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I have implemented mailgun API method to send emails throughout my site using classic ASP as said in this link. But when we try to send '&' symbol in the subject/text/htmlbody the text after '&' symbol are not sending in the email.

For example : If we try to send subject as "A&B Traders" but the email sent using the mailgun API will show the subject as "A".

Problem occurs due to we are sending the parameters using query string seperated by & to the mailgun API is there a way to bypass '&' symbol in the content and send in the query string value but it should be received as & in the email.

I searched a lot but can't able to find any solution in mailgun API documentation.

Sample code to send email :

Function SendMailSync(toAddress, fromAddress, subject, body, htmlBody)
Dim httpPostData
Dim mailGunMessageUrl
Const MAILGUN_BASE_URL = "https://api.mailgun.net/v3/{DOMAIN HERE}"
Const MAILGUN_API_KEY = "key-{API_KEY}"
httpPostData = "from=" & fromAddress
httpPostData = httpPostData & "&to=" & toAddress
httpPostData = httpPostData & "&subject=" & subject
httpPostData = httpPostData & "&text=" & body
httpPostData = httpPostData & "&html=" & htmlBody
set http = CreateObject("MSXML2.ServerXMLHTTP.6.0")
mailGunMessageUrl = MAILGUN_BASE_URL & "/messages"
http.Open "POST", mailGunMessageUrl, false, "api", MAILGUN_API_KEY
http.setRequestHeader "Content-Type", "application/x-www-form-urlencoded"
http.setRequestHeader "Authorization", "Basic AUTH_STRING"
http.Send httpPostdata
If http.status <> 200 Then
    Response.Write "An error occurred: " & http.responseText
End If
SendMailSync = http.responseText
Set http = Nothing
End Function
SendMailSync "adam@example.com", "No Reply noreply@example.com", "A&B Traders", "A&B Traders Welcomes You", ""
Asp Team Dci
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  • Just `Server.UrlEncode()` each value you pass as a querystring. – user692942 Mar 31 '17 at 13:22
  • I'm pretty sure this would have been answered before, but can't find it so answered. – user692942 Mar 31 '17 at 14:01
  • Possible duplicate of [Query strings with special characters](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9579151/query-strings-with-special-characters) *(although the quality of those answers isn't great, due to confusion over Classic ASP and .Net)*. – user692942 Mar 31 '17 at 14:06

1 Answers1

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Modify the SendMailAsync() function so that you Server.UrlEncode() each value passed. For example with the subject, just change it to;

httpPostData = httpPostData & "&subject=" & Server.UrlEncode(subject)

that way, when the URL is sent the subject query string parameter will look like;

&subject=A%26B%20Traders

If you want to test the approach yourself you can use an online URL decode / encode page like the URL Decoder/Encoder.

Whenever manually sending data via a Http Request you should URL encode all parameters so things like conflicts with special characters like ? and & etc don't happen. When you submit a standard form the Internet Browser does this as part of its process, which is why some may not be familiar with why it is required when sending manual requests.

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user692942
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  • @AspTeamDci it works for any data you need to pass. In fact, you should URL encode parameters in `GET` or `POST` method http requests as the Browser does by default with a standard HTML form. – user692942 Mar 31 '17 at 13:33