Help with C# HttpWebRequest URI losing its encoding

Question

Having a problem with HttpWebRequest decoding my encoded URL.

var requestUrl = "https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/feeds/http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2example%2Ecom%2F/crawlissues/";   
var request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(requestUrl);

When looking at end request URL is becomes:

https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/feeds/http://www.example.com//crawlissues/

Which of course returns a 400 Bad request. I am guessing it is something todo with the URI class rather than HttpWebRequest. How do I stop this from happening?

The URL is meant to be https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/feeds/http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2example%2Ecom%2F/crawlissues/ as you can see the domain is encoded and needs to stay encoded. — , Feb 18 '10 at 10:09

Richard Deeming · Answer 1 · 2017-06-22T10:25:14.127

5

This is an annoying "security feature" of the Uri class. If you're using 4.0 or later, you can turn it off in your configuration file; otherwise, you'll have to resort to reflection.

edited Jun 22 '17 at 10:25

answered Oct 23 '12 at 17:54

Richard Deeming

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Thanks, Richard! I've been looking everywhere for this--the following works like a charm in .net 4.5 – Dr. Hilarius Sep 15 '14 at 22:21
Config file can also disable it on 4.6. – r590 Jun 21 '17 at 21:42
@r590: Correct. I should have said "4.0 or later", but that meant "4.0 or 4.5" when I posted this. :) – Richard Deeming Jun 22 '17 at 10:24

score 1 · Answer 2 · edited Oct 23 '12 at 17:58

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I don't think you can request that url.

It won't decode %2F in a query parameter. So, it would work if the encoded data was in a query parameter:

requestUrl = "https://google.com/tools?feeds=http%3A%2F%2Fwww%2example%2Ecom%2F/crawlissues/";   
var request = (HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(requestUrl);

edited Oct 23 '12 at 17:58

Picrofo Software

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answered Oct 15 '12 at 03:54

liammclennan

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Himanshu Shirodkar · Answer 3 · 2017-03-24T08:34:25.117

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There is a much simpler way to this

var request=(HttpWebRequest)WebRequest.Create(Uri.EscapeUriString(requestUrl));
request.Headers.Add("Content-Transfer-Encoding","binary");

worked like a charm for me

edited Mar 24 '17 at 08:34

answered Mar 24 '17 at 08:16

Himanshu Shirodkar

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score 0 · Answer 4 · answered Feb 18 '10 at 09:58

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Not sure but may be HttpServerUtility.UrlEncode method will help.

Upd. Alternatively you may use WebClient class.

answered Feb 18 '10 at 09:58

sashaeve

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Thanks but the url is already encoded, the problem is that something is decoding it. – Feb 18 '10 at 10:01
I have exactly the same problem. Oddly a URL that is not decoded when I run under IISExpress in Visual Studios debugging the site, IS decoded when running under IIS proper. The decoding breaks the URL! – Bernd Wechner Jan 22 '23 at 23:32

score 0 · Answer 5 · answered Nov 30 '10 at 07:09

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Try to change the Request method from POST to GET

answered Nov 30 '10 at 07:09

xxxmatko

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Help with C# HttpWebRequest URI losing its encoding

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