B4J Question [SOLVED] How To Send URL with '=' And Not Get Special Characters

cklester · Jan 25, 2021

Uh. OK. So...

After thinking I resolved my URL problem in this thread, turns out the original problem I was trying to solve has not been resolved.

=50 turns into the 'P' character, and creates this:

B4X:

http://127.0.0.1:51042/confirm?codePrtTB2vEIdd20UgD4Puk2tcjBuQsdY9Q

instead of

B4X:

http://127.0.0.1:51042/confirm?code=50rtTB2vEIdd20UgD4Puk2tcjBuQsdY9Q

Ugh! ?

How do I filter out the bad characters? Anybody have any ideas?

cklester · Jan 25, 2021

OK, I'm resolving this with a bit of a cheat...

I'll just prepend a set of legitimate, non-error-generating letters to the beginning of the code.

So, instead of the code being

B4X:

50rtTB2vEIdd20UgD4Puk2tcjBuQsdY9Q

which will cause problems when put in the URL like,

B4X:

http://127.0.0.1:51042/confirm?code=50rtTB2vEIdd20UgD4Puk2tcjBuQsdY9Q

which becomes

B4X:

http://127.0.0.1:51042/confirm?codePrtTB2vEIdd20UgD4Puk2tcjBuQsdY9Q

in the user's email, I will just prepend valid characters like this:

B4X:

http://127.0.0.1:51042/confirm?code=XYZ50rtTB2vEIdd20UgD4Puk2tcjBuQsdY9Q

Solved! (?) ?

KMatle · Jan 25, 2021

Maybe I don't get it but... What about to url- encode the (url)string? (Stringutils)

cklester · Jan 25, 2021

KMatle said:
Maybe I don't get it but... What about to url- encode the (url)string? (Stringutils)

Well, I didn't find that functionality, so I had to come up with something clever! ?

But I tested your suggestion, and it doesn't work. The encoded URL does not render as a legitimate URL in the email.

Screenshot of email with URL-encoded link:

Dadaista · Jan 25, 2021

Can you try?

B4X:

Dim sBody As String = ""
Dim SMTP As SMTP
dim sHTTP as string = "http://127.0.0.1:51042/"
dim token as string = "XYZ50rtTB2vEIdd20UgD4Puk2tcjBuQsdY9Q"

sBody = "<html><head><title>Your Title</title></head>"
    sBody = sBody & "<body> click link or copy and paste in your browser "
    sBody = sBody & "<a href=" & sHTTP & "confirm?code=" & token.Trim & ">" & sHTTP & "confirm?code=" & token.Trim & "</a>"
    sBody = sBody & "</body></html>"
    sBody = sBody.Replace("=", "&#61;")
    SMTP.Body = sBody
    SMTP.Send

cklester · Jan 25, 2021

Dadaista said:

Can you try?

B4X:

Dim sBody As String = ""
Dim SMTP As SMTP
dim sHTTP as string = "http://127.0.0.1:51042/"
dim token as string = "XYZ50rtTB2vEIdd20UgD4Puk2tcjBuQsdY9Q"

sBody = "<html><head><title>Your Title</title></head>"
    sBody = sBody & "<body> click link or copy and paste in your browser "
    sBody = sBody & "<a href=" & sHTTP & "confirm?code=" & token.Trim & ">" & sHTTP & "confirm?code=" & token.Trim & "</a>"
    sBody = sBody & "</body></html>"
    sBody = sBody.Replace("=", "&#61;")
    SMTP.Body = sBody
    SMTP.Send

Yes, I can give it a try. I'm sending the emails in plain text, though, not HTML.

Also, the token should be "50rtTB2vEIdd20UgD4Puk2tcjBuQsdY9Q" to duplicate the problem.

tchart · Jan 26, 2021

This should work;

http://127.0.0.1:51042/confirm?code%3D50rtTB2vEIdd20UgD4Puk2tcjBuQsdY9Q

cklester · Jan 26, 2021

tchart said:
This should work;

http://127.0.0.1:51042/confirm?code%3D50rtTB2vEIdd20UgD4Puk2tcjBuQsdY9Q

I did try that at some point. Unfortunately, it does not work. The email client I'm using (Yahoo) renders it as a link, but the %3D is not recognized as the '=' sign, so when it hits the /confirm route, it doesn't recognize that there's a code there in the parameters.

tchart · Jan 26, 2021

cklester said:
I did try that at some point. Unfortunately, it does not work. The email client I'm using (Yahoo) renders it as a link, but the %3D is not recognized as the '=' sign, so when it hits the /confirm route, it doesn't recognize that there's a code there in the parameters.

Oh I wonder if the email client is santising the URL?

The %3D should be recognised by the browser - the email client shouldnt care what the link is (unless its fiddling with the link).

So if you click on the link above, what shows in the address bar in the browser?

cklester · Jan 26, 2021

Here's what I get when I click that link:

That's in the Brave browser. Not sure what others would do with it. I should check it out.

It's a coincidence that the B4X forum bookmark is right there. ?

P.S. When I click to view the raw email source, the link is correct.

P.P.S. It does not work in Edge.

B4J Question [SOLVED] How To Send URL with '=' And Not Get Special Characters

cklester

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cklester

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KMatle

Expert

cklester

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Dadaista

Active Member

cklester

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tchart

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cklester

Well-Known Member

tchart

Well-Known Member

cklester

Well-Known Member

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