URISyntaxException Illegal character in query

Question

I am trying to open a link in default browser. I have used the following code.

String myUrl = "http://www.example.com/engine/myProcessor.jsp?Type=A Type&Name=1100110&Char=!"; 

        try {
            Desktop.getDesktop().browse(new URI(myUrl));
        } catch (IOException err) {
            setTxtOutput("Error: "+err.getMessage());
        } catch (URISyntaxException err) {      
            setTxtOutput("Error: "+err.getMessage());
        } catch (Exception err) {
            setTxtOutput("Error: "+err.getMessage());
        }

I am getting URISyntaxException Illegal character in query at index

I think this is because of characters such as ?, & and ! in my URL. I tried using:

URLEncoder.encode(myUrl, "UTF-8");

But this gives me another error.

Failed to open http%3A%2F%2Fwww.example.com%2F........... 
The system cannot find the file specified.

Please can you tell me how to correct the URISyntaxException Illegal character error.

Answer 1

It's because of the whitespace here ...jsp?Type=A Type&..., you can replace it with +

http://www.example.com/engine/myProcessor.jsp?Type=A+Type&Name=1100110&Char=!"

Answer 2

You can use following code snippet

public static String encode(String queryParameter) {
    try {
        String encodedQueryParameter = URLEncoder.encode(queryParameter, "UTF-8");
        return encodedQueryParameter;
    } catch (UnsupportedEncodingException e) {
        return "Issue while encoding" + e.getMessage();
    }
}

Answer 3

You should not encode the whole URL because the URI class requires a valid protocol. Encode only the parameters

String params = URLEncoder.encode("Type=A Type&Name=1100110&Char=!", "UTF-8");
myUrl = "http://www.example.com/engine/myProcessor.jsp?" + params;