g_form.getDisplayBox('reference field').value does not return values with '&'

[Lathashree Ling]

I am using g_form.getDisplayBox('reference field').value in a UI action as below.

function searchCompany() {
var url = 'http://www.bing.com/search?q=';
var company = (g_form.getDisplayBox('reference_field').value);
window.open(url + company , '_blank');
}

For example, Reference field value = Apple & Pie, the URL searches just 'Apple'

However, it works fine for values with , and space. Just the '&'. Any thoughts?

[Chuck Tomasi]

The underlying problem is that & is special to URLs. What you are actually telling is another parameter called Pie. You need to encode that query so & is turned in to %26. On the server side, you can do this with gs.urlEncode(). I recommend using this as a server side UI action. I don't see a big need for doing this client side.

var url = "http://yoursite.com/?search=";
var urlArg = gs.urlEncode(current.reference_field.getDisplayValue());
action.setRedirectURL(url + urlArg);

[Mark Stanger]

You need to encode the value you're getting.  Try this...

function searchCompany() {
    var url = 'http://www.bing.com/search?q=';
    var company = (g_form.getDisplayBox('reference_field').value);
    company = company.encodeURIComponent(company);
    window.open(url + company , '_blank');
}

[Lathashree Ling]

Mark, this does not work!

[Mark Stanger · Accepted solution]

Try this...

function searchCompany() {
    var url = 'http://www.bing.com/search?q=';
    var company = (g_form.getDisplayBox('u_group').value);
    company = encodeURIComponent(company).toString();
    window.open(url + company);
}