[Qt-interest] QUrl issue while encoding an already encoded string

[Mandeep Sandhu]

Hi All,

I've been bitten by some strange behavior while using QUrl!

I'm not sure if it's a bug with QUrl or it's a case of misuse...

Anyways, I have a simple prog that illustrates the problem:

#include <QtCore/QCoreApplication>
#include <QUrl>
#include <QDebug>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    QCoreApplication a(argc, argv);

    QString base = QString("http://localhost");

    QUrl myurl = QUrl(base);
    QUrl myurl2 = QUrl(base, QUrl::TolerantMode); // Same result with
using StrictMode as well

    QString param("param");
    QString value("50-2010/05/11 22:45:19 +0000"); // This value needs
to have the "/" replaced by %2F

    QString encVal = QString(QUrl::toPercentEncoding(value)); //
convert "/" to "%2F"
    qDebug() << "Enc Val:" << encVal;

    myurl.addQueryItem(param, value);
    myurl2.addQueryItem(param, encVal);

    qDebug() << "Plain" << myurl.toEncoded(); // This does not encode
the "/" in value
    qDebug() << "Enc"   << myurl2.toEncoded(); // This encodes the %
in %2F to %25 :(

    return a.exec();
}

Now the problem comes when QUrl encodes the percent encoded "value"
string. It's replacing the "%" char with "%25".
However, the QUrl doc says:

<snip>
Single "%" characters: Any occurrences of a percent character "%" not
followed by exactly two hexadecimal characters (e.g., "13%
coverage.html") will be replaced by "%25"
</snip>

Shouldn't it leave the already encoded %2F (representing "/" char)
alone, since the % IS followed by 2 hexadecimal char's "2F"?

Note that I have manually encode the param's value since the normal
encoding done by QUrl leaves out encoding the "/" char in the "value"
string, which is NOT INCORRECT, but just that the server I'm talking
to requires this value to be percent encoded.

My requirement was that I want the complete URL to be encoded as it
should be, except that one of the params is already encoded and should
not be RE-encoded.

Regards,
-mandeep