JQuery ajax char encoding problem to Java servlet

I have this bind to my textfields onkeyup event:

function ajaxSearch(sstring,miszerint,startrow,Valid,notValid) {
setTimeout(function query(){
  if (sstring.length <= 3)
  {
      $("#external").html("<开发者_如何学Pythonp>min 3 chars please.</p>")
  }
  else
  {
    $('#loading').ajaxStart(function() {
      $(this).show()
      $("#external").hide()
    });

    $('#loading').ajaxComplete(function() {
      $(this).hide()
      $("#external").show()
    });

    $.ajax({
        type:"GET",
        url: "/myApp/getStd",
        contentType: "application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8",
        dataType:"application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8",
        data:"sstring="+escape(sstring)+"&options="+miszerint+"&startrow="+startrow+"&valid="+Valid+"&notValid="+notValid+"&searchForm=1",

                async: true,
        success: function(data){
        $("#external").html(data);

        }
     })
   }
},1500)
}

The problem is that when I put hungarian chars (e.g., æőűúíéá") into the textfield my servlet returns "�" instead of the provided char.

If I query the servlet directly without ajax it works fine. In the JSP I have defined:

<%@page contentType="text/html" pageEncoding="UTF-8"%>

plus

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

On the servlet I set the response charset to "UTF-8". Any ideas?

You should use encodeURIComponent() instead of escape() for URL-encoding query parameters. Or, better, provide it as a JS object, then jQuery will worry about URL-encoding.

data: {
    "sstring": sstring,
    "options": miszerint,
    "startrow": startrow,
    "valid": Valid,
    "notValid": notValid,
    "searchForm": 1
}

Use UTF8 charset when you create your output stream in your servlet. Something like this:

resp.setCharacterEncoding("UTF-8");
OutputStream os = resp.getOutputStream();
BufferedWriter bos = new BufferedWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(os,"UTF8"));