Extract parameters from URL

Question

I have problems with the character +(and maybe others) at the URIBuilder is suppose to get a decoded url but when I extract the query the + is replaced

String decodedUrl = "www.foo.com?sign=AZrhQaTRSiys5GZtlwZ+H3qUyIY=&more=boo";
URIBuilder builder = new URIBuilder(decodedUrl);
List<NameValuePair> params = builder.getQueryParams();
String sign = params.get(0).getValue();

the value of sing is AZrhQaTRSiys5GZtlwZ H3qUyIY= with a space instead +. How can I extract the correct value?

other way is:

URI uri = new URI(decodedUrl);
String query = uri.getQuery();

the value of query is sign=AZrhQaTRSiys5GZtlwZ+H3qUyIY=&more=boo in this case is correct, but I have to strip it. Is there another way to do that?

Answer 1

Use it differently:

String decodedUrl = "www.foo.com";
URIBuilder builder = new URIBuilder(decodedUrl);
builder.addParameter("sign", "AZrhQaTRSiys5GZtlwZ+H3qUyIY=");
builder.addParameter("more", "boo");
List<NameValuePair> params = builder.getQueryParams();
String sign = params.get(0).getValue();

addParameter method is responsible for adding parameters as to the builder. The constructor of the builder should include the base URL only.

If this URL is given to you as is, then the + is already decoded and stands for the space character. If you are the one who generates this URL, you probably skipped the URL encoding step (which can be done using the code snipped above).

Read a bit about URL encoding: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Query_string#URL_encoding