URL: semicolon instead of question mark

Question

I'm calling a web service in this format:

http://some.server/rest/resource;a=b

It works but is this valid? I've seen the ; used as a replacement for the & but never seen such an url. I've been looking for an answer but did not find a valid one. If valid what is the meaning of this kind of url?

Solution 1

This is a part of the path parameters and not part of the query parameters. You can find detailed information on how URLs can be built at http://www.skorks.com/2010/05/what-every-developer-should-know-about-urls/

Edit: I was actually looking for this link earlier which explains it even better and shows you some weird but valid cases: https://www.talisman.org/~erlkonig/misc/lunatech%5Ewhat-every-webdev-must-know-about-url-encoding/ (originally at the now dead url http://blog.lunatech.com/2009/02/03/what-every-web-developer-must-know-about-url-encoding)

But anyway, this is valid: http://www.blah.com/some/crazy/path.html;param1=foo;param2=bar

Solution 2

RFC2396 where path parameters were specified is obsolete. newer version is RFC 3986 -- this one does not have path parameters before the query string formally specified, however still has it in section 5.4.1 in examples.

Comments

[Carlo Bertuccini]

In my example the semicolon is used not in place of "&" but in place of "?"

[Sebastiaan van den Broek]

@aCa: Your link is still about the query part, while his example is actually about path parameters.

[drs]

your second link is dead :(

[WhatsThePoint]

While this link may assist in your answer to the question, you can improve this answer by taking vital parts of the link and putting it into your answer, this makes sure your answer is still an answer if the link gets changed or removed :)

[Dmitriy Pichugin]

link was removed. RFC number should be suffice.

[franksands]

Just to let anyone know that although the certificate is invalid, the talisman url still works in 2019