Encoding issues with plus signs

The encoding behavior in Talend Cloud API Tester has changed, which can cause issues in queries containing a plus sign.

Talend Cloud API Tester has moved from using Webform encoding to Percent-encoding. This change was done to improve the support of OData APIs, such as the ones generated in Talend Cloud Data Inventory. This should not have any impact, unless you are using query parameters containing plus signs (+) that need to be interpreted as spaces.

The plus sign is no longer interpreted as encoding by Talend Cloud API Tester, which means that the Encode before sending option is enabled by default on query parameters that contain a +. If this option is not disabled, the + is encoded as %2B and therefore interpreted as an actual plus sign and not a space.

For more information about the encoding feature, see Query parameter encoding.

Example

If you are trying to search for Leia Organa in the Star Wars API, you can use:

• https://swapi.dev/api/people/?search=Leia Organa: in this case, the query parameter is encoded.
• https://swapi.dev/api/people/?search=Leia%20Organa in this case, the query parameter is not encoded.

With both of these options, the request returns the expected result, and the HTTP tab displays the request with the Percent-encoding format.

With the previous behavior, https://swapi.dev/api/people/?search=Leia+Organa would have led to the same result. However, with the current encoding, the query parameter is encoded by default. This request returns no results and the HTTP tab displays the encoded request, where + is encoded as %2B.

If you disable the Encode before sending option, you get the expected result.