to_absolute_cursor_pos = function (cm, cursor) {
        /**
         * get the absolute cursor position from CodeMirror's col, ch
         */
        if (!cursor) {
            cursor = cm.getCursor();
        }
        var cursor_pos = cursor.ch;
        for (var i = 0; i < cursor.line; i++) {
            cursor_pos += cm.getLine(i).length + 1;
        }
        return cursor_pos;
    }
get a url-encoded item from body.data and decode it
we should never have any encoded URLs anywhere else in code
until we are building an actual request