co.uk/"
yourURI.fragment // "#hl=en&q=life&oq=life&aq=f&aqi=g-s1g9&aql=&gs_sm=3&gs_upl=2803373l2803701l2l2803826l4l4l0l0l0l0l188l453l0.3l3l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_cp.,cf.osb&fp=94681dc4659502d1&biw=1680&bih=883"
Edit:
Have you tried Request.Url.ToString(); (And create a new Uri from the result)
I have a web-browser in a win form application and I am experiencing issues when opening a URL.
The URL I pass in as a new URL instance is encoded with:
/ as %2f , ? as %3f and the
= as %3d
But when I debug my code I can see that the absolute URL or any of the other ones in the webbrowser.url.* is decoded as / , ? and =.
How do I keep the URL encoded? The URL will not work if It is not encoded like that.
I found a solution to my problem, when you have a URL that looks something like this:
domain.com/action/doaction/?identity=12354698789
And you want it encoded like this:
domain.com/logon?returnurl=action%2fdoaction%2f%3fidentity%3d12354698789
That does not work in your web browser. It decodes it to the first url.
I needed the id in the doaction controller so I used this code:
string orgId = ControllerContext.RouteData.Values["id"].ToString();
It returns that url, if unsure, debug and trace through, you will find the right key and value.
Why is it a problem?
If you want the undecoded URL, use the HttpRequest.RawUrl Property. The query string is automatically decoded by default and there is no public parameter that would turn it off.
Background
I have a web application that uses ISO-8859-1 encoding. When I pass parameters using Html.ActionLink(), the value is decoded to UTF-8:
Web.config:
<globalization requestEncoding="iso-8859-1" responseEncoding="iso-8859-1"
fileEncoding="iso-8859-1" />
Index.aspx
This is a <%= Html.ActionLink("test", "Read", new { name="Cosméticos" }) %>
generates the following:
This is a test
The problem is the value I receive in my controller is UTF-8, not iso-8859-1:
TestController:
public ActionResult Read(string name) {
//name is "Cosméticos" here!
}
Question
Why the string is not decoded to Cosméticos?
Does your aspx files are physically saved in iso-8859-1?
"File / Save Xyz As" And click at the right of the save button to have more encoding options to save your file in..
A guess
public static string ActionLinkNoEncode(this HtmlHelper htmlHelper, string linkText, ActionResult action )
{
var urlHelper = new UrlHelper(htmlHelper.ViewContext.RequestContext);
var url = Uri.UnescapeDataString(urlHelper.Action(action)).ToLowerInvariant();
var linkTagBuilder = new TagBuilder("a");
linkTagBuilder.MergeAttribute("href", url);
linkTagBuilder.InnerHtml = linkText;
return linkTagBuilder.ToString();
}
I found the problem and the workaround: the value I receive is UTF-8, but if I try to use System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(name) it converts the characters "é" to UTF-8 values instead of "É".
The workaround is to copy the string to a byte[] and then use System.Text.Encoding.Convert().
I don't know if this is the best way, but now everything is working for me.
A few things you might want to consider.
First, if you haven't already read it -- I highly recommend reading Joel Spolsky's article 'The Absolute Minimum Every Software Developer Absolutely, Positively Must Know About Unicode and Character Sets (No Excuses!)' It sets the stage for learning about character encoding and programming.
Second, looking at the docs on the globalization element in the web.config it sounds like there are ways to (accidentally?) override the specified encoding scheme. From the docs:
requestEncoding
Specifies the assumed encoding of each incoming request, including
posted data and the query string. If the request comes with a request
header containing an Accept-Charset attribute, it overrides the
requestEncoding in configuration. The default encoding is UTF-8,
specified in the <globalization> tag included in the Machine.config
file created when the .NET Framework is installed. If request encoding
is not specified in a Machine.config or Web.config file, encoding
defaults to the computer's Regional Options locale setting. In
single-server applications, requestEncoding and responseEncoding
should be the same. For the less common case (multiple-server
applications where the default server encodings are different), you
can vary the request and response encoding using local Web.config
files.
