# Forced to do CGI::unescape, an alternative?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/forced-to-do-cgi-unescape-an-alternative/148186>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [September 10, 2008, 8:02am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/forced-to-do-cgi-unescape-an-alternative/148186 "2008-09-10T08:02:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![comopasta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@comopasta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/comopasta)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 8:02am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/forced-to-do-cgi-unescape-an-alternative/148186/1 "2008-09-10T08:02:40Z")

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Hi, I have a server/client related question.

I’m using a mobile client to update some records on the app using xml.  
Now, when using the browser interface we can use forms and the content  
is: Content-Type: application/x-www-form-urlencoded, the server side  
decodes that automatically.

With the client side I use Content-Type= [text/xml]. However I was just  
sending the xml data without escaping characters like &. The result was  
that cgi was failing.

To correct that problem I use  
EscapeUtils::EscapeEncodeL(\*body,EscapeUtils::EEscapeUrlEncoded); That  
is Symbian and escapes the reserved characters in a URL  
;/?:@&=+$[]!’()~. It is applied to the entire xml

Then from the server side I do:  
string = CGI::unescape(params[:message][:subject])

My questions are is:

1- Is this the right approach?  
2- Is there a way to do the same without having to decode “manually” at  
server side?

Thanks

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**Author:** ![comopasta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@comopasta](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/comopasta)\
**Post date:** [September 10, 2008, 9:05am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/forced-to-do-cgi-unescape-an-alternative/148186/2 "2008-09-10T09:05:30Z")

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On 10 Sep 2008, at 07:02, comopasta Gr wrote:

> sending the xml data without escaping characters like &. The result
> 
> My questions are is:
> 
> 1- Is this the right approach?.  
> No. You should be encoding xml entities as the standard says you  
> should (ie & becomes & \< becomes \< and \> becomes \> and so on)

Fred