When sending XML by POST, the symbol & is escaping entire rest of string

Question

I am trying to pass a string formatted as XML to a Web Api controller, and when it is sent, it only receives the string up to the first & symbol, and then cuts off. Is there any way to make sure the & symbols will not escape the string?

Here is an example of my request:

string result = "";
using (var client = new WebClient())
{
     client.Headers[HttpRequestHeader.ContentType] = "application/x-www-form-urlencoded";

     string allLines = "=" + param.ToString();
     result = client.UploadString(url, "POST", allLines);
}   
return result;

Do you have an example of the data causing the issue? Is the ampersand `&` or `&` (or some similar special character code)? — JohnLBevan, Aug 17 '15 at 17:15
Is this data being passed via the URL? http://stackoverflow.com/a/16622542/361842 — JohnLBevan, Aug 17 '15 at 17:18

Andrei · Accepted Answer · 2015-08-17T17:53:16.423

2

HTTP header sometimes is not just key-value pair. It can be an array of values divided by & character.

Try to use HttpUtility.UrlEncode(value) when sending value and HttpUtility.UrlDecode(value) when receiving.

edited Aug 17 '15 at 17:53

answered Aug 17 '15 at 17:20

Andrei

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score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Aug 17 '15 at 17:29

1

Try Uri.EscapeUriString or HttpUtility.UrlPathEncode. Alternately, you can manually encode an ampersand by replacing it with %26. For instance:

myString.Replace("&", "%26");

answered Aug 17 '15 at 17:29

Ken Palmer

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When sending XML by POST, the symbol & is escaping entire rest of string

2 Answers2