Mod Rewrite Using Urlencoded & Aka Ampersand

[section31]

I have some issues with modrewrite and the ampersand.

 

I encoded the ampersand to %26, but it doesn't seem to work. View the following php scripts to replicate the issue.

 

Using Simple Get Request

http://section31.us/temp/modrewrite/get.php?foo=a%26b

>prints Array ( [foo] => a&b )

 

Using Mod Rewrite (RewriteRule ^foo/(.*) get.php?foo=$1)

http://section31.us/temp/modrewrite/foo/a%26b

>prints Array ( [foo] => a [b] => )

 

Anyone have any experience using an ampersand with mod rewrite.

[TweezerMan]

From what I've been able to find on the internet, this is a known issue with mod_rewrite that is currently not fixed.

 

Depending on your script, you may be able to work around the issue with one of these options:

 

1) Double-URL-encode ampersands

 

As you noted above, ampersands ('&') can be encoded in a URL as '%26'. Encode the '%26' as well, with '%' encoded as '%25'. This would result in the ampersand being replaced with '%2526'. Since mod_rewrite only perform one pass in decoding URLs, the string '%2526' will be decoded into '%26', which will then be passed correctly to your script.

 

2) Change the query string argument separator in PHP

 

In URL query strings, parameters can be separated with '&' or ';'. By default, PHP uses '&' to separate multiple parameters in a URL's query string. You can configure PHP to use ';' instead by adding the following to your .htaccess file:

>php_value arg_separator.input ";"

 

3) Parse the query string yourself

 

The query string that was submitted in the URL to your script will be present in the PHP global variable $_SERVER['QUERY_STRING']. Your script could read the query string directly and parse it into variables in however manner you see fit.

 

Hope this helps...

[section31]

Thanks David. Your first method will do nicely. Thanks.