Apigee X Request URL query parameter encoding issue

[Pratyush_]

Hi,

Greeting to the community!

I've encountered an issue with Apigee X platform where the request urls are getting encoded incorrectly.

Example request I tried from postman is : GET https://api.xyz.com/example?test=123+abc 

The url seems to be consistent in Load Balancer logs, and as soon as it reaches Apigee X, in trace session logs,  I see it is encoded as https://api.xyz.com/example?test=123%20abc instead of https://api.xyz.com/example?test=123%2Babc  . 

Which is then forwarded incorrectly to the target server.

I'm currently not sure if this is due to Apigee or do I need to add some additional property in proxy configuration. Have anyone faced a similar issue and any possible resolution for the same?

Thanks,

[Roaa_APIGEE]

Hello,
Try to encode a URL before send it to the API to ensure that special characters within it are transmitted over the internet in a format that is safe and compliant with URL standards.

URL Encoding is a form of data encoding that is used in API calls to pass data within a query string. It is used to ensure valid URLs and data are passed between web applications and the server.

Original: https://api.xyz.com/example?test=123+abc

Encoded: https://api.xyz.com/example?test=123%2Babc

[dchiesa1 · Accepted solution]

The IETF standard regarding encoding characters within query strings with HTTP urls, is... maybe not easily discoverable . The relevant spec is RFC 3986. 

Section 2.2 of that specification  says that plus characters must be % encoded, if you want to transmit them.  

It seems like you want to transmit a plus, not a space.  So percent-encode it before you send it. 

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@Pratyush_ wrote:

I see it is encoded as https://api.xyz.com/example?test=123%20abc

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This is correct behavior, based on what you're telling me. 

BTW, this is the advice Gemini has to offer on the subject: 

[Pratyush_]

@dchiesa1 ,

Thank you for your response. 

URI encoding on the client side is definitely an option but isn't it clear that Apigee is encoding the url incorrectly for plus("%2B" "+") as space("%20" " "). 

Rest all the mentioned sub-delims in the client request such as "$" and "&" are correctly encoded by Apigee.