How to encode the plus (+) symbol in URL
The URL link below will open a new Google mail window. The problem I have is that Google replaces all the plus (+) sign in the email body with blank space. It looks like it only happens with the + sign. Any suggestions on how to remedy this? ( I am working the ASP.NET web page)
https://mail.google.com/mail?view=cm&tf=0&[email protected]&su=some subject&body=Hi there+Hello there
(In the body email, "Hi there+Hello there" will show up as "Hi there Hello there")
Answer
The + character has a special meaning in a url => it means whitespace . If you want to use the literal + sign you need to URL encode it to %2b:
body=Hi+there%2bHello+there
Here's an example of how you could properly generate urls in .NET:
var uriBuilder = new UriBuilder("https://mail.google.com/mail");
var values = HttpUtility.ParseQueryString(string.Empty);
values["view"] = "cm";
values["tf"] = "0";
values["to"] = "[email protected]";
values["su"] = "some subject";
values["body"] = "Hi there+Hello there";
uriBuilder.Query = values.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(uriBuilder.ToString());
The result