[WEB4LIB] Re: Ampersands in database URLs problem

[Gimon, Charles A]

That has not been our experience. I've never entified an ampersand in a URL,
and then have the URL "not work". 

--Charles Gimon
  Web Coordinator
  Minneapolis Public Library


-----Original Message-----
From: Drew, Bill [mailto:drewwe at MORRISVILLE.EDU] 
Sent: Wednesday, June 09, 2004 9:14 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: Ampersands in database URLs problem


 What difference does it make as long as the URL works?  That is what is
important.  If you change URLs to use escape characters in many links to
canned searches or databases, those links no longer work.  I have tried it.
This is a case of common sense overriding what a canned report from a
validator tells you.

Bill Drew

-----Original Message-----
From: Thomas Dowling
To: Multiple recipients of list
Sent: 6/9/2004 9:53 AM
Subject: [WEB4LIB] Re: Ampersands in database URLs problem

>
The problem is that in different contexts, a different string of 
characters defines "an ampersand".  Is it "&", "&", "%26", or 
"=26"?  There are many characters that can or must be encoded 
differently in SGML/HTML/XML, in URLs, in quoted-printable mail, in 
plain text (which itself can be defined in various ways), etc.  What you

really can't get around is the need to convert strings of text from one 
encoding to another as they pass through different contexts.

Without knowing the possible ambiguities you're creating, you can no 
more just ignore unescaped ampersands in HTML hyperlinks than, say, 
unescaped spaces or quotation marks.


-- 
Thomas Dowling
tdowling at ohiolink.edu