How do you encode a url string in java to not put + signs in spaces?

Question

I have a JSONParser class that would enable me to make HTTPRequests. So here is the class

package com.thesis.menubook;

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.io.InputStream;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException;
import java.util.List;

import org.apache.http.HttpEntity;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.NameValuePair;
import org.apache.http.client.ClientProtocolException;
import org.apache.http.client.entity.UrlEncodedFormEntity;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpGet;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
import org.apache.http.client.utils.URLEncodedUtils;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
import org.json.JSONException;
import org.json.JSONObject;

import android.util.Log;

public class JSONParser {

    static InputStream is = null;
    static JSONObject jObj = null;
    static String json = "";

    // constructor
    public JSONParser() {

    }

    // function get json from url
    // by making HTTP POST or GET mehtod
    public JSONObject makeHttpRequest(String url, String method,
            List<NameValuePair> params) {

        // Making HTTP request
        try {

            // check for request method
            if(method == "POST"){
                // request method is POST
                // defaultHttpClient
                DefaultHttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
                HttpPost httpPost = new HttpPost(url);
                httpPost.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(params));

                HttpResponse httpResponse = httpClient.execute(httpPost);
                HttpEntity httpEntity = httpResponse.getEntity();
                is = httpEntity.getContent();

            }else if(method == "GET"){
                // request method is GET
                DefaultHttpClient httpClient = new DefaultHttpClient();
                String paramString = URLEncodedUtils.format(params, "utf-8");
                url += "?" + paramString;
                HttpGet httpGet = new HttpGet(url);
                Log.d("URL",url);
                HttpResponse httpResponse = httpClient.execute(httpGet);
                HttpEntity httpEntity = httpResponse.getEntity();
                is = httpEntity.getContent();
            }          

        } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (ClientProtocolException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

        try {
            BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(
                    is, "iso-8859-1"), 8);
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            String line = null;
            while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                sb.append(line+ "n" );
            }
            is.close();
            json = sb.toString();
        } catch (Exception e) {
            Log.e("Buffer Error", "Error converting result " + e.toString());
        }


        // try parse the string to a JSON object
        try {
            jObj = new JSONObject(json);
        } catch (JSONException e) {
            Log.e("JSON Parser", "Error parsing data " + e.toString());
            Log.e("JSON Parser", "json string :" +json);
        }

        // return JSON String
        return jObj;

    }
}

I access it like this.

params.add(new BasicNameValuePair("category", "MAIN DISH"));
            JSONObject json = jsonParser.makeHttpRequest("http://"+ipaddress+"/MenuBook/selectMenu.php", "GET", params);

I would like to keep the format of the parameter as such, MAIN DISH. but when I look into my LogCat it returns a url formed like this.

http://192.168.10.149:80/MenuBook/selectMenu.php?category=MAIN+DISH

which then causes my application to fail and force close since I have no category like MAIN+DISH

I would like my URL to be formed like this.

http://192.168.10.149:80/MenuBook/selectMenu.php?category='MAIN DISH'

which would then return the proper results. I searched around in the net and only found solutions to make white spaces + and %20 which would not return the proper result.

Any solutions you can suggest?

See this thread: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1634271/url-encoding-the-space-character-or-20 — hakish, Feb 15 '13 at 09:23

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Feb 15 '13 at 09:16

Your question embodies a contradiction in terms. URL-encoding (actually form-encoding) is already defined, and it is already defined to replace spaces with '+', not to quote the value elements concerned. The server-side software needs to understand that and behave accordingly. All the server-side software provided by Java, e.g. HttpServletRequest, already does that. If your code doesn't comply with the RFCs, fix it so it does.

score -1 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 15 '13 at 09:40

-1

I solved it by hardcoding it with 'MAIN+DISH'

answered Feb 15 '13 at 09:40

John Ernest Guadalupe

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How exactly does that satisfy your objective of 'I would like to keep the format of the parameter as such, MAIN DISH'? – user207421 Feb 15 '13 at 09:46
Well, it returned the proper result. So, yeah it satisfied my objective. – John Ernest Guadalupe Feb 15 '13 at 09:48

How do you encode a url string in java to not put + signs in spaces?

2 Answers2