My Sites Link in Search Resuls is Incorrect (Escaped)

Question

I've setup MySites in SharePoint 2013 and created some test sites. Everything seems to be working well except on searching people. Using search center finds the person and the link's backslash is escaped.

    http://mysiteshost/Person.aspx?accountname=DOMAIN%255CUsername

This link fails to load with a "User Not Found" error. However, changing to:

    http://mysiteshost/Person.aspx?accountname=DOMAIN\Username 

works perfectly.

Any ideas?

Answer 1

This issue is resolved in the September 2014 Cumulative Update for SharePoint 2013. Please use this rather than any workarounds. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2995904

Answer 2

A more global fix can be found by editing Search.ClientControls.js until a permanent fix is found. This will present you with a farm-wide fix, that not only fixes People Search, but other contextual searches as well. I've documented the workaround, but it involves removing references to a new function named encodeURI introduced by April 2014 CU/MS14-022 (depending on patch level) persisting through the June 2014 CU on all SharePoint servers. Given this is temporary, making backups of the original files is vital as is restoration of the backups before applying any future SharePoint patches.

Answer 3

I was able to fix the issue by removing code in Item_Person.html, Item_Person_CompactHorizontal.html (there are two), and Item_Person_HoverPanel.html for the encodedPath variable.

    var encodedPath = $urlHtmlEncode(ctx.CurrentItem.Path);

becomes:

    var encodedPath = ctx.CurrentItem.Path;

(Not all lines look exactly like this, but you're still looking to unwrap the ctx.CurrentItem.Path in each case.)

Answer 4

A slight variation on the reply above, We use Search Center Site and search results are directed to results.aspx, Added the Script Editor web part and the following script

function customSearchResultsFixUrlEncoding(str, find, replace) {
  return str.replace(new RegExp(find, 'g'), replace);
}
$('.ms-searchCenter-result-main').on("click", "a", function (event) {
    var url= $(this).attr('href');
    var url2 = customSearchResultsFixUrlEncoding(url, "%2520", "%20");
    var url2 = customSearchResultsFixUrlEncoding(url2, "%255C", "%5C");
    var url2 = customSearchResultsFixUrlEncoding(url2, "%252E", "%2E");
    $(this).attr('href', url2);
});

Answer 5

I was searching for a reason for this bug and it looks like this is the only post out there so far. You are not alone..

I verified this as an issue on 2 separate farms with: SQL Server 2014 and SharePoint 2013 April 2014 CU.

I had to do the same thing with Item_Person.html. I am looking for a better solution, but since this is a bug, there would probably be a hotfix for it that replaces the template(s)

Answer 6

We noticed this behavior was working in an environment with SP1 but broke after installing the April CU to our SharePoint environments. We have a ticket open with Microsoft and they have confirmed its an issue on their end.

I have added a Script Editor Web-Part to the Search Results page with the following JavaScript:

var $j = jQuery.noConflict();
$j('#s4-workspace').on("click", "a[id='NameFieldLink']", function (event) {
        var URL = $j(this).attr('href');
        var NewURL = URL.replace('%255C', '%5C').replace('%252E', '%2E');

          $j(this).attr('href', NewURL);
});

The JavaScript replaces the incorrect markup to allow the link to resolve correctly. This is a very lightweight approach to solving the issue and is easily revertible if/when Microsoft fixes the issue on their end.