Problem with "decodeURIComponent"

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  • Hi guys,

    i have a problem with sending some data with an simple http form.

    HTML Code:

    
    > <html> 
    > <head><meta charset="utf-8"/></head>   
    > <body><h2>Konfiguration</h2> <form  action="#" method="post"> > <div class="container">
    > <label for="test"><b>TEST</b></label><input type="text" placeholder="Enter text" name="test" required>
    > </form>
    > </body>
    > </html>
    
    

    JS on Espruino

      var data = "";
      req.on('data', function(d) { data += d; });
      req.on('end', function() {
        postData = {};
        console.log(data);
        data.split("&").forEach(function(el) {
          var els = el.split("=");
          postData[els[0]] = decodeURIComponent(els[1]);
        });
    

    If I enter the following to the form: "PLUS++++LEER OK"
    The browser send: "PLUS%2B%2B%2B%2BLEER+++++OK"

    On espruino: test=PLUS%2B%2B%2B%2BLEER+++++OK
    Now I call the "decodeURIComponent" but the result is
    "PLUS++++LEER+++++OK"

    I would expect the following: "PLUS++++LEER OK"
    https://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_form_­enctype.asp

    You have the same behaviour? The blank issnt decoded correctly.

  • Can you give me an example of just running decodeURIComponent where it's not doing what you expect?

    With your example I get:

    // Espruino
    >decodeURIComponent("PLUS%2B%2B%2B%2BLEE­R+++++OK")
    ="PLUS++++LEER+++++OK"
    // Chrome
    >decodeURIComponent("PLUS%2B%2B%2B%2BLEE­R+++++OK")
    ="PLUS++++LEER+++++OK"
    // Node.js
    > decodeURIComponent("PLUS%2B%2B%2B%2BLEER­+++++OK")
    ='PLUS++++LEER+++++OK'
    

    So I'd say it's behaving as expected.

    However it's not desperately helpful for what you're trying to do. You could try decodeURIComponent(els[1].replace(/+/g,"­ "));

    Looking online it seems that is the accepted way of doing it: https://stackoverflow.com/a/24417399/121­5872

  • Your html has an issue: the div inside the form is not closed... because I wondered why the browser would send so much additional stuff as you point out...

    `
    <html>
    <head><meta charset="utf-8"/></head>
    <body><h2>Konfiguration M</h2>
      <form action="/action_page.php" method="post">
        <div class="container">
          <label for="test"><b>TEST</b></label>
          <input name="test" type="text" placeholder="Enter text" required>
         <input type="submit" value="Submit">
        </div>
    </form>
    </body>
    </html>
    `
    

    For testing, I created this html (including the submit - which is not really needed), and served it from local 127.0.0.1 and posted it back there (to a not defined page - which does not matter, though, because - so far - I'm only interested in verifying/debugging the request...). What my browser - Chrome - tells me in the debugger/inspector, is attached as screenshots - encoded and parsed... and I see different (my testfield input is X+++B OK).

    ...and btw, even with the messed up form and submit absent, I see the same posted by the browser, as the 3rd screenshot shows. I'm interested in your screenshots...


    3 Attachments

    • encodeForm.png
    • parsedForm.png
    • aMessedUpForm.png
  • However it's not desperately helpful for what you're trying to do. You could try decodeURIComponent(els[1].replace(/+/g,"­ "));

    That is exactly what I do to fix it but I thought that decodeURIComponent should already result the same.
    It seems that it is my fault. Why are spaces something so special?

    application/x-www-form-urlencoded Default. All characters are encoded before sent (spaces are converted to "+" symbols, and special characters are converted to ASCII HEX values)
    https://www.w3schools.com/tags/att_form_­enctype.asp

    I expected that a space would be

     U+0020		&#32;	Space
    

    not just an "+".

    Confusing for me :)

    Thank you for your help!

    PS: Espruino is very cool :)

  • + is considered a special character and converting spaces to + after encoding is just fine... and was to make sure there is a continuous stream of non-blank chars (no blanks) in the body... may be because the encoding happened in a U/Linux command line / argument context... (to make the body a single argument).

  • ref#4 Why are spaces something so special? not just an "+" Confusing for me

    Thr 2018.11.01

    From Monty Python's the Holy Grail

    Consult the Book of Armaments !

    The spec says it all . . . .

    https://www.w3.org/TR/html401/interact/f­orms.html#h-17.13.4.1

  • I thought that decodeURIComponent should already result the same.

    You'd think so wouldn't you? It's one of those cases where I'd love to make decodeURIComponent do the 'right' thing, but if I did then someone would complain it wasn't spec compliant!

  • It's already great :) I saw that the spec defines that behaviour. So we can't do something different :)

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Problem with "decodeURIComponent"

Posted by Avatar for iwae @iwae

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