Percent encoding: here's a test case with a couple failures

[DressTheMonkey]

I'm having problems with quoting slash (/) and plus (+). I looked at the code a bit; the problem seems to be pathComponents doing some unquoting. I think this is why Apple have now introduced NSURLComponents, but that doesn't help if you want to be compatible with older versions. Here's a test case you can drop into your test .m file to demonstrate:

- (void)testPercentEncoding {
    /*
     from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent-encoding
     !   #   $   &   '   (   )   *   +   ,   /   :   ;   =   ?   @   [   ]
     %21 %23    %24 %26 %27 %28 %29 %2A %2B %2C %2F %3A %3B %3D %3F %40 %5B %5D
     */

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%21levin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel!levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%23levin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel#levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%24levin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel$levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%26levin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel&levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%27levin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel'levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%28levin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel(levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%29levin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel)levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%2Alevin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel*levin"});

    /*
     Fails: tries to match 'joel levin' with 'joel+levin'
     */
    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%2Blevin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel+levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%2Clevin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel,levin"});

    /*
     Fails: tries to match (null) with 'joel/levin'
     */
    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%2Flevin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel/levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%3Alevin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel:levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%3Blevin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel;levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%3Dlevin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel=levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%3Flevin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel?levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%40levin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel@levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%5Blevin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel[levin"});

    [self route:@"tests://user/view/joel%5Dlevin"];
    JLValidateAnyRouteMatched();
    JLValidateParameterCount(1);
    JLValidateParameter(@{@"userID": @"joel]levin"});

}

[joeldev]

Thanks for this as well. A few things:

1. %2F (/) will not be supported at this time due to the NSURL pathComponents issue you mention.
2. %2B (+) is now supported by calling [JLRoutes setShouldDecodePlusSymbols:NO];

The reason 2 has been solved with a setting is that I don't believe most people actually want to get the raw + in the resulting variable. For those that do, they can ask JLRoutes not to decode plus symbols and the value will come through as expected.

[isaaclimdc]

What if I needed %2F to be supported? What should I do?

[EkkoG]

From w3c ASCII Encoding Reference, the plus(+) encode to %2B, space encode to 20%, as setShouldDecodePlusSymbols: default option, NSURLComponents decode %2B to +, setShouldDecodePlusSymbols: replace the + symbols to space, it more like a bug, %2B shoult never decode to space.

[EkkoG]

For sometimes, space encode to +, as Wikipedia says, https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Percent-encoding#The_.60application.2Fx-www-form-urlencoded.60_type

for these cases, it needs an option to replace the plus to space, but it should work in the beginning, e.g. before [[NSURLComponents alloc] initWithString:@"http://example.com/issue?p=a"], and this change will avoid replacing the %2B to space, because %2B raw value is +, after decode, it should also be +，not space.

Also, from RFC 3986, + is a remaining character, for most cases space will be encoded to %20, not plus, so I think setShouldDecodePlusSymbols: default value should be NO, not YES.

Thanks.

@joeldev