encoding and decoding URL

Which procedure and when?

That’s the real question, and confusion is the most common reason for broken links.

Individual value If you encode a parameter, such as a search term, &, = and ? Otherwise, the server will hold them as separators and the address will decay in the wrong place.

Whole address lets these characters stand because they have meaning there, and only encodes the unauthorized like spaces and umlauts, so if you encode a single value with them, you get a link that seems to work and breaks at the first special character.

Form value is the individual value with + instead of %20 This is how HTML forms are sent. When decoding foreign addresses, it's worth switching if there are plus signs everywhere where spaces belong.

The disassembly

As soon as an address is recognizable, the page shows schema, host, path and all parameters - the latter already decoded. In the raw state you often do not see the error; only when decrypted does it become apparent that a value has been double-encoded or a parameter is empty.

You build campaign parameters more conveniently with the UTM builder .

When to Code

Whenever a value is inserted into an address that contains characters of its own meaning, a search term with a merchant and otherwise ends the parameter and starts a new one; a question mark in the text becomes the beginning of the query; a space stops some processing altogether.

Conversely, the path of an address follows different rules than the value of a parameter; slashes are allowed in the path; they must be coded in the parameter; therefore, this tool offers both methods – complete coding for individual values and gentle coding for entire addresses.

Umlauts, emojis and international domains

Umlauts in the path are allowed and are displayed readable by browsers, but transmitted as UTF-8 bytes in the address itself – two encoded characters are transmitted from “about”. müller.de shall be: xn-mller-kva.deIf you put an address in an e-mail or a PDF, you should use the coded version – some programs cut links to special characters.