Question

I have a view that accepts 2 string parameters and 2 date values. User hits search button and they get filtered output to the screen. This all works perfectly well until a user inputs a string with a space. i.e. they can search for ‘waste’ but not ‘waste oil’.

Interestingly, in the latter, the parameter is ok from Javascript before the call is made. But on entering the controller code it goes form being ‘waste oil’ on client to ‘waste’. When this happens the other parameters get set to NULL crashing the system.

I’ve tried replacing the spaces if present with ‘#’ character then stripping out and putting back in ‘ ‘ on the controller side. This is a messy fudge and only appears to work with one parameter.

There must be a simple explanation for this parameter data loss, any comments much appreciated

Not sure a code example is needed but here it is anyway if it help:

My controller header :

    public ActionResult IndexSearch(int? page, string searchText,string searchTextSite,string  StartDate,string EndDate)
    {

My HTML Javascript :

    function Search(sSearchText,sSite) {
        sSearchText = sSearchText.toString().replace(" ", "#");
        sSite = sSite.toString().replace(" ", "#");
        debugger;
        alert($("#AbsolutePath").val() + "Waste.mvc/IndexSearch?searchText=" + sSearchText + "&searchTextSite=" + sSite + "&StartDate=" + $('#StartDate').val() + "&EndDate=" + $('#EndDate').val());
        $("#ResultsList").load($("#AbsolutePath").val() + "Waste.mvc/IndexSearch?searchText=" + sSearchText + "&searchTextSite=" + sSite + "&StartDate=" + $('#StartDate').val() + "&EndDate=" + $('#EndDate').val(),
            function() {
                $('#LoadingGif').empty();
            });

        $('#LoadingGif').empty().html('<img src="' + $("#AbsolutePath").val() + 'Content/images/ajax-loader.gif" alt="Loading image" />');
    }

Answer 1

You are not URL encoding your parameters when sending the AJAX request because you are using string concatenations when building the url. You could use the following technique in order to have properly encoded values:

var url = $('#AbsolutePath').val() + 'Waste.mvc/IndexSearch';

var data = {
    searchText: sSearchText,
    searchTextSite: sSite ,
    StartDate: $('#StartDate').val(),
    EndDate: $('#EndDate').val()
};

$('#ResultsList').load(url, data, function() {
    $('#LoadingGif').empty();
});

Now you will get correct values on the server.