Java Apache HTTPClient do not encode POST entity

Question

I have an endpoint that requires an 'authenticity_token' that is in the format like:

Iq2rNXN+OxERv+s6TSloJfKkPZVvqnWe1m0NfODB5OI=

However, sometimes it has "special" characters, such as:

E7IzeP73OgPGgXM&#47;up295ky1mMQMio2Nb8HMLxJFyfw=

This gets encoded to:

E7IzeP73OgPGgXM%26%2347%3Bup295ky1mMQMio2Nb8HMLxJFyfw%3D

For some reason, the endpoint does not like the encoding of those special characters and will think the token is invalid. Is it possible to add a POST variable that does not encode specific values? I am currently doing something like:

    HttpPost post = new HttpPost(URL + NEW_FINDING);
    List <NameValuePair> nvps = new ArrayList <NameValuePair>();
    nvps.add(new BasicNameValuePair("foo", foo));
    nvps.add(new BasicNameValuePair("authenticity_token", authenticityToken));
    post.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(nvps));

jdb · Accepted Answer · 2013-02-15 00:28:55Z

2

You can always use ByteArrayEntity or StringEntity instead of UrlEncodedFormEntity and do the encoding yourself. It should look something like foo=var1&bar=var2.
You have to set Content-Type=application/x-www-form-urlencoded
You may want to find out what your endpoint expects as a charset parameter for the application/x-www-form-urlencoded value of the Content-Type header. Then pass it as a parameter to the UrlEncodedFormEntity constructor. This should be the right fix.

edited Feb 15, 2013 at 0:28

answered Feb 15, 2013 at 0:08

jdb

4,51923 silver badges21 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

2 Comments

wuntee Over a year ago

The problem is that id like to use the UrlEncodedFormEntity for the rest of the parameters, I just need to be able to have the authenticity_token not encoded...

jdb Over a year ago

Just use the first option then: ByteArrayEntity or StringEntity with Content-Type=application/x-www-form-urlencoded. UrlEncodedFormEntity does exactly this but it encodes the parameters for you.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Java Apache HTTPClient do not encode POST entity

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

1 Answer 1

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related