• *HTML_ESCAPE Function
• *html_unescape Function
• *url_object Function
• a5_browsers Function
• A5_CSS_LIST Function
• A5_OPEN_HTMLFILE Function
• a5_querystring_process Function
• a5_sass_string Function
• A5_SHORTEN_URL Function
• A5_SHOW_HTML Function
• A5_Show_URL Function
• A5_SPLIT_URL Function
• A5W_GRID Function
• A5W_INCLUDE Function
• curl_get Function
• curl_get_file Function
• curl_post_data Function
• HOSTAVAILABLE Function
• HTMLENCODE Function
• property_from_url Function
• property_to_url Function
• RESOLVE_MIME_TYPE Function
• shellexplorer_url Function
• URLDECODE Function
• URLENCODE Function

URLENCODE Function

Syntax

Arguments

urlCharacter

A URL address. Character

flagsCharacter

Formatting flags (see examples below). Flags can be a combination of the following options:

Flag

Description

u

Use uppercase hex codes

s

Do not convert spaces

r

Do not convert legal characters: '-', '_', '.', and '~'

o

'oAuth' encoding - a special flag that is a shorthand for the combined 'sru' flags.

Returns

Output_StringCharacter

URL encoded string.

Description

URL Encodes text so that it can be safely used as part of a URL.

Discussion

URLENCODE() encodes text so that it can be safely used as Part of a URL. Many characters are not allowed within URLs so their representation must be encoded in order to use them. This function automatically handles the encoding. Many characters are not allowed within URLs, so their representation must be encoded in order to use them. URLENCODE() creates a character string by converting all illegal URL address characters in the URL_String to their escape sequences.

If you had a URL like the following, with multiple name-value pairs separated by ampersands "&", then you would have to encode each of the pairs separately.

http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp?address1=3350 e marconi ave&address2=Apt 2&city=Phoenix&state=Arizona

The result would be the following.

url_to_use = urlencode("http://zip4.usps.com/zip4/welcome.jsp?address1=3350 e marconi ave") + 
"&" urlencode("address2=Apt 2") + "&" + urlencode("city=Phoenix") + "&" + urlencode("state=Arizona")

Example

Encoding an entire URL:

? urlencode("http://www.alphasoftware.com/about/default.asp")
= "http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2Ealphasoftware%2Ecom%2Fabout%2Fdefault%2Easp"

Encoding URL parameters to perform an HTTP GET request:

dim home_page as C
home_page = "/Development&Documentation/usersElarrabee/index.html"
http_get("http://www.server.com/ed.asp?home_page=" + urlencode(home_page))

Parameters to Make Signing Requests when Using oAuth Easier

The urlencode() function takes optional arguments that are useful when working with APIs that require oAuth authentication. In many APIs, the request body must be specially encoded.

Examples:

? urlencode("text-value=foo bar;")
= "text%2dvalue%3dfoo%20bar%3b"

? urlencode("text-value=foo bar;","u")
= "text%2Dvalue%3Dfoo%20bar%3B"

? urlencode("text-value=foo bar;","s")
= "text%2dvalue%3dfoo bar%3b"

? urlencode("text-value=foo bar;","r")
= "text-value%3dfoo%20bar%3b"

? urlencode("text-value=foo bar;","o")
= "text-value%3Dfoo bar%3B"

See Also

• Encryption Function and Methods
• URLDECODE()
• What Characters Must be Encoded