Indy is altering the binary data in my URL

Question

I want to send some binary data over via GET using the Indy components. So, I have an URL like www.awebsite.com/index.php?data=xxx where xxx is the binary data encoded using ParamsEncode function. After encoding the binary data is converted to something like bB7%18%11z\ so my URL is something like: www.awebsite.com/bB7%18%11z\

I have seen that if my URL contains the backshash char (see the last char in the URL) it is replaced with slash char (/) in TIdURI.NormalizePath so my binary data is corrupted. What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Backslashes aren't allowed in URL's, and to avoid confusion between Windows and *nix systems, all backslashes are replaced by slashes to attempt to keep things working. See http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1738.html section 5, HTTP, httpurl

You could try with replacing backslashes with %5C yourself.

That said, you should either try with MIME encoding, or try to get a hang of POST requests.

Answer 2

You're using an old version of Indy. Backslashes are included in the UnsafeChars list that Indy uses now. Remy changed it in July 2010 with revision 4272 in the Tiburon branch:

r4272 | Indy-RemyLebeau | 2010-07-07 03:12:23 -0500 (Wed, 07 Jul 2010) | 1 line

Internal logic changes for TIdURI, and moved some sharable logic into IdGlobalProtocols.pas for later use in TIdHTTP.

It was merged into the trunk with the rest of Indy 10.5.7 with revision 4394, in September 2010.