Special Characters in Usernames and Passwords

This topic explains how to handle special characters in the usernames and passwords that need to be included in input url string.

Special characters

If your remote server requires authentication, you can include username and password in the input url string. Usernames and passwords should have the following special characters percent-encoded:

Special Charaters
Character Percent-Encoded
]%5B
[%5D
?%3F
/%2F
<%3C
~%7E
#%23
`%6D
!%21
@%40
$%24
%%25
^%5E
&%26
*%2A
(%28
)%29
+%2B
=%3D
}%7D
|%7C
:%3A
"%22
;%3B
'%27
,%2C
>%3E
{%7B
space%20

Examples:

  • http://example.com/path/to/input.avi
  • https://example.com/path/to/input.mov
  • ftp://example.com/path/to/input.mp3
  • sftp://example.com/path/to/input.3gp
  • https://s3.amazonaws.com/bucket-name/input.mpeg
  • s3://bucket-name/input.mpeg (shorthand for the full HTTP S3 url)

Examples (with username "user" and password "pass!word"):

  • http://user:pass%21word@example.com/path/to/input.avi
  • https://user:pass%21word@example.com/path/to/input.mov
  • ftp://user:pass%21word@example.com/path/to/input.mp3
  • sftp://user:pass%21word@example.com/path/to/input.3gp
  • ftp://user:pass%21word@example.com/path/to/input.mp3

Some servers require the username include your domain name (username "user@example.com" and password "pass!word"):

  • http://user%40example.com:pass%21word@example.com/path/to/input.avi
  • https://user%40example.com:pass%21word@example.com/path/to/input.mov
  • ftp://user%40example.com:pass%21word@example.com/path/to/input.mp3
  • sftp://user%40example.com:pass%21word@example.com/path/to/input.3gp
  • ftp://user%40example.com:pass%21word@example.com/path/to/input.mp3