fix(invite): preserve %20 in dial-in room query param

[nishant25kr]

Summary

Fixes the alpha dial-in flow where rooms with spaces are rendered as test+room in static/dialInInfo.html.

Root cause

The dial-in URL is built with URLSearchParams, which encodes spaces in query params as +. The dial-in page later decodes the param for display, but decodeURIComponent does not convert + to spaces, so the UI renders test+room.

Fix

Preserve spaces as %20 in appendURLParam() by replacing + with %20 in the final URL string.

Repro

1. Open https://alpha.jitsi.net/test room
2. Join the meeting
3. Click Invite people → More numbers
4. Before fix: test+room
5. After fix: test%20room

[jitsi-jenkins]

Hi, thanks for your contribution!
If you haven't already done so, could you please make sure you sign our CLA (https://jitsi.org/icla for individuals and https://jitsi.org/ccla for corporations)? We would unfortunately be unable to merge your patch unless we have that piece :(.

[nishant25kr]

I’ve signed the Individual CLA. Please let me know if anything else is needed from my side.

[nishant25kr]

Fixes #16958

[damencho]

Have you checked all places where this is used and tested that this is not breaking anything? I don't think this is correct.

[nishant25kr]

Hi @damencho,

I double-check the approach.

• The dial-in URL is generated with URLSearchParams, which encodes spaces as +
• On the dial-in page, we use decodeURIComponent, which does not convert + → space
• This results in test+room being displayed instead of test room

My initial fix was to preserve %20 in appendURLParam, but I realize this might not be the best place to handle it and could have side effects in other usages of that helper.

Before proceeding further, I wanted to confirm the preferred approach:

Should we : Normalize the room value at the UI level (e.g. replace + with space before decoding)

[damencho]

Should we : Normalize the room value at the UI level (e.g. replace + with space before decoding)

As it is known that the room name came from a url parameter then it just needs to be url decoded(decodeURIComponent).

[nishant25kr]

I tried using only decodeURIComponent as suggested, but noticed that it doesn’t convert + to spaces:

decodeURIComponent("test+room") // "test+room"

In our case, spaces are encoded as +, so the UI still shows test+room.

Would it make sense to normalize + → space before decoding in this specific case, or should we ensure the room param is always encoded as %20 instead?

[damencho]

You can use URLSearchParams to catch all cases for decoding.

[nishant25kr]

I've updated the implementation to use URLSearchParams for retrieving the room value instead of manual decoding. This correctly handles both + and %20 cases without needing any additional normalization.

Also removed the previous change in appendURLParam to avoid affecting other usages.

Please let me know if this looks good!

[damencho]

jenkins test this please

[nishant25kr]

Hi @damencho,

Thanks again for the review and merge!

I’m planning to apply for GSoC with Jitsi this year and wanted to get your guidance. I’ve been contributing recently (3 PRs merged so far)

I wanted to ask:

• Is there any specific area or issue type where contributions would be more valuable for GSoC preparation?
• Any suggestions on how I can strengthen my proposal or contributions in the coming days?

Thanks again!