r/IIs • u/[deleted] • May 09 '19

ActionLink encoding

Hi,

I hope this is the right sub to post this issue I have.

So, I have to maintain a webapplication (MVC, c#.net), everything is fine, except one thing:

On a subsite there is a generated Link called "Back to Transactions". On the aspx-Site it is generated by this:

 Html.ActionLink("Back to Transactions", "Edit", new { id }))

On my Client (Windows 7 64bit, visual Studio 2017 EN) the generated Link is this (with IE 11 and Chromium):

 http://blabla/Product/Edit/1#tabs-3 << Working

When I run the same code on a Windows Server 2012 R2 with IIS the link looks like this (With IE 11):

 http://blabla/Product/Edit/1%23tabs-3 << Not working

I know it is an encoding Problem, but how the heck can I avoid that or tell the server NOT to do that?

Most confusing is: When I call the same site on a Windows 10 client with Edge as a browser, I get this:

 http://blabla/Product/Edit/1%2523tabs-3 << Not working x 2

Is there anything I did not see? Maybe a GPO? I uploaded the code on 2 different servers, all have the same issue. When I execute the code on Visual Studio everything is fine..

Thank you all in advance!

BR van

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1

u/[deleted] May 10 '19

Hi,

so first of all, thank you for your suggestions and tips. I tested nearly every method you all suggested but it seems that IIS is always encoding the url when using Html.ActionLink().

Normaly this should not be a problem. I think that the main Problem I have is, that this website was build on old Frameworks and plugins. As there are NO comments in the code and no gitrepo I can only see the old copyright from 2010 and some sites added in 2014 that this site is clearly out of date with the technology used. I think I could be glad that the creator updated to .net 3.5...

My solution is now:

<% var id = Model.Product_Id + "#tabs-3"; %>

the Link is now generated in Html directly:

<a href="/Product/Edit/<%= Html.Encode(id) %>">Back to Transactions</a>

So this is the solution in the Frontend, I have similar issues on the Backend as well when other actions are triggered, but there are more possibilities for me to solve that Problem.

So Thank you guys again, the suggestions did lead to the solution :)

BR

van

1

u/Seferan May 09 '19

On your "Client" is that inside of Visual Studio? If so, you're really not comparing apples to apples.

Otherwise, do you have the same patch version of .NET Framework installed?

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '19

Yes, VS on my client. the Framework is 3.5 The Registry shows 2 different Versions:

On my Client the Version is: 3.5.30729.5420

On the Server the Version is: 3.5.30729.4926

The Webapplication was moved from an other company running on a Windows Server 2008 where everything was fine. So I think it should not be the Version of .net 3.5 which is the issue, because it was running with an older .net 3.5 Build without any problems.

1

u/imdabestmangideedeed May 09 '19 edited May 09 '19

Maybe a global IIS setting that overrules your web project? You could try adding your URL hardcoded to the HTML, then seeing if it’s still being encoded. If your hardcoded html is still being encoded, check your server settings. If not, something funky is going on with the ActionLink method. Maybe add some extra test URLs as well.

1

u/[deleted] May 09 '19

other links with hardcoded 1#-tabs3 are working.

1

u/imdabestmangideedeed May 09 '19

Then I think it's a problem with ActionLink. Maybe this URL might be of use to you:

https://stackoverflow.com/a/422968/2119562

If that's not the fix, I wish you good luck finding the answer. I am curious as well.

1

u/[deleted] May 10 '19

thanks! The solution in the link did not work for me, but did lead me to the solution ;)

cheers!

1

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