spring mvc decoding + is being replaced with space - iphone

Question

I have problem in Spring MVC pattern. When i call the web service form iPhone app with encoded value, The decoding is not happening properly. Not sure about what the issue is.
the + sign is getting replaced with a space " ".
Below is my web.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><br>
<web-app xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"<br>
xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd"<br>
xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_3_0.xsd"<br>
id="WebApp_ID" version="3.0"><br>
<display-name>APPLICATIONNAME</display-name><br>
<filter><br>
<filter-name>encoding-filter</filter-name><br>
<filter-class>org.springframework.web.filter.CharacterEnco dingFilter</filter-class><br>
<init-param><br>
<param-name>encoding</param-name><br>
<param-value>UTF-8</param-value><br>
</init-param><br>
<init-param><br>
<param-name>forceEncoding</param-name><br>
<param-value>true</param-value><br>
</init-param><br>
</filter><br>
<filter-mapping><br>
<filter-name>encoding-filter</filter-name><br>
<url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern><br>
</filter-mapping><br>
<servlet><br>
<servlet-name>spring</servlet-name><br>
<servlet-class>org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherSe rvlet</servlet-class><br>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup><br>
</servlet><br>
<servlet-mapping><br>
<servlet-name>spring</servlet-name><br>
<url-pattern>/rest/*</url-pattern><br>
</servlet-mapping><br>
<welcome-file-list><br>
<welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file><br>
</welcome-file-list><br>
</web-app><br>
My controller class
#Controller
public class LoginController {
#Autowired
private LoginServiceImpl loginService;
#RequestMapping(value = "/getUserDetails", method = RequestMethod.POST)
public #ResponseBody
LoginData getUserDetails(#ModelAttribute LoginDetails loginDetails) {
LOGGER.debug("Session ID = " + loginDetails.getSessionID());
}
Sample input request from iPhone APP
NSURLResponse *response = nil;
NSError *error = nil;
NSString *urlString = #"http://localhost:8080/rest/getUserDetails";
NSURL *url = [NSURL URLWithString:urlString];
NSMutableURLRequest *urlRequest = [NSMutableURLRequest requestWithURL:url];
NSURLConnection *connection= [[NSURLConnection alloc] initWithRequest:urlRequest
delegate:self];
[urlRequest setHTTPMethod:#"POST"];
NSString *postString = [NSString stringWithFormat:#"sessionID=%#",#"ABCD+/EFGH"];
NSData *a=[postString dataUsingEncoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(#"encoded %#",a);
[urlRequest setHTTPBody:a];
[connection start];
NSString *returnString = [[NSString alloc] initWithData:[NSURLConnection sendSynchronousRequest:urlRequest returningResponse:&response error:&error] encoding:NSUTF8StringEncoding];
NSLog(#" %# ",returnString);
NSLog(#"%#",error);
On the server side instead of "ABCD+/EFGH" i am getting "ABCD /EFGH". SO the plus (+) is not getting decoded.
What needs to be done to get the plus (+) on the server? Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

It's an expected behavour.
In application/x-www-form-urlencoded form (used for sending form data in POST) space is encoded as +, and real + should be represented in percent-encoded form (%2B).
I think it would be better to use some kind of built-in application/x-www-form-urlencoded encoding routine, if available on iPhone, instead of manual replacement.