Can't open Web page

[Luke]

This URL points to a Google News search results page:

http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=winnipeg

I want a script to open that page in the default browser. However, in this script the URL is cut off before the & character:

$url = "http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=winnipeg"
Run(@ComSpec & " /c start " & $url, "", @SW_HIDE)

With some URLs (e.g., http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?book...ry&va=winnipeg), a workaround is to substitute %26 for &:

$url = "http://news.google.com/news?hl=en%26q=winnipeg"
Run(@ComSpec & " /c start " & $url, "", @SW_HIDE)

But that doesn't work here. In both cases the page that opens is the Google News home page.

[flyingboz]

The shell is interpreting the & . The & is utilized by the shell like the unix ; , to allow multiple commands on one line.

Handle the URL like you would spaces in a command line.

$url = '"' & "http://whatever.xxxx" & '"'

Edited February 13, 2005 by flyingboz

[SlimShady]

The command interpreter doesn't treat the & as a part of the program you want to run.

I have a workaround.

Use my _ShellExecute UDF available here.

And run your script like this:

#include "_ShellExecute.au3"

_ShellExecute('http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=winnipeg', @SystemDir)

I just tested the script and I can confirm it works.

[Luke]

Thank you both.

flyingboz, this doesn't work for me.

$url = '"' & "http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=winnipeg" & '"'
Run(@ComSpec & " /c start " & $url, "", @SW_HIDE)

SlimShady, yes, that works. It doubles the size of my script, but it works.

[flyingboz]

flyingboz, this doesn't work for me.

The following tests fine on my box, I think that you may have had a space somewhere wrong. A good test is to copy your command lines onto the

clipboard or user consolewrite() to see EXACTLY what you're getting,

then paste that into a dos box or the start|run menu.

Slim's UDF is great, but mebbe overkill for small scripts.

$url = "http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&q=winnipeg"
$IE= RegRead("HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Clients\StartMenuInternet\IEXPLORE.EXE\shell\open\command","")
Run(@ComSpec & " /c start " & $IE & ' "' & $url & '"',@WorkingDir, @SW_HIDE)