Can I make the matlab http send function to use "%40" in the destination url?

I need to send a PUT or POST request to a url containing '%40' (encoded "@" symbol) in the destination url. I need to use the matlab.net.http send function in order to get information from the response headers.

I am not an expert on http. My problem is that regardless how I try to structure the message and send function, the sent request either includes the unencoded "@" symbol or the double-encoded '%2540', both of which trigger errors from the server.

Is there a way to force the send function to use '%40' in the destination address?

I am providing a dummy example below to show the issue because the real url (from Adobe API) is extremely long and contains API keys.

Grateful for any help on this.

import matlab.net.*
import matlab.net.http.*

% URL- NOTICE THE REQUIRED ENCODED %40 which is encoded symbol "@"
exampleURL = 'https://www.example.com/abcd%40efgh.com/ijkl?queryString=queryValue';
exampleURL_components = URI(exampleURL,'literal');

% Construct a dummy request message. This does not depend on the url.
exampleRequest = RequestMessage('PUT',[], "Irrelevant");

% Send the dummy request to original URL - The symbol "@" is DOUBLE ENCODED - causes error
[~,sentrequest,~] = send(exampleRequest,exampleURL);
disp('Sent request contains double-encoding from @ to %2540');
disp(sentrequest.RequestLine.RequestTarget);

% Send the dummy request to URI  - The symbol "@" is UNENCODED - causes error
[~,sentrequest2,~] = send(exampleRequest,exampleURL_components);
disp('Sent request contains unencoded @');
disp(sentrequest2.RequestLine.RequestTarget);

[Assen Koev]

A note:

It appears to me the behavior I described above comes from the internal URI function which uses

path = urlencode(obj.Path, obj.Pchar) %line 499

where the Pchar are characters that are allowed to pass unencoded and include "@". So this causes '%40' to be double encoded and '@' to be left unencoded, i.e. not allowing for '%40' to be included in the sent message. Of course, I still don't know how to get around the noted behavior.

Answer 1

[Sreeram]

Hi @Assen Koev,

MATLAB’s HTTP interface does not provide an option to disable encoding or force the “send” function to use a URL. The “send” function ensures that the URL is valid according to the encoding rules.

According to RFC 3986, the path of a URI may consist of characters in ‘segment-nz-nc’ and this set lists the ‘@’ character explicitly:

segment-nz-nc = 1*( unreserved / pct-encoded / sub-delims / "@" )

So, the HTTP URI displayed in the last line of the code you shared is valid. You might want to consider double checking why this causes the error.

Thanks

[Assen Koev]

Thanks @Sreeram and appreciate the reference.

The problem I am facing is a result of factors:

1. The web-address is provided with %40 (by an Adobe API) and placing "@" in it throws an error. I don't have any control over the address formulation.
2. The urlencode function is not only keeping "@" (as per standard as you say) but actively replaces %40 with "@"

So, I am looking for a way to allow %40 to remain in the address if so specified.