如何在URL路径中正确编码Web API参数？

Question

I have endpoint used to find book by book reference.

The book reference is string that can contain white-space and any kind of special characters, eg mybook , my book , my-book , my/book , book++

// GET api/books/reference/{reference}
[HttpGet("reference/{reference}")]
public ActionResult<BookItem> FindByReference(string reference)

This is what I get when testing:

GET api/books/reference/mybook
OK

GET api/books/reference/my book
OK

GET api/books/reference/my-book
OK

GET api/books/reference/my+book
404 Not found

GET api/books/reference/my/book
404 Not found

GET api/books/reference/book++
404 Not found

What is a proper way to encode this reference parameter IN THE URL PATH so that it gets properly resolved by routing? Is that even possible?

Answer 1

The encoding of the URLs is the responsibility of the client calling the API, a client must supply a valid URL if it wants a proper response. If you encode your examples you will get:

GET api/books/reference/mybook

GET api/books/reference/my%20book

GET api/books/reference/my-book

GET api/books/reference/my%2Bbook

GET api/books/reference/my%2Fbook

GET api/books/reference/book%2B%2B

These should now work.

If you want help with the actual encoding you will have to edit your question with the client source code.