Separating comma is not URL-encoded in array query parameter with style: form, explode: false and allowReserved: false

[marvinruder]

Q&A (please complete the following information)

• OS: macOS 14.0 (build 23A344)
• Browser: Safari Version 17.0 (19616.1.27.211.1)
• Method of installation: static file server
• Swagger-UI version: 5.9.0
• Swagger/OpenAPI version: OpenAPI 3.0.3

Content & configuration

Example Swagger/OpenAPI definition:

openapi: 3.0.3
info:
  title: Example
  version: "0"
servers:
  - url: https://example.com/api
paths:
  /list:
    get:
      parameters:
        - name: elements
          in: query
          style: form
          explode: false
          allowReserved: false
          schema:
            type: array
            items:
              type: string
      responses:
        '200':
          description: Successful operation

To reproduce...

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open Swagger UI with the configuration provided
2. Open endpoint and click “Try it out”
3. Add multiple strings to array
4. Click “Execute”
5. Observe that in the request URL sent to the (example) server array strings are joined using unencoded ,, in violation of allowReserved: false configuration option

Expected behavior

The strings are separated by %2C instead of ,.

Screenshots

[ptrstn]

Any solutions to this?

[char0n]

This is caused by upstream swagger-client library

[char0n]

After thorough investigation we've determined that status quo is correct. We've created a PR that solves the potential issue described in this GitHub issue, but during the code review we've uncovered that the change would introduce ambiguity into encoding and the data semantics will be lost when utilized.

parameter value1: "data,data"
parameter value2: "data,data"

Before the PR
-------------------
allowReserved=false: param=data%2Cdata,data%2Cdata
allowReserved=true: param=data,data,data,data

After the PR
----------------
allowReserved=false: param=data%2Cdata%2Cdata%2Cdata
allowReserved=true: param=data,data,data,data

After scenario proves that it is not possible to construct original parameter value again as the separator is now ambiguous.

Please reopen this issue if you disagree with our reasoning.