# URI::InvalidURIError when using curly brackets

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uri-invalidurierror-when-using-curly-brackets/96283>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [June 27, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uri-invalidurierror-when-using-curly-brackets/96283 "2006-06-27T22:24:42Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rjlyders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@rjlyders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rjlyders)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 10:24pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uri-invalidurierror-when-using-curly-brackets/96283/1 "2006-06-27T22:24:42Z")

</div>

I’ve been experimenting using open-uri to retrieve HTML from various  
sites and have spent the past couple of days searching for an answer to  
my problem. One page I’ve been trying to access contains a GUID in the  
querystring and it has curly brackets around it. This is my code (I’m  
just using Google for this example):

require ‘open-uri’

uri =  
URI.parse(‘[{3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01} - Google Search](http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%7B3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01%7D)’)  
html = open(uri).read()

But I get the following error:

URI::InvalidURIError in DemoController#index

bad URI(is not URI?):  
[http://www.google.co.uk/search?q={3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01}](http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%7B3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01%7D)

RAILS\_ROOT: /code/public/…/config/…

/usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/uri/common.rb:432:in `split' /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/uri/common.rb:481:in `parse’  
#{RAILS\_ROOT}/app/controllers/scrape\_controller.rb:10:in `index’

From what I’ve found, curly brackets aren’t allowed in a Ruby URI  
(despite my browser being capable of handling them). I’ve tried encoding  
them with %7B and %7D but then the page is called with the encoded  
version, which in my case, the site isn’t expecting and it doesn’t work.

Is there a way to allow curly brackets in my URI? or another method to  
download HTML which does?

Thanks.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rjlyders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@rjlyders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rjlyders)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 10:54pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uri-invalidurierror-when-using-curly-brackets/96283/2 "2006-06-27T22:54:15Z")

</div>

On Wed, 28 Jun 2006, Richard Leonard wrote:

> html = open(uri).read()  
> /usr/local/lib/ruby/1.8/uri/common.rb:432:in `split’
> 
> Thanks.

irb(main):001:0\>  
URI.parse(URI.encode(“[http://www.google.co.uk/search?q={3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01}](http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%7B3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01%7D)”))  
=\> #\<URI::HTTP:0xfdba8216c  
URL:[http://www.google.co.uk/search?q={3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01}](http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%7B3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01%7D)\>

-a

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rjlyders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@rjlyders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rjlyders)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 10:57pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uri-invalidurierror-when-using-curly-brackets/96283/3 "2006-06-27T22:57:28Z")

</div>

On Wed, 28 Jun 2006 removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote:

> irb(main):001:0\>  
> URI.parse(URI.encode(“[http://www.google.co.uk/search?q={3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01}](http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%7B3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01%7D)”))  
> =\> #\<URI::HTTP:0xfdba8216c  
> URL:[http://www.google.co.uk/search?q={3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01}](http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=%7B3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01%7D)\>

sorry. hit send too soon - here’s the rest:

irb(main):002:0\> f = open uri  
=\> #\<File:/tmp/open-uri11746.1\>

irb(main):003:0\> f.read.size  
=\> 17004

so encoding seems to work for me?

regards.

-a

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rjlyders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@rjlyders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rjlyders)\
**Post date:** [June 27, 2006, 11:07pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uri-invalidurierror-when-using-curly-brackets/96283/4 "2006-06-27T23:07:18Z")

</div>

The URL I’m actually trying to get is:  
[http://www.welshwalks.info/walksASP/routeSearchResult.asp?regionName=Isle+of+Anglesey&regionID={740C2C13-C8DB-49F7-81AE-3D23AC6ACCF2}](http://www.welshwalks.info/walksASP/routeSearchResult.asp?regionName=Isle+of+Anglesey&regionID=%7B740C2C13-C8DB-49F7-81AE-3D23AC6ACCF2%7D)

If you try that after passing it to URI.encode then the HTML I download  
is their homepage - not the search results page you get if you paste  
that into a browser.

Any ideas?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rjlyders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/r/58f4c7/32.png) [@rjlyders](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/rjlyders)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2006, 12:16am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/uri-invalidurierror-when-using-curly-brackets/96283/5 "2006-06-28T00:16:19Z")

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Richard Leonard wrote:

> > From what I’ve found, curly brackets aren’t allowed in a Ruby URI  
> > (despite my browser being capable of handling them).

Browsers lie.

require ‘open-uri’  
require ‘cgi’  
uri =  
URI.parse(‘[Google](http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=)’ +  
CGI.escape(‘{3F2504E0-4F89-11D3-9A-0C-03-05-E8-2C-33-01}’))  
html = open(uri).read()

p html

–  
James B.

“Programs must be written for people to read, and only incidentally  
for machines to execute.”

- H. Abelson and G. Sussman  
(in "The Structure and Interpretation of Computer Programs)