Util.UrlEncode Method

Encodes an input string to produce a valid URL string for use in the browser. For instance, space characters and punctuation are not allowed in the URL, so all spaces are converted to a plus sign and all non-alphanumeric characters are converted to their hexadecimal value of format %nn.

The UrlEncode method produces the same output as Server.UrlEncode in ASP.

Usage:
You may use the UrlEncode method to encode a full URL, however its main use is to encode the query string values of the URL.

strName = "André & Hélène"
strURL = "http://www.myserver.com/login/?Name=" & Util.UrlEncode(strName)
Report.Write "<a href='" & strURL & "'>Login</a>"

' Output: <a href='http://www.myserver.com/login/?Name=Andr%C3%A9+%26+H%C3%A9l%C3%A8ne'>Login</a>

Double Encoding Warning:
The method UrlEncode should be used with care. An non-encoded URL does produce an error, however a double-encoded URL does produce incorrect result. For instance, the following piece of code shows the double-encoding of an URL.

strURL = "https://www.genopro.com/?id=abc"
Report.WriteBr strURL
Report.WriteBr Util.UrlEncode(strURL)
Report.WriteBr Util.UrlEncode(Util.UrlEncode(strURL))

Report.WriteBr Util.HrefEncode(strURL)
Report.WriteBr Util.HrefEncode(Util.HrefEncode(strURL))
Report.WriteBr Util.HrefEncode(Util.UrlEncode(strURL))

' Output:
' https://www.genopro.com/?id=abc
' http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egenopro%2Ecom%2F%3Fid%3Dabc
' http%253A%252F%252Fwww%252Egenopro%252Ecom%252F%253Fid%253Dabc
'
' https://www.genopro.com/?id=abc
' https://www.genopro.com/?id=abc
' http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Egenopro%2Ecom%2F%3Fid%3Dabc

As you can see, the double-encoding of the URL does produce a different result. One must be careful not to double-encode in the following scenario:

strName = "André & Hélène"
strURL = "http://www.myserver.com/login/?Name=" & Util.UrlEncode(strName)
Report.Write "<a href='" & Util.UrlEncode(strURL) & "'>Login</a>"

To see more samples of URL encoding, please consult the method HrefEncode.

See Also:
HrefEncode