C# – Uri.EscapeDataString() – Invalid URI: The Uri string is too long

ccompact-frameworkexception handlinghttpwebrequesturi

I'm using compact framework/C# on windows mobile.

In my application I am uploading data to the server by serializing objects and using a HttpWebRequest/POST request to send the information up. On the server the post data is de-serialised and saved to the db.

The other day I realised that I had a problem with special characters in the post data (ampersands etc..). So I introduced Uri.EscapeDataString() into the method and all was well.

However, today I have discovered that there is a problem when the application attempts to upload a large amount of data (I'm unsure of what exactly denotes "large" at the moment!)

Existing code (Kind of)

var uploadData = new List<Things>();

uploadData.Add(new Thing() { Name = "Test 01" });
uploadData.Add(new Thing() { Name = "Test 02" });
uploadData.Add(new Thing() { Name = "Test with an & Ampersand " }); // Do this a lot!!

var postData = "uploadData=" + Uri.EscapeDataString(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(uploadData, new IsoDateTimeConverter()));

Problem

The call to Uri.EscapeDataString() is causing the following exception:

System.UriFormatException: Invalid URI: The Uri string is too long.

Question

Are there any other ways to prepare the data for upload?

As far as I can see HttpUtility (which has its own Encode/Decode methods) is not available for the compact framework.

Best Answer

Or you could simply split your string and call Uri.EscapeDataString(string) for each block, in order to avoid reimplementing the function.

Sample Code:

        String value = "large string to encode";
        int limit = 2000;

        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        int loops = value.Length / limit;

        for (int i = 0; i <= loops; i++)
        {
            if (i < loops)
            {
                sb.Append(Uri.EscapeDataString(value.Substring(limit * i, limit)));
            }
            else
            {
                sb.Append(Uri.EscapeDataString(value.Substring(limit * i)));
            }
        }
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