AC-3223::Special characters in category url_key (when created via REST API)

Author: glo60612

app/code/Magento/Catalog/Plugin/Model/CategoryRepositoryPlugin.php

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+<?php
+/**
+ * Copyright 2025 Adobe
+ * All Rights Reserved.
+ */
+
+declare(strict_types=1);
+
+namespace Magento\Catalog\Plugin\Model;
+
+use Magento\Catalog\Api\Data\CategoryInterface;
+use Magento\Catalog\Model\CategoryRepository;
+
+/**
+ * Plugin for category repository
+ */
+class CategoryRepositoryPlugin
+{
+    private const ATTRIBUTES_TO_PROCESS = [
+        'url_key',
+        'url_path'
+    ];
+
+    /**
+     * Formats category url key and path using the default formatter.
+     *
+     * @param CategoryRepository $subject
+     * @param CategoryInterface $category
+     * @return array
+     * @SuppressWarnings(PHPMD.UnusedFormalParameter)
+     */
+    public function beforeSave(CategoryRepository $subject, CategoryInterface $category): array
+    {
+        foreach (self::ATTRIBUTES_TO_PROCESS as $attributeKey) {
+            if ($attribute = $category->getCustomAttribute($attributeKey)) {
+                $attribute->setValue($category->formatUrlKey(
+                    $category->getData($attributeKey)
+                ));
+            }
+        }
+        return [$category];
+    }
+}

app/code/Magento/Catalog/etc/webapi_rest/di.xml

@@ -44,4 +44,7 @@
         <plugin name="reindex_after_save_product_links" type="Magento\Catalog\Plugin\Api\ProductLinkRepositoryInterface\ReindexAfterSaveProductLinksPlugin"/>
         <plugin name="reindex_after_delete_by_id_product_links" type="Magento\Catalog\Plugin\Api\ProductLinkRepositoryInterface\ReindexAfterDeleteByIdProductLinksPlugin"/>
     </type>
+    <type name="Magento\Catalog\Model\CategoryRepository">
+        <plugin name="format_category_url_key_rest_api" type="Magento\Catalog\Plugin\Model\CategoryRepositoryPlugin" />
+    </type>
 </config>

lib/internal/Magento/Framework/Model/AbstractExtensibleModel.php

@@ -297,7 +297,7 @@ public function getData($key = '', $index = null)
                 ? $this->_data[self::CUSTOM_ATTRIBUTES]
                 : [];
             $this->convertCustomAttributeValues($customAttributes);
-            $data = $customAttributes ? array_merge($customAttributes, $this->_data) : array_merge($this->_data, $customAttributes);
+            $data = array_merge($this->_data, $customAttributes);
             unset($data[self::CUSTOM_ATTRIBUTES]);
         } else {
             $data = parent::getData($key, $index);