Question

I have a function in views.py

    def get_interview_type(request):
        i = None
        title = request.GET['title'] #Here the title becomes different
        try:
            i = Interview.objects.get(title=title) #it looks for that dropdown value
            #Error according to pdb
            #-> i = Interview.objects.get(title=title)
            #    (Pdb) 
            #    DoesNotExist: DoesNotE...exist.',)

            if i.interview_type == "Time Series":
                visit_ids = i.visit_set.all()
                reference_visit_list = [] 
                for visit in visit_ids:
                    reference_visit_list.append(visit.reference_visit)
                reference_visit_list.extend(visit_ids)
                list(set(reference_visit_list))
                len_visits=filter(None,reference_visit_list)
                total_visits = len(len_visits)
                return render_to_response('export/get_details.html',
                                      {'visits':visit_ids,'count':visit_ids.count(),
                                       'total_visits':total_visits},
                                       context_instance=RequestContext(request)
                                      )
            else:
                return render_to_response('export/get_interview_type.html',
                                      {'visits':i.visit_set.all()},
                                       context_instance=RequestContext(request)
                                    )
        except Interview.DoesNotExist:
            pass

When the user selects a title from the dropdown this function is called and does it tasks.
Now i have entered a string which include ‘&’ ampersand thinking that it can play a role of ‘and’ in normal english like this :-

‘CI-2-UGI & Bowel Symptom Screening & Characterization'(It is one of that dropdown value)
Now when user selects this value from dropdown the title does not remain the same, instead the title changes to CI-2-UGI(in title = request.GET[‘title’]) and before the function executes i recieve a 500 error page.
This is what the error prints in runserver mode

/home/user/cpms/careprep/tags/4.0/careprep/export/views.py(66)get_interview_type()->None
-> pass
(Pdb) c
[11/Mar/2012 22:05:20] “GET /export/get_interview_type/?title=CI-2-UGI%20&%20Bowel%20Symptom%20Screening%20&%20Characterization HTTP/1.1” 500 64490

Also when i remove that ‘&’ampersand from the title there is no 500 page.
Why this & causing the problem ? I think in this way every special symbol will cause the same problem .I will appreciate if anybody can guide me on this and how to solve this problem

Answer 1

Because & is used to separate fields in the query string. URL-encode it first.