On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 4:57 PM, George Langley <george.langley@xxxxxxx>wrote: > Hi all. Is there an issue with $_GET not handling a Base64-encoded > value correctly? (PHP is 5.1.6) > Am receiving a Base64-encoded value: > > theurl.com/index.php?message=xxxxx > > and retrieving it with $_GET: > > echo $_GET["message"]; > > xxxxx is a Japanese phrase, that has been encoded into Base64. So is using > the + symbol: > > ...OODq+OCou... > > but my $_GET is replacing the + with a space: > > ...OODq OCou... > > thus the base64_decode() is failing (displays diamonds with questions marks > on my Mac). > > The Base64-encoded string is 156 characters long, if that has any > bearing. My test URL is 230 characters in total, less than the "old" 256 > limit. > All I can find online is a reference that PHP will no longer assume > that a space is a +: > > <http://ca3.php.net/manual/en/function.base64-decode.php#69298> > > but my problem is the opposite - the + symbols are there, but the GET is > removing them. > (And to add a wrinkle, this then goes into a Joomla! page, whose > getVar() command completely removes the +, so I couldn't even do a string > replace, as I don't know where the + should have been!) > > Tired of looking at the dark red spot on the wall! Thanks. > > > George Langley Multimedia Developer Audio/Video Editor Musician, > Arranger, Composer www.georgelangley.ca > > > Get variables are automatically urldecoded: http://php.net/manual/en/function.urldecode.php The '+' character is one of the special characters automatically decoded (normally signifies a space.) I would try using an encoding scheme that doen't have collisions with special URL characters, use a different global array not automatically decoded (POST, SESSION), or cautiously urlencode the url's '+' chars (string replace all spaces to +) and then perform the base 64 decoding. -- Nephtali: PHP web framework that functions beautifully http://nephtaliproject.com
