Encode header value using WebClient.Headers.Add()

Question

I am using HTTP headers to send a string which contains Unicode characters (such as ñ) to a custom http server.

When I add the string as a header:

webClient.Headers.Add("Custom-Data", "señor");

It is interpreted by the server as:

se�or

Obviously I need to encode the value differently, but I am unsure what encoding to use.

How should I encode this HTTP header to preserve extended/special characters?

webClient.Headers.Add("Content-Type","text/html; charset=UTF-8"); ? — Jordan
– Jordan, Commented May 2, 2013 at 21:04
@Jordan That just adds another header saying "the body content is html." I need to encode the value of a custom header, not the body/content. — JYelton
– JYelton, Commented May 2, 2013 at 21:11

JYelton · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-02 21:35:58Z

2

As @Jordan suggested, representing the string as base64 (with UTF8 encoding) worked well:

On the client side:

webClient.Headers.Add("Custom-Data",
    Convert.ToBase64String(Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("señor")));

And on the server:

string customData = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(Convert.FromBase64String(customHeader.Value));

answered May 2, 2013 at 21:35

JYelton

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