Bug: Unable to filter emails containing "+" character in API

popsmash
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Userlevel 3
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While attempting to get a profile by email I discovered that filtering is broken for emails containing a “+” character.

URL-encoding the + to %2B also doesn’t seem to work.

Works

?filter=equals(email,"user@popsmash.com")

== RESPONSE ==

{
  "data": [
    {
      "type": "profile",
      "id": "01GT84QJYY1DMSR8J9JY454Z86",
      "attributes": {
        "email": "user@popsmash.com"
      }
    }
  ]
}

Does not work

?filter=equals(email,"user+test@popsmash.com")
?filter=equals(email,"user%2Btest@popsmash.com") // URL encoded "+"

== RESPONSE ==

{
  "data": []
}

 

POPSMASH: Making marketing personal at https://www.popsmash.com

12 replies

KeviSunshine
Rank
Userlevel 4
Badge +7

Hi @popsmash,

 

Great question. I love the + trick for emails–I use it all the time and I know I’ve triggered events via the API with profiles with a  + in their email.

 

I gave this a go with the link you shared (thanks for that, didn’t know about that filter syntax) and although it’s not working with a +, it’s working for me when I URL encode it to %2B. Try URL encoding again!! I didn’t encode the whole email address–just the +.

 

Request URL: https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profiles?filter=equals(email,"testing%2B123@example.com")

 

Cheers,

Kevin.

popsmash
Rank
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

Hey @KeviSunshine, thanks for hoping in and checking this!

So wild that it still doesn’t work for me, even with %2B.

I’ll have to think about what else could be going on here...

POPSMASH: Making marketing personal at https://www.popsmash.com
S
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +7

Hey @KeviSunshine, thanks for hoping in and checking this!

So wild that it still doesn’t work for me, even with %2B.

I’ll have to think about what else could be going on here...

Could you post a screenshot of Klaviyo profile page for the profile with email user+test@popsmash.com ?

popsmash
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Userlevel 3
Badge +4

@saulblum oh that is a fake email posted here for demonstration purposes.

Real examples below...

 

Works

 

Does not work

 

Profile exists

 

POPSMASH: Making marketing personal at https://www.popsmash.com
S
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +7

@popsmash Odd, usually encoding a plus sign to %2b does the trick. I assume lowercase vs. uppercase B shouldn’t matter.

popsmash
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Userlevel 3
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@saulblum lowercase %2b also does not work, still behaving like a bug for me. Are you using revision 2023-02-22?

POPSMASH: Making marketing personal at https://www.popsmash.com
popsmash
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Userlevel 3
Badge +4

For anyone else affected, this is still a bug in v2023-06-15 of the API:

 

[1] https://a.klaviyo.com/api/lists/VFMwXV/profiles?fields[profile]=email&filter=any(email,["fjarrett+47@gmail.com"])

{
  "data": [
  ],
  "links": {
    "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/lists/VFMwXV/profiles?fields%5Bprofile%5D=email&filter=any(email,%5B%22fjarrett+47@gmail.com%22%5D)",
    "next": null,
    "prev": null
  }
}

[2] https://a.klaviyo.com/api/lists/VFMwXV/profiles?fields[profile]=email&filter=any(email,["fjarrett%2B47@gmail.com"])

{
  "data": [
  ],
  "links": {
    "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/lists/VFMwXV/profiles?fields%5Bprofile%5D=email&filter=any(email,%5B%22fjarrett%252B47@gmail.com%22%5D)",
    "next": null,
    "prev": null
  }
}

 

But we can see the email exists when querying the whole list:

https://a.klaviyo.com/api/lists/VFMwXV/profiles?fields[profile]=email

{
  "data": [
    {
      "type": "profile",
      "id": "01GV92V6MQMSWMWYDVJQWGPP9K",
      "attributes": {
        "email": "fjarrett+47@gmail.com"
      },
      "relationships": {
        "lists": {
          "links": {
            "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profiles/01GV92V6MQMSWMWYDVJQWGPP9K/relationships/lists/",
            "related": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profiles/01GV92V6MQMSWMWYDVJQWGPP9K/lists/"
          }
        },
        "segments": {
          "links": {
            "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profiles/01GV92V6MQMSWMWYDVJQWGPP9K/relationships/segments/",
            "related": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profiles/01GV92V6MQMSWMWYDVJQWGPP9K/segments/"
          }
        }
      },
      "links": {
        "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profiles/01GV92V6MQMSWMWYDVJQWGPP9K/"
      }
    },
  ],
  "links": {
    "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/lists/VFMwXV/profiles?fields%5Bprofile%5D=email",
    "next": null,
    "prev": null
  }
}

