OT: Outlook wants to terminate links at whitespace

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

I have a directory on my Windows Info Server that I send in a script using Mail::Sendmail on a Windows 2000 workstation:

my $mydir = "\\\\myserver\\mydir space\\dir\\"; 

my %mailer = ( To      => $toperson,
                  From    => $fromperson,
                  Subject => "subject here",
                  Message => "$mydir",
                    );
......
[download]

The Outlook 2003 mail message cuts off the http url after the space in the outlook mail message. It shows the whole $mydir variable but cuts off the underline http url in the space part of the url \\myserver\\mydir space\\dir\\

Anyway I can correct this to show the whole url like this: \\myserver\\mydir space\\dir\\

2006-10-21 Retitled by g0n, as per Monastery guidelines
Original title: 'Space url issue'

Comment on OT: Outlook wants to terminate links at whitespace Download Code

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Re: OT: Outlook wants to terminate links at whitespace by ikegami (Patriarch) on Oct 20, 2006 at 20:22 UTC
If it really was an HTTP URL or any kind of URL, then you could replace the space with `%20`. But it's neither a URL, nor is HTTP involved. The fix is to actually provide a URL. Note that forward slashes must be used. `file:////myserver/mydir%20space/dir/` [download]	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re: OT: Outlook wants to terminate links at whitespace by Albannach (Monsignor) on Oct 20, 2006 at 21:41 UTC
~~To start with, I'd use single quotes in you definition of $mydir so as to avoid escaping your slashes, make it easier to read, and provide a visual cue that no interpolation is going on here.~~ In Outlook, you can use angle brackets to contain your links, which works with either style of link and avoids the need for %20 spaces: `<file://X:\mydir\my spaced dir\>` [download] or `<\\myserver\mymappeddir\mydir\my spaced dir\>` [download] Update: Bah! Please ignore my bad advice on quoting, though the Outlook comment still holds. I don't know what I was thinking. Thanks to ikegami and blazar. -- I'd like to be able to assign to an luser	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^2: OT: Outlook wants to terminate links at whitespace by ikegami (Patriarch) on Oct 20, 2006 at 22:18 UTC
I'd use single quotes in you definition of $mydir so as to avoid escaping your slashes He'd still have to escape one of them (the first one). I usually escape them all to avoid problems down the road.	[reply]
Re^2: OT: Outlook wants to terminate links at whitespace by blazar (Canon) on Oct 21, 2006 at 11:05 UTC
To start with, I'd use single quotes in you definition of $mydir so as to avoid escaping your slashes, make it easier to read, and provide a visual cue that no interpolation is going on here. While I second that, ITYM backslashes, and sometimes they do need to be escaped in single quotes too; moreover prefixing a backslash with another one does escape it, yielding a single one: `$ perl -l print for '\'foo', '\\\'foo', '\foo', '\\foo' 'foo \'foo \foo \foo` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: OT: Outlook wants to terminate links at whitespace by RobPayne (Chaplain) on Oct 21, 2006 at 16:39 UTC
Just to be clear, you are looking for a UNC path, not a URL. Some browsers may interpret UNC paths, but this isn't a URL, as others have stated. In addition, the format for that should end up as: \\myserver\mydir space\dir The string in the OP contains the correct format, but the "corrected path", listed at the end has three too many backslashes.)	[reply]
Re: OT: Outlook wants to terminate links at whitespace by blazar (Canon) on Oct 21, 2006 at 11:41 UTC
`From => $fromperson, Subject => "subject here", Message => "$mydir",` [download] Incidentally, no need to quote `$mydir`, see perldoc -q quoting. I see you're not doing above, and I don't know why you're doing it on that line. Possibly it's just a remnant of something else. But I thought it would have been fair to let you know, just in case you didn't.	[reply] [d/l] [select]