Wondering how to resolve Url Encoded Slashes(%2F) in Apache? Our in-house experts are here to help you out with this article. Our server management services is here to offer a lending hand with your queries and issues.

5 Solutions to Url Encoded Slashes (%2F) Problem in Apache

Script generated url structure based on actual data coming from external sources such as user input and rss feed, may result in a “404 (Not Found)” error in Apache especially when it contains url encoded slashes.

Today, let us see the methods followed by our Support techs to resolve it:

1. Turn on “AllowEncodedSlashes” directive in Apache

This directive may be set in server config file (e.g. httpd.conf) and may appear inside <VirtualHost> containers to affect certain websites.

Using it in .htaccess files is not allowed.

Turning on this directive tells the web server to allow encoded slashes in URLs.

2.Replace %2F with %252F and %5C with %255C after url encoding

Consider the PHP code below.

$url = ‘http://www.example.com/books/’;

$title = ‘the lamp, linux/apache/mysql/php solution’;

// replace all spaces with underscores (_) in the $title

$title = str_replace(‘ ‘, ‘_’, $title);

// urlencode the $title and replace all occurrences of encoded slashes in one line

$url .= str_replace(array(‘%2F’,’%5C’), array(‘%252F’,’%255C’), urlencode($title)) . ‘.html’;

The url will become:

http://www.example.com/books/the_lamp%2C_linux%252Fapache%252Fmysql%252Fphp_solution.html

%25 is actually the url encoded equivalent of percent (%) so the code above is actually url encoding the slashes twice.

3. Double urlencode()

Using the same variables in #2, the code below,

$url .= urlencode(urlencode($title)) . &#39.html’

will result in a url

http://www.example.com/books/the_lamp%252C_linux%252Fapache%252Fmysql%252Fphp_solution.html

Note that other url encoded characters are transformed as well. Notice the %252C. It is changed from %2C which is the encoded equivalent of comma (,).

Both #2 and #3 will work but they will make your URLs longer, ugly and harder to read.

4.Use unencoded slashes

As a good practice, we urlencode strings which may contain slashes, for use in a url. To get back the slashes, we need to replace %2F with slash (/) character.

Using same variables in #2, the following code,

$url .= str_replace(&#39%2F&#39, &#39/&#39, urlencode($title)) . &#39.html’

will output

http://www.example.com/books/the_lamp%2C_linux/apache/mysql/php_solution.html

A very nice looking slashes in the URL. However, it reads as though you have a page named “php_solution.html” inside the mysql folder. And, in fact, if you happen to have one, that page will be displayed instead.

5. Replace slashes with underscores (_)

The safest and most practical way of handling slashes, is to replace them with underscores before url encoding.

Using the variables in #2, the following PHP code (also replaces commas),

$url .= urlencode(str_replace(array(&#39/&#39,&#39,&#39), &#39_&#39, $title)) . &#39.html’

will output

http://www.example.com/books/the_lamp__linux_apache_mysql_php_solution.html

Conclusion

In conclusion, our Support Engineers showed us steps to resolve WP_Error-cURL error 7. Drop us a line in the comments if you face any trouble.