Dynamics CRM Web Api Function: Illegal characters in path when using encodeURIComponent - asp.net-web-api2

Question

I'm trying to use the Search Function (https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/mt608029.aspx) via the Dynamics CRM 2016 Web API. This is my code:
var start = new Date(2016, 2, 1, 17, 0, 0);
var end = new Date(2016, 2, 10, 18, 0, 0);
var request = new Object();
request.AppointmentRequest = new Object();
request.AppointmentRequest.SearchWindowStart = start.toISOString();
request.AppointmentRequest.SearchWindowEnd = end.toISOString();
request.AppointmentRequest.ServiceId = "5f3b6e7f-48c0-e511-80d7-d89d67631c44";
request.AppointmentRequest.Direction = 0;
request.AppointmentRequest.NumberOfResults = 10;
request.AppointmentRequest.UserTimeZone = 1;
var req = new XMLHttpRequest()
req.open("GET", clientUrl + "/api/data/v8.0/Search(" + encodeURIComponent( JSON.stringify(request) ) +")", true);
req.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
req.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
req.setRequestHeader("OData-MaxVersion", "4.0");
req.setRequestHeader("OData-Version", "4.0");
req.onreadystatechange = function () {
if (req.readyState == 4 && req.status == 200) {
alert(req.responseText);
}
else {
alert(req.response);
}
};
req.send();
When I initially tried this using CRM Online I received the following error:
"An error has occurred.
Try this action again. If the problem continues, check the Microsoft Dynamics >CRM Community for solutions or contact your organization's Microsoft >Dynamics CRM Administrator. Finally, you can contact Microsoft Support."
When I try this with an On-Premise deployment with DevErrors="On" in the web.config, I see the following error in the Event Viewer:
Exception information:
Exception type: HttpException
Exception message: A potentially dangerous Request.Path value was detected >from the client (:).
at System.Web.HttpRequest.ValidateInputIfRequiredByConfig()
at System.Web.HttpApplication.PipelineStepManager.ValidateHelper(HttpContext >context)
Request information:
Request URL: http://win-0e5dfqgqorm:444/ORG/api/data/v8.0/Search({"AppointmentRequest":{"SearchWindowStart":"2016-03-01T17:00:00.000Z","SearchWindowEnd":"2016-03-10T18:00:00.000Z","ServiceId":"5f3b6e7f-48c0-e511-80d7-d89d67631c44","Direction":0,"NumberOfResults":10,"UserTimeZone":1}})
Request path: /SHUDEV/api/data/v8.0/Search({"AppointmentRequest":{"SearchWindowStart":"2016-03-01T17:00:00.000Z","SearchWindowEnd":"2016-03-10T18:00:00.000Z","ServiceId":"5f3b6e7f-48c0-e511-80d7-d89d67631c44","Direction":0,"NumberOfResults":10,"UserTimeZone":1}})
The JSON object is encoded so I'm not sure why it's detected illegal characters. The SDK documentation for the Web Api is light and doesn't go into too much detail as to how to pass a ComplexType to a Web Api function, has anyone seen this issue before/managed to pass a ComplexType to a Web Api function?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I managed to resolve this issue. The key is to pass the JSON object in as a query parameter:
var request = new Object();
request.SearchWindowStart = start.toISOString();
request.SearchWindowEnd = end.toISOString();
request.ServiceId = "5f3b6e7f-48c0-e511-80d7-d89d67631c44";
request.Direction = '0';
request.NumberOfResults = 10;
request.UserTimeZoneCode = 1;
var req = new XMLHttpRequest()
req.open("GET", clientUrl + "/api/data/v8.0/Search(AppointmentRequest=#request)?#request=" + JSON.stringify(request) , true);
req.setRequestHeader("Accept", "application/json");
req.setRequestHeader("Content-Type", "application/json; charset=utf-8");
req.setRequestHeader("OData-MaxVersion", "4.0");
req.setRequestHeader("OData-Version", "4.0");
req.onreadystatechange = function () {
if (req.readyState == 4 && req.status == 200) {
alert(req.responseText);
}
else {
alert(req.response);
}
};
req.send();
This is documented in the SDK: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/gg309638.aspx.
Hope this helps anyone who runs into a similar issue.