WSRP URL Encoding Rules

["Nader Oteifa" <nader2@netunitysoftware.com>]

With WSRP 1.0 we ran into a lot of interop problems with rules governing
parameter encoding.  We ran into many variations of which party
encoded/un-encoded, how many times and the resulting value passed to the
producer in the corresponding SOAP operation.  This problem became so
prevalent that we created our own encoding technique whereby additional
standard URL encoding/de-coding did not affect that value thereby resulting
in a consistent value being passed by the consumer to the producer in the
SOAP message.  However, given that we are currently in WSRP 2 interop mode
and the need for "wsrp-navigationalValues" to be transparent and use
standard encoding techniques, I'd like to make sure we are all clear on the
rules.

Can the rules be summarized as follows?

Producer Side
-------------
1) All URL parameter values for:

wsrp-url
wsrp-resourceID
wsrp-resourceState
wsrp-navigationalState
wsrp-interactionState
wsrp-fragmentID

Should/must(???) be encoded by the producer during WSRP URL construction
using standard URL encoding technique or some other valid encoding technique
(e.g. modified Base-64 encoding).

2) The value for wsrp-navigationalValues must be encoded using standard URL
encoding technique (reference some W3C spec) only.  Additionally, the
individual query parameter names and corresponding values must also be
encoded prior to encoding the entire value of wsrp-navigationalValues.

Consumer Side
-------------
1) The consumer can additionally encode any of the parameter values (during
rewrite) if it so chooses but then it must decode these values (in addition
to any automatic un-encoding carried out by the browser) prior to passing in
a WSRP SOAP operation.

2) For wsrp-navigationalValues, the individual query parameter names and
corresponding values must also be un-encoded using standard URL encoding
prior to passing in a WSRP SOAP operation taking
NavigationalContext.publicValues.

If there is already clear guidance on this area, please let me know where or
if someone has a better way of stating the rules, has additional rules, etc.
please feel free to comment.  Again, this area has been one major headache
in the past.

Nader Oteifa