Converting a string to a "URL Safe" string for Twilio

Question

This isn't Twilio specific, but the issue does cause the Twilio API call to fail..

I'm wanting to generate an XML file via Twilio's lab:

http://twimlets.com/echo?Twiml=%3CResponse%3E%3CSay%3EHi+there.%3C%2FSay%3E%3C%2FResponse%3E

The above URL works great as a parameter in the API and obviously works if you use your browser to view the output.

I can also view the following in the browser, and it works fine, but this version of the URL fails as a parameter to the Twilio API

http://twimlets.com/echo?Twiml=Response><Say>Hi+there.</Say></Response>

For readability and debugging I would much prefer to have the second URL. Is there a library or other way in C# to convert the second, pretty URL to the first, replacing %3C with the '<' character and so on? I could then just do the replacement right before I send it off to the API since my app pushes around and stores the pretty version everywhere else. I can of course write one myself to do the conversion, but it seems like this would be a common problem. Thanks!

Yep. Thanks! I'd never had to do this before and wasn't sure where this was. I Googled for it but answers seemed to all be around making them "safe for the web" or "SEO friendly", which was totally not what I needed. — Ryan Hayes, Jan 29 '13 at 02:43

score 25 · Accepted Answer · edited Feb 13 '18 at 13:58

Is this perhaps what you are looking for?

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    string encoded = "http://twimlets.com/echo?Twiml=%3CResponse%3E%3CSay%3EHi+there.%3C%2FSay%3E%3C%2FResponse%3E";
   string decoded = Uri.UnescapeDataString(encoded);
}

Output - Unescaped string:

http://twimlets.com/echo?Twiml=<Response><Say>Hi+there.</Say></Response>

And back to normal:

string encoded = Uri.EscapeDataString(decoded);

Output - escaped string:

http://twimlets.com/echo?Twiml=%3CResponse%3E%3CSay%3EHi+there.%3C%2FSay%3E%3C%2FResponse%3E

Converting a string to a "URL Safe" string for Twilio

1 Answers1