In a Web Sources script, having [] characters in "IndexUrl" results in: "Error connecting to server - provided uri is invalid"

Development Web Sources Discussion
1

The issue is that, in a Web Sources script, having [] characters in IndexUrl results in:
Error connecting to server: provided uri is invalid:

 
In details:
I'm trying to modify the Metal-Archives web source script in order to display all versions (CD, cassette, vinyl) of an album, not just the first match.

That's why I tried to append to IndexUrl in its line 28 the following:
releaseFormat[]=CD&releaseFormat[]=Cassette
i.e.:
to become

[IndexUrl]=https://www.metal-archives.com/search/ajax-advanced/searching/albums/?releaseFormat[]=CD&releaseFormat[]=Cassette

but unfortunately I'm getting e.g. this:
2024-02-10_012112

And, If I omit the [] chars, i.e.

[IndexUrl]=https://www.metal-archives.com/search/ajax-advanced/searching/albums/?releaseFormat=CD&releaseFormat=Cassette

then I don't get the above error, but that URL is wrong and naturally returns no results:
Screenshot 2024-02-10 125123

I also tried escaping these characters with backticks `:

[IndexUrl]=https://www.metal-archives.com/search/ajax-advanced/searching/albums/?releaseFormat'[]'=CD&releaseFormat'[]'=Cassette

but the backticks are unfortunately included in the produced URL instead:
Screenshot 2024-02-10 131033

Using 3.24 (or 3.24a) x64 on win11.

Thank you

Me&tal Archives#Search by Band + Album (non-working).src (5.3 KB)
Me&tal Archives#Search by Band + Album (original).src (5.3 KB)

2

What happens if you try it with the encoded values like
%5B%5D
for [ and ]?

[IndexUrl]=https://www.metal-archives.com/search/ajax-advanced/searching/albums/?releaseFormat%5B%5D=CD&releaseFormat%5B%5D'=Cassette

I'm not sure why you use an ending apostrophe in your .src file for IndexUrl, but that seems to be necessary to find something?

3

Yes, with the encoded values %5B%5D it's working fine, thanks a lot!

That ending ' was kept by mistake, sorry. So the following is working fine:
[IndexUrl]=https://www.metal-archives.com/search/ajax-advanced/searching/albums/?releaseFormat%5B%5D=CD&releaseFormat%5B%5D=Cassette

So, I don't know if my report is considered a bug( or rather a feature request), or if it works as expected?
I mean, is percent-encoding is the way to go in such cases, or it would it be possible to also support [] characters in IndexUrl? (kindly cc @Florian)

4

It depends on the concrete Tag Source and since this one requires percent encoding, it's necessary for the Tag Source developer to provide the correct formatting.

Mp3tag doesn't encode any of what's provided in IndexUrl and AlbumUrl, but encodes the input provided according to the Encoding provided.