 

Filtering emails that do not have a “+” character works perfectly fine:

https://a.klaviyo.com/api/lists/VFMwXV/profiles?fields[profile]=email&filter=any(email,["hello@popsmash.com"])

{
  "data": [
    {
      "type": "profile",
      "id": "01GVCM533GG3VAFYB6R31NH9VT",
      "attributes": {
        "email": "hello@popsmash.com"
      },
      "relationships": {
        "lists": {
          "links": {
            "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profiles/01GVCM533GG3VAFYB6R31NH9VT/relationships/lists/",
            "related": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profiles/01GVCM533GG3VAFYB6R31NH9VT/lists/"
          }
        },
        "segments": {
          "links": {
            "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profiles/01GVCM533GG3VAFYB6R31NH9VT/relationships/segments/",
            "related": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profiles/01GVCM533GG3VAFYB6R31NH9VT/segments/"
          }
        }
      },
      "links": {
        "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/profiles/01GVCM533GG3VAFYB6R31NH9VT/"
      }
    }
  ],
  "links": {
    "self": "https://a.klaviyo.com/api/lists/VFMwXV/profiles?fields%5Bprofile%5D=email&filter=any(email,%5B%22hello@popsmash.com%22%5D)",
    "next": null,
    "prev": null
  }
}

 

POPSMASH: Making marketing personal at https://www.popsmash.com
Brian Turcotte
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Userlevel 7
Badge +36

Hi @popsmash!

I will forward this to our product team and get back to the thread as soon as possible!

 

- Brian

popsmash
Rank
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

Thanks @Brian Turcotte, we appreciate it!

POPSMASH: Making marketing personal at https://www.popsmash.com
Kim Strauch
Rank
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

Hey @popsmash! I think you need to use encodeURIComponent (or your language’s equivalent) on the query param value in order to account for special characters like a “+”. 


Given your example of 

https://a.klaviyo.com/api/lists/VFMwXV/profiles?fields[profile]=email&filter=any(email,["fjarrett+47@gmail.com"])
 

Using Javascript, if you call encodeURIComponent(`any(email,["fjarrett+47@gmail.com"])`), you get `any(email%2C%5B%22fjarrett%2B47%40gmail.com%22%5D)`

 

If you then append that to the query string, and call GET https://a.klaviyo.com/api/lists/VFMwXV/profiles?fields[profile]=email&filter=any(email%2C%5B%22fjarrett%2B47%40gmail.com%22%5D), do you get the result you’re expecting?

See  our guide on filtering as well as this SO post for more details on encoding. 

popsmash
Rank
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

@Kim Strauch thanks for the message. When I use the URL format you are suggesting it results in a filter input error. Is it working for you?

{
  "errors": [
    {
      "id": "9ca07d48-74f3-4026-9306-e64fbd86c724",
      "status": 400,
      "code": "invalid",
      "title": "Invalid input.",
      "detail": "Invalid filter provided.",
      "source": {
        "parameter": "filter"
      },
      "meta": {
      }
    }
  ]
}

 

 

POPSMASH: Making marketing personal at https://www.popsmash.com
Kim Strauch
Rank
Userlevel 3
Badge +4

Interesting. I think the API request application you’re using is additionally URI encoding the entire request URL that is causing some problems here. I was able to look up the error ID you included and it seems the URL that’s being requested here is https://a.klaviyo.com/api/lists/VFMwXV/profiles?fields%5Bprofile%5D=email&filter=any(email%252C%255B%2522fjarrett%252B47%2540gmail.com%2522%255D)

When I request the URL shared above it works for me and I don’t run into an invalid filter error. 

If you use one of our Postman collections, you can update the value for the filter param and then select the text and hit “Encode URI Component” to encode it properly. Here’s a link to our latest Postman collection you can use, and some screenshots showing the steps I used. 
 


 

 

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