xxx.xxxx.com%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FProductDisplay%3FjspStoreDir%3Dhdus%26catalogId
... and how to I determine what they are supposed to be. Is there a
conversion list somewhere?
Thanks.
VG
See here:
http://www.ascii.cl/htmlcodes.htm
Convert your questions into the HEX and you'll see what those characters
are.
--
Terry R.
Anti-spam measures are included in my email address.
Delete NOSPAM from the email address after clicking Reply.
It's Escape coding where the '%' is the escape code character and the two
characters following it are the Hexadecimal numbering of a font character.
The %3d represents a '=' and %2f is a '/'. Any ASCII Character Code table
should have the conversion of Hex to font character.
--
Ron K.
Who is General Failure, and why is he searching my HDD?
Kernel Restore reported Major Error used BSOD to msg the enemy!
> Ron K. wrote:
> > Virtual Guy on 11/18/2008 5:58 PM, keyboarded a reply:
> >> Why does FF represent certain HTML symbols or code items as %2F,
> >> or %3D, etc., (example below)
> >>
> >> xxx.xxxx.com%2Fwebapp%2Fwcs%2Fstores%2Fservlet%2FProductDisplay%3FjspStoreDir%3Dhdus%26catalogId
> >>
> >> ... and how to I determine what they are supposed to be. Is there
> >> a conversion list somewhere?
> >
> > It's Escape coding where the '%' is the escape code character and
> > the two characters following it are the Hexadecimal numbering of a
> > font character. The %3d represents a '=' and %2f is a '/'. Any
> > ASCII Character Code table should have the conversion of Hex to
> > font character.
Glancing at a table is fine if there are only a couple of decodings to
do, but for more than that I like to use computers. ;)
<http://www.mikezilla.com/exp0012.html> -- the encoded URL goes in the
middle box.
> This answered the second question. What is the answer to the
> first question: Why does FF .....?
There are ASCII characters which must not be used in URLs or must not be
used in certain places in URLs. E.g. the whitespace character must not
be used in a URL. This problem is resolved by using those ASCII
characters's hex encodings, since the % character and the hex digits
are all ok in URLs.
The simplest case is if I need to link to a file but the filename has a
whitespace in it.
Not valid URL syntax:
http://www.example.com/a file.ext
Valid URL syntax:
http://www.example.com/a%20file
Why is each ASCII character preceeded by % (percent)? Example http:// =
%3A%2F%2F ? Is is just a separator or a mark that ASCII will follow?
Thanks
VG
So may I ask a third question...
Is there some plug-in that converts these codes back to ASCII when
saving files for example? I don't like having files called foo%20bar
and often spend a long time prettying up file names as I save them.
I can't supply you with any. Personally I like them this way. A link
is a link is a link. And putting in the %20 for spaces is more proper
and is generic enough that it works with most if not all programs. If
you copy a long string with spaces in the URL into word for example it
can do a new line wrap at the wrong place. And now instead of
http:\\website\go to this folder\index.html
you get
http:\\website\go to this
folder\index.html ( on a new line)
and it don't work when you click. As a matter of fact you probably go
to http:\\website\go and totally skip the 'to this' part of it let
alone the 'folder\index.html' part.
He's referring to filenames, not links. He wants files saved in the
original format, and not the ASCII URL equivalent. I think most
external download programs, such as FlashGet, at least usually make the
conversion for you.
Got to admit, these are some of the best explanations I've heard for
this.. thanks! I'll be able to use these for others in my office..
--
David Foster, CNE
Nashville - The Music City
> There are ASCII characters which must not be used in URLs or must not
> be used in certain places in URLs. E.g. the whitespace character
> must not be used in a URL. This problem is resolved by using those
> ASCII characters's hex encodings, since the % character and the hex
> digits are all ok in URLs.
Heh, that's all ok up until the "since the % character and the hex
digits are all ok in URLS" part.
To be a lot clearer, the % character is not ok by itself, but it is
ok as the escape character that signals the next two ASCII characters
must be taken as the hex representation of a single character. (Other
people have explained this, but I felt I should tack it on here as
well.)
If a URL needs to have a literal % character, it has to be encoded as
%25.
Will %% work?
The history of using 'Escape' characters goes back farther than PC-DOS 1.0,
probably to CPM. With DOS the'/' character was used to code use of ASCII
teletype control codes for use as Printer Control codes. The principals
are the same, to translate ASCII/ANSI font codes from one usage context to
another.
Further than that! I used escape sequences for terminals with Unix more
than 20 years ago.
Then some jerk at Microsoft used the Unix escape character as the
filesystem hierarchy separator and life as we now know it began ...
Well, they couldn't use the slash because Unix had already claimed it!
And for the record, wasn't the backslash used in QDOS, the predecessor
to PCDOS? So you can't blame MS for everything!! ;-)
Hmmm,...maybe QDOS did not have a hierarchical file system!!! OK, we CAN
blame MS for the backslash.