Java Servlet getParameter for a param that is a URL

Question

I am building a site which submits a url to a servlet for analysis purposes. On the client side, I submit the url as a parameter that is encoded. For example...

Answer 1

I can't reproduce your problem on Tomcat 6.0.29. There's more at matter. Maybe a Filter in the chain which is doing something with the request object?

Anyway, here's a SSCCE in flavor of a single JSP:

    
        
    
    
        
click here
        
URL: ${param.url}
    

Copy'n'paste'n'run it and click the link. Right here I see the following result:

click here

URL: http://www.site.com?param1=1¶m2=2

The same is reproducible with a simple servlet like this which is invoked directly by browser address bar:

protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest request, HttpServletResponse response) throws ServletException, IOException {
    response.getWriter().write(request.getParameter("url"));
}

Tomcat is by the way configured with URIEncoding="UTF-8" in HTTP connector, but even with ISO-8859-1 (which is the default), the behaviour is -as expected in this particular case- the same.