Data group with special characters

Question

Hi, 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; I have an iRule using a string data group. The iRule look for those strings in the HTTP header to do the correct balancing 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; Now i need to add new strings to the data group, but those strings include special characters like carriage return ( 
 ) or somethings like that. 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; The problem is that it seems not to recognize those characters for the comparison, and it doesn´t find those strings. 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; Do you know if there is any way to introduce those kind of characters in a data group??? 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; Thank you very much in advance. 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; Best regards.

hoolio · Answer

Hi Adrian, 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; I couldn't figure out a way to add a carriage return to a datagroup.  I'm not sure this is possible.  If you don't get any suggestions here, you could open a case with F5 Support. 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; Can you clarify what you're trying to do with a carriage return in the datagroup?  HTTP header values shouldn't have a carriage return.  Just about any ASCII meta-character should be URL encoded if included in an HTTP header or value. 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; Aaron

adrian_1807 · Answer

Hi Aaron, 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; Thank you very much. I opened a case with F5 support, but they told me that they couldn´t help me with this issue.... ;-( 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; What the customer want to do is: 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp;      - When www.google.com/m?login --&gt; match with the data group and send to a specific pool 
&nbsp;      - When www.google.com --&gt; sent to another pool 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; The thing is that when we write in the data group www.google.com/m?login, the string is not matched with the data group. It seems not to recognize the caracters / or ?...... 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; I thought it should be any way to introduce those characters, but now i am not so sure.... 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; Thank you very much. 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; Ciaoo

hoolio · Answer

Why couldn't they help with the question?  You should be able to use / and ? and other meta-characters as string class elements.  I just couldn't figure out how to include a newline or other character.   
  
 Here is a quick test that worked on 10.1:

b class chars_class list 
 class chars_class { 
    { 
       "www.example.com/path/to/file.ext?param=value" 
    } 
 }

when RULE_INIT { 
  
    log local0. "class search1: [class search chars_class contains "file.ext"]" 
    log local0. "class search2: [class search chars_class contains "www.example.com/path/to/file.ext?param=value"]" 
    log local0. "class search3: [class search -element chars_class contains "www.example.com/path/to/file.ext?param=value"]" 
 }

: class search1: 1 
 : class search2: 1 
 : class search3: www.example.com/path/to/file.ext?param=value {} 
  
 Aaron

hamish · Answer

Add the data as a base64 encoded string. Then when you've readthe value from the class, simply decode it. 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; H

hoolio · Answer

Novel solution.  You'd want to also base64 encode the string you're looking up against the class. 
&nbsp;  
&nbsp; Aaron

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