Links dont work

[Dave B]

Very much a computer illiterate but I cannot get any links in peoples posts to work. Is there something I need to activate to enable this please.

Dave B

[Area Rep CoOrdinator]

Don't think so Dave.

Does this work: http://www.lotus7.club/area-meetings/kent-north 

And this "click here" 

[sjmmarsh]

It could be posts that were ported over from BC - I haven't found any of the links from the old site that work on the new one. All img= links haven't been ported either.

Steve

[Dave B]

PCH. The first link does not work but "click here" does work. Ah well just keep on going.

Dave B

[AntonyH]

DaveB, what device / operating system / browser are you using to browse the forum currently?

Works for me on a variety of devices and browsers but if you post details, I'm sure someone with the same combination could do a comparison to help narrow down the issue.

 

[Grandmaster Flatcap]

I run Win7 and Chrome. The first link above serves me a page not found. A little strange is hovering over both links shows me the same address.

[paul richards]

Nigel

Same problem using my IPad. 

[AntonyH]

Ah! I see it... the first link above actually ends:

"/kent-north%C2%A0"

c2a0 being UTF encoding of a non-breaking space, so either that first link was posted in with an additional, unwanted, character, or the forum software has added it.

Does this link work:

http://www.lotus7.club/area-meetings/kent-north

?

[Grandmaster Flatcap]

Yes Anthony, new link works.

[AntonyH]

Interestingly, indeed, hovering over both of the earlier posted links in Chrome / Firefox / IE on windows, those rogue characters are hidden from user view, and even when clicking on the link, IE and Chrome *don't* display the characters in the address bar, while Firefox does.

Presumably those two browsers are being "too clever for their own good" and are assuming that they are rogue characters and not showing you them, even though the navigation request has included them, and the site is therefore looking for a page that doesn't exist.

In IE and Chrome for example, if you highlight the resultant page address of the 404 page (click in the address bar should highlight the whole address), it includes an excess blank (white) space at the end, i.e. the browser has converted the code back to a space and thus asked the site software for a page "kent-north " rather than "kent-north"

I only see them when hovering over the link, when using Safari on OSX.

I can't say why the characters are present in the initial link; as above it could be an inadvertent inclusion by Ian (or his browser?) or possibly some weird interaction between the site software and the browser.

[AntonyH]

DaveB, can you post some other examples of links that don't work? I would say link them here, but I forsee a minor potential irony there...! Maybe reference a couple of topic titles?

That may help determine whether the same issue is affecting all those broken links, or if there's a variety of problems, and may therefore help with diagnosis / fixing.

http://www.lotus7.club/sites/all/libraries/ckeditor/plugins/smiley/images/regular_smile.png

[AntonyH]

Can I post a broken link?

http://www.lotus7.club/area-meetings/kent-north 

...yes, from IE if I include a space whilst entering it via the 'link' button in the toolbars.

Safari on OSX culls the excess space when creating the link.

[Grandmaster Flatcap]

For the eagle eyed... if I hover my mouse over the dodgy link just posted by Anthony, the link is underlined and the underline extends beyond the text, i.e. the extra space character is underlined. Wierd

[AntonyH]

And from Chrome?

http://www.lotus7.club/area-meetings/kent-north

Seems OK

[AntonyH]

And Firefox...

http://www.lotus7.club/area-meetings/kent-north

Also appears OK.

[AntonyH]

Wow, that is weird.

It appears (from very brief experimentation) that if you are using Internet Explorer, and use the 'Link' icon in the toolbar to create a link, and add a space at the end of the address, that space is carried over into the link when created.

Firefox and Chrome on Windows, and Safari on OSX, appear smart enough to know that the space is a rogue element and strip it from the end of the URL when creating the link. (Or, the interaction between drupal and those browsers manages this in a way that drupal/IE falls over on)

Just typing or pasting an address into the text box using IE, even including a trailing space, e.g. "www.lotus7.club/area-meetings/kent-north ", and allowing the site software to invent the link from that, appears immune, so it's a pretty specific set of circumstances that causes this, it appears.