Converting and Encoding a URL Containing Extended ASCII Characters (Delphi utility with source)

2009-01-27T03:57:00.001-05:00

It has come to my attention that some programming languages do not always make it very easy to convert and encode a URL.

While helping someone with bug testing and adding Last.fm support to a media player, we came across a problem with opening URL's to the correct page on last.fm's site when the title, artist or other tag info contained extended ASCII characters.

Example:

Artist: Bjørn Lynne
Title: Methydias Cloudship

This would be the correct URL on their site for this song:

http://www.last.fm/music/Bj%C3%B8rn%20Lynne/_/Methydias%20Cloudship

But in AHK, which does not support unicode, attempting to come up with the URL resulted in this incorrect one:

http://www.last.fm/music/Bj%F8rn%20Lynne/_/Methydias%20Cloudship

The problem was that you have to convert the URL from Ansi to UTF-8 before you encode it.

At first he wasn't sure if he could fix the problem, as that was what he thought he was doing in the first place.

So, while he decided to take a break from bug fixing to go play with his kids, because all coding and no play can make a coder and his family miserable, I decided to go ahead and make a little helper utility for him, just in case he couldn't resolve the issue.

Now I am not too sure on the particular details of how he fixed it, but he did and didn't need my little utility, after all.

But I am not one to let code go to waste, and my intention was to help someone resolve a problem, so I decided that this code will still do just that, one way or another. I am pretty sure that there is someone out there somewhere that could find this useful for something.

So, here it is, a small command line utility for Windows that will accept a parameter of a URL containing extended ASCII characters, convert the URL to UTF-8, then properly encode it, and finally, open that URL in the system's default browser.

I have included the Delphi source in case you may need that, too.

While testing this with various browsers, I noticed something peculiar. Certain browsers will display the URL in the addressbar differently than what the URL actually is. Although it is properly converted and encoded, the addressbar will display the original extended ASCII. I suppose this is to make it look pretty.

The following browsers exhibited this behavior:

Firefox 3
Opera 9
Chrome 1

Additionally, while both Firefox and Chrome copied the correct URL to the clipboard from the addressbar, Opera did not.

Opera copied extended ASCII, instead.

Internet Explorer did not exhibit these behaviors and displayed the actual URL used, in the addressbar.

Rest assured, this application does work properly, even if your browser isn't displaying what you think it should be showing in its addressbar.

Now I don't care if you use either the code or the compiled utility in an open source or close source project, for non-commercial or commercial purposes, and you don't have to give me any credit or compensation if you use it.

My goal was to help someone and if this can help you in some way, feel free to use it in any way you wish. I have released both the utility and the source into the public domain.

This application and its source code is dedicated to the Public Domain.

Download: Delphi encodeURL utility with source

Procrastinators: Beware of magical mops

2008-07-17T13:10:00.005-04:00

Some of what makes anti-procrastination tools work, is their novelty. Once that novelty wears off, you are right back where you started, procrastinating again.

A hypothetical example:

Let's say I hate mopping my floor and I always procrastinate about doing it. Then I see an ad on TV for a wonder mop, with a handle that twinkles when you push it. You stop pushing, it stops twinkling. You push it faster, it twinkles more. And even more amazing, is that it also sings! I order this mop, because it seems like it could make mopping fun.

So the mop arrives, and I can't wait to get it out of it's packaging and try it. I fill my bucket with soapy water and begin mopping. The singing & twinkling is pretty cool, and before I know it, the whole floor is clean. Great! Wonderful! Terriffic! It's working. I didn't procrastinate and I got the job done.

I like this mop so much, I am having no problem mopping my floor and keeping it clean. I am not even procrastinating about it any more. This is the best mop ever! It's like magic!

But a few months later, after the novelty of the twinkling & singing mop begins to wear off, I find myself beginning to procrastinate about mopping the floor again. What happened? This was supposed to be the best mop ever. What went wrong?

Nothing went wrong. I just had an unrealistic expectation that some wonder tool was going to make me like doing a task I hate.

The truth is that nothing can make me like mopping floors, not even a magical, singing, twinkling wonder mop.

So if you try an anti-procrastination tool and it works for awhile, but then stops working...the problem isn't the tool. It's you and how you feel about the task...your real feelings.

Instead of looking for a new tool to trick yourself into thinking that you like what you hate, work on the real problem: the task itself, how you feel about it, and why.

If you can be honest with yourself, you can begin to look for a real solution instead of tricks. If you fix the root problem, you won't need a singing, twinkling mop to get things done.

Cranial Soup

Converting and Encoding a URL Containing Extended ASCII Characters (Delphi utility with source)

Procrastinators: Beware of magical mops