Uri Builder in android - '/' replaced by '%2F' and ":" is replaced by "%3A"

Question

I want to build the following URI -

https://10.112.88.182:8443/Vehicle/services/socialService/login

...

Builder builder = new Builder();
builder.scheme(Constants.URL_SCHEME);
builder.authority(host);
builder.appendPath(service + "/" +method);
return builder.build().toString();

where

• URL_SCHEME - https
• host - 10.112.88.182:8443/Vehicle/services/
• service - socialService
• method - login

When this code runs I get the following URI -

https://10.112.88.182%3A8443%2FVehicle%2Fservices%2F/socialService%2Flogin

/ is replaced by %2F and : is replaced by %3A

Solution 1

That's how Uri.Builder works. It encodes non-safe URL characters with special meaning to their %xx hex values.

To prevent encoding URI parts that are already properly encoded, use the encoded versions of builder functions:

builder.encodedAuthority(host);
builder.appendEncodedPath(service + "/" +method);

But since all your URL parts are already ready and don't need any further encoding, it's easier to just use a regular StringBuilder to concatenate the parts.

Solution 2

Like laalto said, this is how Uri.Builder works but if you want to get the uri in a regular url form, like in your case: https://10.112.88.182:8443/Vehicle/services/socialService/login you can do:

URL url = new URL(URLDecoder.decode(builder.build().toString(), "UTF-8"));

Solution 3

The solution is quite simple, simply use appendEncodedPath(), it will not encode your string, it just appends it as it is.

Comments

[Manik]

then how will I be able to add ':' after my IP (before port 8443) ?

[n8yn8]

If host is set to 10.112.88.182:8443, then you could build your path so that it will be Vehicle/services/socialService/login which I believe can be done by .appendPath(Vehicle/services), plus additional .appendPath() or .appendEncodedPath() as needed.

[Soren Stoutner]

This is a great solution. Because the original request is trying to return a string, the best answer is simply return URLDecoder.decode(builder.build().toString(), "UTF-8");.

[serv-inc]

How would you add something with a comma as a query parameter? appendQueryParameter("zipcode", "12346,US") encoded the ,.