Problems with links and the [link: | ] tag? What to do to fix them. [View all]

[Make7]

Last edited Mon Sep 9, 2013, 09:44 PM - Edit history (2)

[p class="post-edited" style="margin-top:-1.5em;"]Updated to reflect the issues that have been resolved

[div id="chars_in_normal_links" style="font-size: 1.4615em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"]Normal Links
Let's start with normal links copied (or typed?) into a post like this one:

[div style="margin-left:1.5em;"]http://www.democraticunderground.com/

Normally those work just fine, but there are a few characters when included make them incomplete. For example:

[div style="margin-left:1.5em;"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_(United_States)

The solution is to use the URL encode equivalent of those characters - like this for the previous example:

[div style="margin-left:1.5em;"][font style="color:#000099;"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_[font style="color:#ffffff; background-color:#3366cc;"]([/font]United_States[font style="color:#ffffff; background-color:#3366cc;"])[/font][/font]
[div style="margin-left:1.5em;"][font style="color:#000099;"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_[font style="color:#ffffff; background-color:#3366cc;"]%28[/font]United_States[font style="color:#ffffff; background-color:#3366cc;"]%29[/font][/font]
Which should give us a working link to the page:

[div style="margin-left:1.5em;"]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democratic_Party_%28United_States%29

The characters that seem to be problematic in normal links are:

[div id="chars_in_normal_links_table" style="display:table; margin-left:1.5em; border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top:none; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3846em 0.3846em; box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #e0e0e0;"][div style="display:table-caption; background-color:#333333; color:#ffffff; border-radius: 0.3846em 0.3846em 0em 0em; text-align:center; padding:0.2em; box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #e0e0e0;"] Problem characters in normal links [div style="display:table-row; background-color:#e0e0e0;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"] ASCII character [div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"] URL encode equivalent [div style="display:table-row;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]<space>[div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]%20[div style="display:table-row;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]$[div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]%24[div style="display:table-row;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]([div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]%28[div style="display:table-row;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"])[div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]%29[div style="display:table-row;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]*[div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]%2A[div style="display:table-row;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]@[div style="display:table-cell; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]%40

[div id="secure_links" style="font-size: 1.4615em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"]Secure Links  ( https:// )
Another issue with normal links is that DU3 seems to not like secure [font style="color:#000099;"]https://[/font] links and converts the web address back to [font style="color:#000099;"]http://[/font] links. This can be resolved by using the [font style="color:#000099;"][link:|][/font] tag - it will retain the [font style="color:#000099;"]https://[/font] portion of the link.


[div id="the_link_tag" style="font-size: 1.4615em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"]The [link: | ] Tag
Which brings us to the final issue - the [font style="color:#000099;"][link:<web address>|<text>][/font] tag. First thing to verify is that you are including [font style="color:#000099;"]http://[/font] if the web address does not start with [font style="color:#000099;"]www[/font]. The next thing to check is if you are using any characters that are known to cause issues (the most notable issue being the intended link disappears altogether!). There are two parts to this problem: characters in the web address, and characters in the text. (UPDATE: almost all of the problem character issues have been fixed!)


[div id="chars_in_link_address" style="font-size: 1.4615em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"]The [link: | ] Tag  (web address)
For characters in the web address, the solution is also to use their URL encode equivalent (same procedure as above). The ones that seem to cause issues are:

[div id="chars_in_link_address_table" style="display:table; margin-left:1.5em; border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top:none; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3846em 0.3846em; box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #e0e0e0;"][div style="display:table-caption; background-color:#333333; color:#ffffff; border-radius: 0.3846em 0.3846em 0em 0em; text-align:center; padding:0.2em; box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #e0e0e0;"] Problems in [link:<web address>|] [div style="display:table-row; background-color:#e0e0e0;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"] ASCII character [div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"] URL encode equivalent [div style="display:table-row;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]<space>[div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]%20

[div id="chars_in_link_text" style="font-size: 1.4615em; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-weight: bold;"]The [link: | ] Tag  (text)
For the characters in the text portion causing issues, the easy workaround is to simply reword the text to avoid using the problem characters. If you are really intent on using one of the problem characters, it can be done. The way to get text characters causing issues to show up is to use HTML entities - these will display the character when posted without the DU3 software seeing it as the character (which would break the link). Known characters causing problems:

[div id="chars_in_link_text_table" style="display:table; margin-left:1.5em; border: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-top:none; border-radius: 0em 0em 0.3846em 0.3846em; box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #e0e0e0;"][div style="display:table-caption; background-color:#333333; color:#ffffff; border-radius: 0.3846em 0.3846em 0em 0em; text-align:center; padding:0.2em; box-shadow: 3px 3px 3px #e0e0e0;"] Problems in [link:|<text>] [div style="display:table-row; background-color:#e0e0e0;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"] ASCII character [div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"] HTML entity equivalent [div style="display:table-row;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"][[div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]&#91;[div style="display:table-row;"][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; border-right: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]][div style="display:table-cell; border-bottom: 1px solid #bfbfbf; text-align:center; padding:0.2em;"]&#93;
The drawback to using HTML entities is that you can't submit your final post from the preview screen, you have to hit the back button on your browser to post from the pre-previewed window with the HTML entities still present. Also in order to edit a reply/OP with HTML entities after it is actually posted to the board, they will all have to be edited back in.

Feel free to reply with other problems (or when some of these get fixed) and I will update accordingly.