Encrypting URL parameters with AMPscript

Question

I am trying to encrypt URL parameters using AMPScript but I have an issue with the encrypted parameters, they include symbols like + or =. So they cannot be used as strings in a URL parameter.

Is there any solution for that? I have tried the encrypting functions in AMPScript but I do not know if there is a way to restrict the encrypted string to a set of chars that does not include special chars.

Edit:

Thanks for the answer but it does not solve the issue. If there are only one parameter and it contains = or ? the amp will not identify the string. Look at the example:

URL

www.whatever.com/?string1=2343?23=

AMPcode in HTML page

%%[ SET @example = Requestparameter ("string1") ]%%
<p> string1: %%=v(@example)=%% </p>

You would expect that the html displayed 2343?23= but it is not displaying anything. You can also try with the string 2342&3234 then the page will display 2342 only. Therefore you can see that one parameter does not solve the problem. Unless I missed something. Anyway thanks.

Edit 2:

The parameter is one of the fields of the subscriber (i.e. email), I encrypt the parameter and I place it in the link. Something like this href="www.whatever.com/%%=v(@example)=%%". Then in the landing page I want to decrypt the parameter and it is there where I have problems if the encrypted parameter contains & or + (not sure if other symbols may also make it not work).

Let me share the code I am using to validate the encryption / decryption works.

%%[ SET @example = Requestparameter ("parametro") ]%%

Parameter: %%=v(@example)=%%

These are some examples of not being able to obtain the complete string in AMP

www.whatever.com/?parametro=23+&24= Then in AMPScript the variable gets the value 23 www.whatever.com/?parametro=2a&der Then there is an error in the code

I know that this is the expected behaviour this is why I am looking for an encryption function that does not generate chars like & or +.

Answer 1

Your solution should be fairly straight forward.

When you are creating the link in the email, use URLencode()

href="%%=URLencode(Concat('www.whatever.com/','@example'))=%%"

Give that a shot.

Javier extra info -->

Finally I was able to fix this, thanks Kelly for your tip. The solution is detailed next.

%%[SET @Parameterencoded = URLencode(@parameter,1,1)]%%

%%[SET @finalURL = Concat("www.whatever.com/?fieldname=",@Parameterencoded)]%%

I had to do it like this because encoding the string www.whatever.com/?fieldname= was changing the = and then the final URL was not working.

Answer 2

Unfortunately, there is no way to pick the characters. There is, however. a workaround; I have done this. Those special characters are only limiting if you have more than one parameter in the query string. I did it like this.

1. Encrypt the entirety of the parameter string.
2. Make that new encrypted string the sole parameter in your string.
3. Use substring/regex (AMPscript) utilities on the destination landing page to get that encrypted string out.
4. Decrypt and split that string up as needed on the destination LP.

Hope this helps!