encoded url: %9A showing up as ?-diamond … how to get browser to correctly interpret %9A

Question

I am generating a url (for facebook dialog) from flash:

var lvs_url = "http://www.facebook.com/dialog/feed?app_id=208524139202627&name=š š&caption=&description=&link=http://apps.facebook.com/celjska_puzzle&redirect_uri=http://apps.facebook.com/celjska_puzzle/"
var lvo_req : URLRequest = new URLRequest( lvs_url ) ;
navigateToURL( lvo_req , "_blank" );

but by the time that url makes it to the browser, the š's have been turned into %9A's, which then show up as ?-diamond's in the facebook pop up.

However, the browser is ok with %20's

here is the encoded url: http://www.facebook.com/dialog/feed?app_id=208524139202627&name=%9A%20%9A&caption=&description=&link=http://apps.facebook.com/celjska_puzzle&redirect_uri=http://apps.facebook.com/celjska_puzzle/

Answer 1

Try encodeURIComponent:

var lvs_url = "http://www.facebook.com/dialog/feed?app_id=208524139202627&name="+encodeURIComponent("š š")+"&caption=&description=&link=http://apps.facebook.com/celjska_puzzle&redirect_uri=http://apps.facebook.com/celjska_puzzle/";
var lvo_req : URLRequest = new URLRequest( lvs_url ) ;
navigateToURL( lvo_req , "_blank" );

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From docs :

Creates a URLRequest object.

If System.useCodePage is true, the request is encoded using the system code page, rather than Unicode.

If System.useCodePage is false, the request is encoded using Unicode, rather than the system code page.

Specification says:

Non-ASCII characters must first be encoded according to UTF-8 [STD63], and then each octet of the corresponding UTF-8 sequence must be percent- encoded to be represented as URI characters.

This means that "š" must be encoded as %C5%A1 in urls. Try setting System.useCodePage to false, even though the documentation is ambiguous because encoded using Unicode doesn't necessarily mean UTF-8.

I should also mention that your file should be saved in UTF-8 encoding if you are literally using "š" in the file.