Replace URL placeholder even if it is encoded

[mescalantea]

What is the goal?

Provide a URL placeholder replacement mechanism to use across controllers and services supporting encoded and not encoded values.

How is it being implemented?

This pull request introduces a utility method to safely replace URL placeholders and refactors the codebase to use this new method throughout various controllers. The main goal is to standardize and improve the way URL parameters (like {storeId} or {merchantId}) are replaced, ensuring proper encoding and reducing code duplication.

Key changes:

Utility method introduction:

• Added sqReplaceUrlPlaceholder to the String.prototype in UtilityService.js, which replaces placeholders in URLs with encoded values, handling both plain and encoded placeholders.

Refactoring controllers to use the new utility:

• Updated all instances where URLs were constructed using .replace('{storeId}', value) or similar patterns in PaymentController.js, SettingsController.js, and StateController.js to use .sqReplaceUrlPlaceholder(...) instead, ensuring safer and more consistent URL handling. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]

Opportunistic refactorings

Add PR template file.

How is it tested?

Manual tests

How is it going to be deployed?

Standard deployment

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This pull request introduces a URL placeholder replacement utility method and refactors the codebase to standardize URL parameter handling across controllers. The change aims to handle both plain and encoded URL placeholders consistently while reducing code duplication.

Key changes:

• Added sqReplaceUrlPlaceholder method to String.prototype for replacing URL placeholders with encoded values
• Refactored URL construction throughout PaymentController.js, SettingsController.js, and StateController.js to use the new utility method
• Added a pull request template file for standardizing PR submissions

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 5 out of 9 changed files in this pull request and generated 3 comments.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
src/services/UtilityService.js	Implements the new sqReplaceUrlPlaceholder method as a String prototype extension
dist/resources/js/UtilityService.js	Distribution version of the utility service with the same implementation
src/controllers/StateController.js	Refactors 10 URL construction instances to use the new utility method
dist/resources/js/StateController.js	Distribution version with matching refactoring changes
src/controllers/SettingsController.js	Updates 2 URL placeholder replacements to use the new utility method
dist/resources/js/SettingsController.js	Distribution version with matching updates
src/controllers/PaymentController.js	Converts 2 URL construction calls to use the new utility method
dist/resources/js/PaymentController.js	Distribution version with matching conversions
.github/PULL_REQUEST_TEMPLATE.md	Adds standardized PR template for team consistency

---

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

[Copilot]

suggestion (non-blocking): Consider alternative to extending String.prototype

Extending built-in prototypes like String.prototype is generally discouraged in JavaScript as it can lead to conflicts with other libraries, future JavaScript features, or cause unexpected behavior when iterating over object properties. Consider implementing this as a standalone utility function instead, such as:

SequraFE.utilities.replaceUrlPlaceholder = function(url, placeholder, value) {
    const placeholderStr = String(placeholder);
    const valueStr = encodeURIComponent(String(value));
    const encodedPlaceholder = encodeURIComponent(placeholderStr);
    return url.replaceAll(placeholderStr, valueStr).replaceAll(encodedPlaceholder, valueStr);
};

This approach is safer and more maintainable.

[Copilot]

issue (blocking): Potential runtime error when config[key] is not a string

This code assumes all values in the config object have the sqReplaceUrlPlaceholder method, but config may contain non-string values (like the page property added on line 372). This will cause a runtime error if config[key] is not a string.

Add a type check before calling the method to ensure the value is a string.

Suggested change

	config[key] = config[key].sqReplaceUrlPlaceholder('{storeId}', this.getStoreId());
	if (typeof config[key] === 'string' && typeof config[key].sqReplaceUrlPlaceholder === 'function') {
	config[key] = config[key].sqReplaceUrlPlaceholder('{storeId}', this.getStoreId());
	}

[Copilot]

issue (blocking): Missing JSDoc documentation for new prototype method

The sqReplaceUrlPlaceholder method should include JSDoc documentation to describe its parameters, return value, and usage. This is especially important for methods added to built-in prototypes, as they become part of the global API.

Add documentation explaining:

• The placeholder parameter (the placeholder string to replace)
• The value parameter (the value to replace it with)
• The return value (the string with replacements made)
• That it handles both plain and encoded placeholders