Have you tried using something like Fiddler to see what the Accept-Charset attribute is set to?
I have a C# .net web project that have a globalization tag set to:
<globalization requestEncoding="utf-8" responseEncoding="utf-8" culture="nb-no" uiCulture="no"/>
When this URL a Flash application (you get the same problem when you enter the URL manually in a browser): c_product_search.aspx?search=kjøkken (alternatively: c_product_search-aspx?search=kj%F8kken
Both return the following character codes:
k U+006b 107
j U+006a 106
� U+fffd 65533
k U+006b 107
k U+006b 107
e U+0065 101
n U+006e 110
I don't know too much about character encoding, but it seems that the ø has been given a unicode replacement character, right?
I tried to change the globalization tag to:
<globalization requestEncoding="iso-8859-1" responseEncoding="utf-8" culture="nb-no" uiCulture="no"/>
That made the request work. However, now, other searches on my page stopped working.
I also tried the following with similar results:
NameValueCollection qs = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(Request.QueryString.ToString(), Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1"));
string search = (string)qs["search"];
What should I do?
Kind Regards,
nitech
The problem comes from the combination Firefox/Asp.Net. When you manually entered a URL in Firefox's address bar, if the url contains french or swedish characters, Firefox will encode the url with "ISO-8859-1" by default.
But when asp.net recieves such a url, it thinks that it's utf-8 encoded ... And encoded characters become "U+fffd". I couldn't find a way in asp.net to detect that the url is "ISO-8859-1". Request.Encoding is set to utf-8 ... :(
Several solutions exist :
put <globalization requestEncoding="iso-8859-1" responseEncoding="iso-8859-1"/> in your Web.config. But your may comme with other problems, and your application won't be standard anymore (it will not work with languages like japanese) ... And anyway, I prefer using UTF-8 !
go to about:config in Firefox and set the value of network.standard-url.encode-query-utf8 to true. It will now work for you (Firefox will encode all your url with utf-8). But not for anybody else ...
The least worst solution I could come with was to handle this with code. If the default decoding didn't work, we reparse QueryString with iso8859-1 :
string query = Request.QueryString["search"];
if (query.Contains("%ufffd"))
query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(Request.Url.Query, Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1"))["search"];
query = HttpUtility.UrlDecode(query);
It works with hyperlinks and manually-entered url, in french, english, or japanese. But I don't know how it will handle other encodings like ISO8859-5 (russian) ...
Does anyone have a better solution ?
This solves only the problem of manually-entered url. In your hyperlinks, don't forget to encode url parameters with HttpUtility.UrlEncode on the server, or encodeURIComponent on the javascript code. And use HttpUtility.UrlDecode to decode it.
public string GetEncodedQueryString(string key)
{
string query = Request.QueryString[key];
if (query != null)
if (query.Contains((char)0xfffd))
query = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(Request.Url.Query, Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1"))[key];
return query;
}
i think your problem is in the flash, not the .net.
it sends the special character in a weird way.
try to urlencode the search string bevore you send it to the server.
If the app is expecting the URL-encoded request to be based on UTF-8, the character "ø" should be "%C3%B8", not "%F8". Whatever function you're using to escape/encode that request, you probably need to pass it the name of the underlying character encoding, "UTF-8".
It turns out that ActionScript 2.0 will send the URL encoded/escaped with UTF-8 while ActionScript 3.0 used ISO-8859-1. The way to solve this was to change the Request.Encoding value inside Global.asax if an encoding is specified in the URL:
void Application_BeginRequest(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
HttpContext ctx = HttpContext.Current;
// encoding specified?
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(Request["encoding"]))
{
ctx.Request.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding(ctx.Request["encoding"]);
}
}
Could it be done differently?
Regards,
nitech