I'm having trouble using the @shell command with a long string of data that contains spaces or symbols such as "&" or "?".

Using Alec's example program for launching a website in IExplorer, I cant get a long complicated site to load. The below site is an example:

LE named URL Contains:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=39721&item=3914338132&rd=...

Shouldn't wrapping the string in quotes take care of the odd characters:

IEWebsite = @chr(34) + URL + @chr(34)

If I paste the @shell output from the Writeln window, into the Start/Run button, it works everytime.

Thanks,

Steve in Texas

IE launches and trys to load the site, but only gets about halfway through the URL. Then IE gives an error box saying the website could not be found. (Like its gets to the "?" in the URL then chops off the last part)

I'm having the same problem trying to launch a photo editor with a long filename (also wrapped in quotes). Seems like long strings are not getting through to the program that is being launched.

You can try this button in the app I sent you last night.

In the form called Category Editor there is a blue button labeled "Go To Product". Just paste a long website into the "Link" Feild, or do a search for a non-empty Link feild, then hit the button.

Thanks,
Steve in Texas

Thanks Erika,

This may help with my other @shell commands not working, also (maybe some of our photo filenames have reserved characters, also.)

Can you tell me where I can go to learn more about these reserved characters so I don't waster your time in the future?

We do a lot of exporting/importing in Sesame and are having problems with reserved characters such as double quotes, backslash, and now this one. I'm sure we'll bump into more very soon.

Should I just search google for "windows OS reserved characters", or DOS reserved characters?

Thanks,

Steve in Texas

Oh, sorry. I thought I tested it on a command line (Start>Run) and had success. I guess I was confused.

I'll research it more on my own since its not a Sesame issue.

Thanks,

Steve in Texas

Will do!

Thanks again,

Steve in Texas

I thought that if you just put double quotes around these characters, you could get around these problems.

I learned this when we bought Win 2000 and I had trouble with a batch file:

Copy c:\q&a\inven.db d:\backup\inven.db

The solution was easy

Copy "C:\q&A\Inven.db" "d:\backup\inven.db"

The double quotes solved the problem. But in sesame, adding @chr(34) before and after the "link" or "URL" string, doesnt seem to work.

Steve in Texas