Encoding spaces in UITextView / UITextField to URL format

Question

I'm trying to send the contents of UITextView or UITextField as parameters to a php file

NSString *urlstr = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@"http://server.com/file.php?name=%@&tags=%@&entry=%@",nameField.text, tagsField.text, dreamEntry.text];

When i log urlstr, the url format is ok just as long as the UITextView or UITextField don't contain spaces. How would i go about converting the spaces to %20 ?

edit

here is the code at present, which not only crashes but isn't encoding the url properly.

name=John Doe&tags=recurring nightmare&entry=Testing testing testing

is converted to

name=John -1844684964oe&tags=recurringightmare&entry=Testing 4.214929e-307sting -1.992836e+00sting

- (IBAction)sendButtonPressed:(id)sender
{

    NSString *urlString = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@"http://server.com/file.php?name=%@&tags=%@&entry=%@", nameField.text, tagsField.text, dreamEntry.text];

    NSString *encodedString = [urlString stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

    NSURL *url = [[NSURL alloc] initWithString:encodedString];

    NSLog(encodedString);

    NSLog(urlString);

    [urlString release];
    [url release];
    [encodedString release];


}

Answer 1

You can take your URL and use:

NSString *urlStr = [[NSString alloc] initWithFormat:@"http://server.com/file.php?name=%@&tags=%@&entry=%@",nameField.text, tagsField.text, dreamEntry.text];

NSString *encStr = [urlStr stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];

Answer 2

You're not supposed to URL-escape the entire string, you're supposed to URL-escape the dynamic components. Try

NSString *urlStr = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://server.com/file.php?name=%@&tags=%@&entry=%@",
                        [nameField.text stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding],
                        [tagsField.text stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding],
                        [dreamEntry.text stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding],
                        nil];
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:urlStr];

The second issue with your code (and undoubtedly the reason for the odd printing) is you're passing the string directly to NSLog, so it's being treated as a format string. You need to use

NSLog(@"%@", encodedString);

instead. That will make it print as expected.

Edit: A third issue with your code is you're mixing autoreleased and owned objects, then releasing them all at the end. Go look at the 3 objects you create, and which you subsequently release later. One of them shouldn't be released later because it was produced by a method that did not start with the words alloc, copy, or new. Identifying the object in question is an exercise left to the reader.

Answer 3

this works:

- (IBAction)sendButtonPressed:(id)sender
{


    NSString *url = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"http://www.server.com/file.php?name=%@&tags=%@&entry=%@",
         [nameField.text stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding],
         [tagsField.text stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding],
         [dreamEntry.text stringByAddingPercentEscapesUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding],
         nil];

    NSLog(@"%@", url);

}