title: encoding a list of key/value pairs into a URL request parameter
body: <p>Is there a standard API call (or set of calls) that allows me to encode a list of key/value pairs into a SINGLE request parameter?  Somehow I have never done this before.</p>
  
  <p>What I am looking for is to generate a URL which encodes an arbitrarily long string of parameters that will be decoded by the indicated page.  For example:</p>
  
  <pre><code>http://someth.ing/page?params=xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>where the xxxxxxx is the encoded form of a </p>
  
  <pre><code>Map&lt;String, String&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>or if that isn't available then a </p>
  
  <pre><code>List&lt;String&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I know my alternative is to just encode each key as its own request parameter, but that creates a lot of parsing work on the decoding side I would rather avoid.  Any suggestions?</p>