ljharb/qs

Add the ability to enable strict RFC 3986 conformance for decoding as well as encoding

Open

#205 opened on Apr 10, 2017

View on GitHub
 (1 comment) (5 reactions) (0 assignees)JavaScript (8,015 stars) (744 forks)batch import
enhancementhelp wantedparsesemver-minor: new features

Description

To achieve strict RFC 3986 conformance (specifically, '+' in query strings is a LITERAL '+' and not a placeholder for ' ' as per the W3C's URL recommendations, the following is necessary:

qs.parse(s, {
    decoder: (str) => {
        try {
            return decodeURIComponent(str);
        } catch (e) {
            return str;
        }
    },
})

For those of us who prefer strict RFC 3986 conformance, I suggest an option like:

qs.parse(s, {
    format: 'RFC3986',
})

which would be much more concise and not require knowing the implementation details of the default decode function.

Contributor guide

Tech stack
javascriptnodejs
Domain
apibackend
Issue type
feature
DifficultyEstimated implementation difficulty for a new contributor, from 1 for very small changes to 5 for expert-level work.
3
Estimated timeA rough time range for an experienced contributor to investigate, implement, test, and prepare a pull request.
1-2 days
Activity statusHow available the issue appears right now: fresh, active, stale, blocked, or waiting on maintainer input.
stale
ClarityHow clearly the issue explains the expected change, acceptance criteria, and next step.
clear
Prerequisites
understanding of RFC 3986basic JavaScriptfamiliarity with qs library
Newbie friendlinessA 1-100 score estimating how approachable this issue is for first-time contributors.
55
Research direction
To implement this feature, examine the current decode function in lib/parse.js and add a 'format' option that, when set to 'RFC3986', uses decodeURIComponent for decoding. Ensure that the default behavior (legacy mode) remains unchanged. Consider adding tests in test/parse.js to verify conformance. The issue suggests a concise API, so the solution should be localized to the parse function and its options.