Encoding URL parameters

[Justin Chu]

I'm passing some encoded string as a request parameter.
I suppose the right way to do this in a JSP file is
<input type="hidden" name="userId" value="<%=URLEncoder.encode("ENCRYPTED STRING HERE")%>">
Should I always use URLDecoder to decode the message?

[Bosun Bello]

Just using request.getParameter automatically decodes it. I am not sure why you are even calling the URLEncoder method on it though.

[Frank Carver]

Just to make it clear, URLEncoder does not encrypt a value, merely make sure that it contains no troublesome characters for a URL: ' ' is replaced by '+', other non-alphanumeric characters are replaced by a hexadecimal character code in the form "%AB".
You only need to use URLEncoder if you are constructing a URL from scratch as a string, and it is quite rare to need to use URLDecoder as that is doen for you by the Servlet API.

[Justin Chu]

Yes. I'm manually concating an url link to be printed on a jsp page.
Some browser versions will cause the link to be linked wrongly if the request parameters are not encoded.
Chu

[Turlapati Hyma]

Originally posted by Chu Tan:
I'm passing some encoded string as a request parameter.
hjdsfsdfsdfsdfsdfmessage?

(edited by Cindy)
Turlapati,
Why don't you experiment with UBB in "Meaningless Drivel" or "Blatant Advertising" and not clutter up the high traffic forums.
Cindy
[ July 23, 2002: Message edited by: Cindy Glass ]