Jquery .ajax fails when basic auth username has @ symbol (ios / cordova)

Question

I have a phonegap app w/ jQuery 1.9.1 Worked great as long as the username doesn\'t have \'@\' symbol in it (like in email addresses). It only fails on iOS.

I suspec

Answer 1

Try wrapping encodeURIComponent() before base64 encoding.

beforeSend: function (xhr) {
        xhr.setRequestHeader("Authorization",
            "Basic " + $.base64.encode(encodeURIComponent(this.username + ":" + this.password)));
    },

Answer 2

I would bet the problem is not using a contentType : "application/x-www-form-urlencoded".

Anyway, you should definitely debug your Webview against a real device, to look for xhr errors on the Safari console. If you are not familiar with Safari remote debugging, it's easy:

• in your iPhone/iPad, go to Settings -> Safari -> Advanced => Enable Web Inspector.
• connect to MacOSX via cable, and select your app from the "Develop" menu of Safari in your desktop
• Now check any errors regarding your request, or better yet, debug the code and callbacks step by step.

Answer 3

When base64encoded text is UNencoded on the other end, it still looks like (as you said), user@domain:password@blah.domain.com Try having a function like this:

var getAuthToken = function (user, pass) {
    var token = "";
    if (user) {
        token = token + encodeURIComponent(user);
    }
    if (pass) {
        token = token + ":" + encodeURIComponent(pass);
    }
    token = $.base64.encode(token);
    return "Basic " + token;
};

Then just change your code slightly:

xhr.setRequestHeader("Authorization", getAuthToken(this.username, this.password));